Any photographers here?

[Hobie-wan]

Ooh pretty.

[Ivo]

I am by no means a photographer but I recently got a DSLR from ebay UK (posted a thread about it as the seller had put a lens in the title and description that he didn't have, he has agreed to a refund which I hope to get soon).

Anyway the one I got was a D5100 with the respective 18-55mm kit lens and under 1000 shutter count (although this was not mentioned in the description, was a bit lucky there - in contrast, the rear lens cap and the body cap are both missing, it just came with the kit lens mounted). Went for this one as it was the first one with swivel and tilt screen on the side and therefore the cheaper; the D5000 has it on the bottom). I was also watching some D5200s and if some of those ended up relatively cheap I would have gone for that more recent model paying a bit more.
I was also watching the Canons but for some reason, despite being apparently on par or even worse in some respects, the comparable Canon ones like the eos 600d were ending up pricier on ebay (possibly the lack of autofocus motor on the Nikon bodies? The Canons being apparently better for video and people cared about that more? Or just more people in the UK with Canon lenses? I do not know, but the demand seemed higher for the Canons - they are both good options so we went for the cheaper Nikons).

I would like to buy a better lens soon (with the partial refund I am getting). The lens that was advertised was a 55-200mm, but given that I did not get it might as well ask for advice here. The main objective for the lens would be to zoom in on birds etc. to take wildlife pictures, also sometimes macro shots of plants or mushrooms. In USD it would probably be in the 100 to 120 USD range for the used lens in terms of budget, nothing professional this is the first DSLR and I will be getting used to the kit lens now, but I think I will want another lens.

[fastbilly1]

The Canon 5d became the darling of the indie film world, which is why they usually sell for more. I am not been a fan of them, give me a hacked GH2 or a GH3 any day of the week. But video is neither hear nor there in this discussion.

Ivo, do you have a sturdy tripod? If so, you can get a a vintage super telephoto (f-mount was introduced in the late 50s so you can get an old manual lens for much cheaper since they are full manual), like a Nikon 80-200mm or a Tamron 400mm for a couple hundred and have a ball with birds. For macros, I would get a dedicated 50/55mm Macro Lens. You can use the kit lens, but a dedicated Macro lens changes the game. If you enjoy macro photography, I highly recommend a set of bellows and research focus stacking.

Focus stacking is taking multiple images at different focus depths and combining them. It takes you from a single photo like this:

To a combined photo like this:


That was my first attempt with it. And before I had a dedicated macro lens.

And bellows let you see neat things like this - A drop of water on a weed's flower:

[Ivo]

The models I was looking at were the 600D or similar, but maybe by extension the higher used prices those Canons were going for was due to the video being allegedly better than on the Nikons.

I am very new to DSLRs and haven't done enough research.
I am perfectly fine with vintage lenses as long as I understand what I am doing. Indeed the F-mount system is around for a while but I think the sensor in the D5100 is not the same size as 35mm film so legacy lenses would be used on a crop mode or something like that.
Without a tripod I guess I should have some lens with vibration reduction / image stabilization to take pics of birds?
I also didn't know people were still using bellows Is that practical?

[fastbilly1]

For the longest times, bellows were not really suitable for field work, just studio. But thanks to new tripods like the Joby Gorilla pod, ring flashes, and advance stacking algorithms, they became usable in the fields and infinitely more approachable.

The crop from the old f-mount to the current sensor just gives you some tricky math but it mostly requires you to frame your images correctly. You can treat crop can like a zoom magnification. To use my setup as an example - since I know the math on it well. The Micro 4/3 sensors has a crop factor of 2. So if I use a legacy lens via an adapter - like my Olympus OM 50mm 1.4, it is like using a 100mm lens. I believe your D5100 has a 1.5 crop factor so a 50mm F mount lens would be like a 75mm. As long as you can get the math in your head, and a rough idea of how it works through your viewfinder, you can overcome this and save a bundle. Honestly, the crop of 1.5 gives you an advantage in wildlife. A 200-400mm legacy will work like a 300-600mm. More bang for your buck, if you can configure it.

I use a Olympus OM 400mm F6.3 with a teleconverter and adapter on my GH1. I have to shoot at F8, but it gives me a 1600mm and the lens was only $400. With it I took this picture:


The bird would have left if I was any closer and he is only about two inches tall.