Advice please upgrade for birds

[JimL]

Hello - this is my first post. Intermediate / advanced beginner level.

Advice please - i want to upgrade current equipment for bird photography. Birds often distant and in flight. Often requires walking several miles in rough terrain and all weathers.

Currently I have d780 and 200-500 mm nikkor lens. I am also have 1.4 TCE iii teleconvertor and have used this.

I am happy with image quality. I have experimented with AF settings and find it ok with practice, but often miss focus.

I work handheld.

I want to stick with dslr - although may move to mirrorless in futures.

Budget - don’t want to go much over £2000 after any trade ins.

My main issue is the weigh and bulk of this set up. Second issue relatively slow af.

Considering mainly 2 options :

1 stay with d780 and get 500 pf lens

2 buy good used d500 and use with 300 pf and 1.4 TC - (lens cheaper, smaller, lighter - money saved on 500 pf goes towards new body?)

Or various other permutations ….

I’d be very grateful for your thoughts.

 

[JimL]

Well I’ve order a good condition 500 mm pf now. In the end I thought that whatever the weight saving of the 300 mm, I would end up frustrated by lack of reach even with the converter. I’ve always thought the argument that you get more reach with DX crop sensor is rather spurious.

Anyway I thought at some point I had to take the plunge. I will try the 500 mm pf with the D780. Will sell the 200-500. I hardly ever used it except at 500 anyway.

Once I have some experience with this I will think about maybe a different body. I don’t make much use of the live view mode on the d780.

 

[JimL]

Hopefully someone can reassure me that I have made the right decision….

 

[nikonpup]

See "Woodyg3" thread. D500 with 500mm.

Look into "Cotton Carrier" for a camera and a long lens carrying system.
I used this system with D750 and Tamron 150-600mm.

 

[JimL]

Thanks nikonpuo.

Sorry I’m new to this forum - how do I find the thread you are referring to?

The cotton carrier looks very good. Logically it seems like a good solution. For some illogical reason I don’t like the look of this type of carrier, and can’t really see me using it. But that may be some kind of daft prejudice on my part …

 

[Marilynne]

@Woodyg3

Any advice for Jim?

 

[BF Hammer]

Hopefully someone can reassure me that I have made the right decision….

It makes sense. Really you would be looking at a D850 as the upgrade and still be using optical viewfinder. D500 if you want the crop in-camera instead of in-post. There will not be any newer options. Your biggest limitation is the 24MP sensor of the D780, which limits the amount of crop you may want to do. But you pay a price in weight and size if you want better.

Falling back to the original stated goals of lighter and smaller: Pay attention to OM Systems Micro Four-Thirds. They are playing catch-up with autofocus performance in new bodies like the OM-3. Your lens of choice would be 300mm and it carries with 2/3 the weight and bulk as your DSLR. With that you have 600mm full-frame equivalent in the crop in a 20MP sensor. Just throwing that out there as people forget about that option since mirrorless full-frame started getting all the attention. Micro Four-Thirds was mirrorless before there was mirrorless.

 

[nikonpup]

Thanks nikonpuo.

Sorry I’m new to this forum - how do I find the thread you are referring to?

The cotton carrier looks very good. Logically it seems like a good solution. For some illogical reason I don’t like the look of this type of carrier, and can’t really see me using it. But that may be some kind of daft prejudice on my part …

Use the search function.

Woody's Hermosa Luz 2026

 

[JimL]

It makes sense. Really you would be looking at a D850 as the upgrade and still be using optical viewfinder. D500 if you want the crop in-camera instead of in-post. There will not be any newer options. Your biggest limitation is the 24MP sensor of the D780, which limits the amount of crop you may want to do. But you pay a price in weight and size if you want better.

Falling back to the original stated goals of lighter and smaller: Pay attention to OM Systems Micro Four-Thirds. They are playing catch-up with autofocus performance in new bodies like the OM-3. Your lens of choice would be 300mm and it carries with 2/3 the weight and bulk as your DSLR. With that you have 600mm full-frame equivalent in the crop in a 20MP sensor. Just throwing that out there as people forget about that option since mirrorless full-frame started getting all the attention. Micro Four-Thirds was mirrorless before there was mirrorless.

Thanks BF,
Yes I did consider the Sony RX10 Iv, although I’m not sure why they have been discontinued? I was with a friend out in the moors one day (northern England) and we saw a Golden Eagle - a very rare sight for us - he was able to capture some great video. Not the best quality, but great for evidence as I think we might not have been believed. I had left my camera behind as it was too heavy with all other other gear I was carrying …. Must be a lesson there!

But now I’ve ordered the 500 mm of I’ve rather committed myself to that route now …

 

[JimL]

I want to say above that my friend had his Sony - in case that wasn’t clear.