[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by condor

A friend has been into birding for some time now, and feels the need to move up from his current camera.

Options that he is considering:

Canon 7D Mk-II
Sony A-77 Mk-II


Which one would be better ? And which lenses to go with the body >

7D Mk2 any day.

Lenses: 100-400mm (ideally Mk 2), 400mm f/5.6, 500mm or 600mm f/4. Or the 3rd party 150-600mm long zooms. Depending on his budget and preference.

[condor]

Thanks, Nilanjan.

Any one with the A-77, please ?

[amolpol]

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks, Nilanjan.

Any one with the A-77, please ?

For birding you need three main things,

1. Good frame rate (fps)
2. Good focusing
3. A sharp lens of 400mm or longer

On paper both have good frame rates and focusing on the A77 is supposed to be improved while 7d2 is even better than the old 7d which was quite good by itself. But the sony doesn't have enough AF points as compared to the 7d2 which has all 65 (IIRC) as cross-type. So my vote will go to the 7d2.

ISO performance is relatively a non-issue for birding since I won't push beyond 800 or 1600 in order to get a details on the bird crisp n clear. You need to have enough light for birding.

From a lens perspective, I'm not sure how the sony lineup compares to the canon or nikons so I can't comment on that definitively. But the new 100-400 in canon is reasonably sharper now or the 400 5.6 is always a good start. The 500s or 600s have always been sharp so no issues there at all except the price and weight.

That was my two cents from whatever little I know.

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks, Nilanjan.

Your friend needs to do some groundwork :-)

Points to consider:

1. Budget
2. Type of birds (small or large): reach will depend on that
3. Whether he/she likes handholding, or will be using a monopod (e.g. many people use the 400mm f/5.6 with a monopod since it doesn't have IS), or a tripod (e.g. eventually with a gimbal head)

No easy answers once you start specializing. Depends on preference and budget.

Some handheld shots with the D7100 + 200-500mm. I usually don't shoot birds, but liked the light that day when testing the 200-500mm.

[Simhi]

Originally Posted by johannskaria

Bought a Canon 700D with 18-55 and 55-250 Kit lenses from Paytm fro 33K during October. Got it delivered in 5days. Came perfectly packed with all the warranty documents and a surprise bag from Canon. The first thing I did was to login in Canon and register for the warranty and the free classes they conduct.

Thanks. Following your suggestion, I booked 700D with 18-55 STM Kit Lens from PayTm on 9th and got it delivered today 13th. It costed me 32K after cashback. Yes, got all warranty documents and was able to register in Canon India site for warranty and free classes. Being novice, time to start learning basics.

One another lens which I intend to buy is 50mm f1.8 prime lens.

Is it worth going for extended warranty? Please suggest.

[nkghai]

Hi Guys!

Thank you very much for all your inputs. Went ahead and got a Canon 700D with both lenses. Had gone to Mumbai for a day and purchased it from Vivian Mall.

Don't ask me how much because i got it from an authorised dealer and i also wanted to see the product before purchase. Checked that it is Feb 2016 model and got 6 months zero interest installments with a carry bag and 8 GB Card. Online is cheaper but i opted for the old trusted way.

This morning one of the first snaps with 55-250 Lens. Have a lot to learn!

[arsudarsan]

Recent got a Nikon D5300 with double kit lens. I have an old tripod lying at home that came free with my Sony DSC H8. Would this be able to handle DSLR's? I did try my camera on it at the lowest height, seemed ok. Not sure if it can handle the weight at full height. Please suggest if this would be ok or a more sturdy one would be required.

[augustinepaul4u]

Originally Posted by arsudarsan

Recent got a Nikon D5300 with double kit lens. I have an old tripod lying at home that came free with my Sony DSC H8. Would this be able to handle DSLR's? I did try my camera on it at the lowest height, seemed ok. Not sure if it can handle the weight at full height. Please suggest if this would be ok or a more sturdy one would be required.

This tripod would work. But just be careful that you don't extend it fully during windy situations and also if you do don't leave it unattended with the camera on. If you want to buy a new one I would suggest the Vanguard Espod. This isn't a conventional tripod. It can be used at ground level too. Very much versatile. Hope this helps.

[aim120]

Originally Posted by amolpol

For birding you need three main things,

1. Good frame rate (fps)
2. Good focusing
3. A sharp lens of 400mm or longer

On paper both have good frame rates and focusing on the A77 is supposed to be improved while 7d2 is even better than the old 7d which was quite good by itself. But the sony doesn't have enough AF points as compared to the 7d2 which has all 65 (IIRC) as cross-type. So my vote will go to the 7d2.

A77mk2 has more AF points then even the 7Dmk2 but 7D has all cross type points.

Originally Posted by condor

Any one with the A-77, please ?

Both are good cameras with excellent sensor .A77mk2 with a SLT mirror won't be as good as a nikon D7200 in terms of low light performance but its more then a match to the canon.

Go with the canon, if you want more lens options in the used market.

The Sony has the advantage of In body stabilization and has better video ,it also has a really good EVF and articulating screen which focuses lighting fast even if you use the LCD and thats a big advantage mirrorless cameras(except canon) and SLT cameras have

[amolpol]

Originally Posted by aim120

A77mk2 has more AF points then even the 7Dmk2 but 7D has all cross type points.

Yes, you're right, the A77 mk2 does have more AF points than the 7D2 but not as many cross-type. I must have confused it with the earlier version.

[Simhi]

Hi Friends,

I just started with using DSLR and am now shooting only in RAW mode.

I am already noticing an issue with storage. With each RAW file around 20MB and jpeg image after post-processing taking some amount of space, I feel I will soon run out of free space on my external HDD of 320GB capacity (already having other backups too). Also, I am wondering what if the external HDD fails someday. I can't think of writing so much volume of data on to DVD. Another option which I have not explored is online storage like Google Drive.

I am curious to know how you all manage your storage. Where do you keep backups? Since I am just starting off, any pointers can help me in coming out with suitable backup strategy.

[augustinepaul4u]

Originally Posted by Simhi

Hi Friends,

I just started with using DSLR and am now shooting only in RAW mode.

I am already noticing an issue with storage. With each RAW file around 20MB and jpeg image after post-processing taking some amount of space, I feel I will soon run out of free space on my external HDD of 320GB capacity (already having other backups too). Also, I am wondering what if the external HDD fails someday. I can't think of writing so much volume of data on to DVD. Another option which I have not explored is online storage like Google Drive.

I am curious to know how you all manage your storage. Where do you keep backups? Since I am just starting off, any pointers can help me in coming out with suitable backup strategy.

Hello Simhi,

Losing the data is always a risk that comes with this digital era. But shooting RAW doesn't mean that you have to always store them somewhere. After processing the RAW photos you can save them into jpeg. Basically RAW gives you alot of flexibility during post-processing. Unless you are doing this for money you really don't need to save your raw images. Just process it to your liking and get rid of them.

This is what I do. I usually delete the raw images few days after post-processing. But when I shoot for a client I usually store them for a much longer time.

If you decide to store raw no HDD will satisfy your need. Just try to find the right balance. Hope this helps. Feel free to ask.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Simhi

I am curious to know how you all manage your storage. Where do you keep backups? Since I am just starting off, any pointers can help me in coming out with suitable backup strategy.

I have been shooting RAW for as long as I can remember or at least since I went digital. A typical day shooting will get me 350-500. By the way I also always use RAW + JPEG settings. Out of the 350-500 I will process less then 20 photograpsh into JPEGs.
I store all my files on external HDs. These days I buy them at minimal 1 TB.
I make a back up of each HD as well. I keep one set of HDs in my desk/office and one set in my safe.

As you can imagine I have quite a few HDs these days. I'm not sure why I keep all these files. But I know one thing. Very photographers in the old day would throw away their negatives and these days very few throw away their RAW filed.

I really ought to get some space in the cloud, but it will be a slow and tedious process to upload everything, but zi really should.

Jeroen

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I really ought to get some space in the cloud, but it will be a slow and tedious process to upload everything, but zi really should.

I would suggest the following:

Try with about 100GB like Google drive or Dropbox or Amazon and use that to upload only the selected images. Thats what I do. Of the 300-500 (which even I get when I shoot for a day), export the selected ones to high resolution JPGs. Those are the ones which you will share with people the most. I move these selected JPGs to the cloud. For RAW, we still have the hard disks.

[gsurya]

Originally Posted by Simhi

I am curious to know how you all manage your storage. Where do you keep backups? Since I am just starting off, any pointers can help me in coming out with suitable backup strategy.

I have a paid Flickr account for more than a decade now. I process & upload ALL my pics there in JPEG (46K count now). For RAW, I back them up & keep them in external HDDs.

A couple of years ago, I lost 1000s of them in an external HDD crash that could not be recovered but at least had the JPEGs on Flickr.

I am now doing this also for my videos, archiving them on YouTube, after losing 100s of them :/

I am also now planning a RAID protected NAS for home as a media server for all the backup instead of using HDDs.