Which second-hand lens for under $1k would be best for taking pictures of distant birds?

Question

I went on vacation with my Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens. I did a lot of bird watching and whale watching. I had a lot more fun taking these types of pictures than I thought I would. I think I took some great photos, however some didn't turn out exactly as I thought they would. The biggest issue is the sharpness when zoomed in. I took a picture of a white flower on a lily pad. I was zoomed in to the max. The edges of the flower where it overlaps other parts of the same flower aren't very visible. The other main issue was the actual amount of zoom, in some cases, such a birds, I couldn't get any closer to the subject and the lens just didn't get close enough to fill the frame in the way I wanted it to.

I do think this lens is pretty amazing for the price, but I would like to find something with better zoom and more importantly sharper.

Answer

Well under a 1k, long reach, and sharp limit your field quite a bit. Pretty much all more advanced long telephoto Nikon brand glass is out of the price range, so I'll be looking mainly at 3rd parties.

On the long reach end you've got the Sigma 150-500 which is pretty much at 1k - but its not known to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, especially wide open (which at the 500mm end is a whooping 6.3!). You'd need to stop down to beyond f/8 just to get past lens quality issues, and then you start hitting diffraction issues!

The new Tamron 70-300 VC is a little longer and probably a little sharper than your 55-200, but still definitely in the consumer class. You may notice a better quality, but its not really a lens I'd want to lay out almost 600 for and get a mediocre improvement on.

If you can live at the 200mm limit, but want a lens that will be sharper and overall much better, try a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX DG. It'll double as a great portrait lens and give you the ability to shoot some indoor shots. It is however, definitely at the very short end of birding lenses. There's other techniques to get closer to birds (in some situations) however - see the links at the end of this answer.

If you want to go over your budget, you can look at something like a 300mm f/4 Nikon, but you'll pay about 50% over your budget.

You'll have to compromise somewhere to get significantly better reach or sharpness.

For birding in general, take a look at this other links - here and here.

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