[205Chris]

 Asking for some UKB knowledge for a friend who's off to Malawi volunteering and wants some help with the myriad of options.

Starting from nothing and with a top end budget of £1k, criteria:

Decent stills, video not important
Long lens for wildlife
Something shorter for landscapes etc.

I'm guessing he'll need to go second hand at this price. Nikon D300 plus a 16-85 and 70-300?

Hit me with some knowledge.

[nai]

micro 4/3rds?

Choice of body and stock lens (my Lumix is 12-32) plus second hand Olympus 40-150 (~£100) and Lumix 100-300 (<£300).

2x focal length so that covers a 24-600mm eqivalent, could perhaps run to a fast, wide prime too.

Works well for landscapes and larger animals but does struggle a bit for birds.  A pod of some kind is useful for reducing shake with the long lens which seems worse than 35mm.

All the recent stuff here is taken with it:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ijt/

[Johnny Brown]

For wildlife on a budget I'd agree. You want the smallest sensor you can change lenses on. I have a D300 and 300mm (might sneak in under a grand but not with a 16-85 too) but never use it as much smalller options are available now.

[Paul B]

And you get away with the AF? When I got all excitable about taking photos of the vultures in the Verdon, the Canon 5DII's centrepoint AF wasn't exactly ideal.

I thought the Sigma 100-300 f/4 was a great lens when I was looking at this kind of thing. I ended up buying (temporary ownership only), the Canon 400mm f/5.6 which I thought was a great lens until I tried to use it in evening light in the UK to photograph a fast moving kingfisher. Sigma also do a 50-500 (I think?) lens (they do two that are quite similar), they're bloody massive!

Get your friend to join TalkPhotoraphy and start posting now. That way he'll have access to the buying/selling part of the forum after 30 posts / 30 days. It is a buyer's market on there as their rules require purchases and bids to be made in-thread rather than via PM. It looks as if you can buy a used 7d for <£300 which is a bargain.

I still can't make my mind up what to replace the 5dII & Fuji X100s with.

[Johnny Brown]

I really don't think trad DSLRs are the sensible budget option. Long lenses for full frame are big, heavy and expensive, and none of the big mfrs dared queering their pitch by introducing long lenses for the smaller DX sensors. So you pay for FX lenses you don't need.

The lenses available for m4/3rds are staggering in comparison - small, fast and way cheaper for the same mag. The Olympus 40-150/2.8 pro and dedicated 1.4x is the chief appeal of m4/3rds for me, ~£750 used. AF won't be spectacular on a cheap old body but unlikely to be any worse than a D300/7D moving budget full-frame glass about.

[cheque]

Lumix 100-300 (<£300).

All the recent stuff here is taken with it:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ijt/

Wadded. Better shots than I got with that lens.

[Paul B]

I really don't think trad DSLRs are the sensible budget option...

Good response post, I'd wad you if I could...