Lenses

With a DSLR, you’re going to need a lens or two as well. Lens sizes are given in mm (the focal length) and range from 10-1200mm. For bird photography you are going to want something 300mm and above, especially to photograph some of the UK’S smaller subjects and create wonderful, framefilling portraits. Lenses come in a variety of types, from a 300mm fixed to a zoom variant like 70-300mm. Zooms give better flexibility in framing, while (pound for pound) fixed lenses tend to have better sharpness, optical quality and speed of focus – which is why most professional photographers opt for these. An excellent starter is a 300mm f4 lens. Offering great performance, AF and sharpness at a reasonable price, especially a good secondhand model. In addition, you’ll most likely want something with a wider angle for scenic and landscape shots – the supplied kit lens with most DSLRS, 18-55mm, are great starters, but for a little more range something of 24120mm might give you more scope. Always invest in top quality memory cards, they are less likely to corrupt, resulting in the loss of images.