Want to get a lens (hopefully soon) to take some pictures of birds from my front porch. With the crop factor, the 50 end of my 12-50 is almost but not quite ok to get to the two large trees in my front yard. I was thinking about the Oly 75-300. Then there’s the Panasonic 100-300 and 45-200 (?). Reading about the Oly 75/1.8 and maybe it would be an option.

Then I could get a Nikon adapter and have a 180/2.8 ED that I love on my F2 and see a lot of 300 f/4 Nikkors pretty cheap.

So what is the best available bird tele right now? similarly related question, best bang for the buck?

For birding you're generally going to want us much reach as you can get. Among native lenses this means the P100-300 or the O75-300. Between these two, I would lean heavily toward the Panasonic since it's brighter and the Olympus costs at least 60% more. If you were shooting with a Panasonic body, the OIS would tip the scales even more toward the P100-300.

As far as "bang for the buck", then legacy lenses are the way to go (as long as you're comfortable with manual focus). For you, I would recommend picking up a Nikon adapter (look for one with a built-in tripod mount) and start off with the 180mm lens you already have. You can pick up a teleconverter and/or a longer lens later if you find you want more reach.

__________________
Sarcasm is my default tone, so please consider that before taking offense to the preceding message.

Criticism (no matter how harsh) is welcomed of ANY and ALL images I post.

I've only got experince of the Panasonic 100-300. I like it because of it's light weight and it's image stabilisation. I haven't had it for long and due to the prolonged wet wheather in the UK, I have had not much chance to use it, but here's a few bird photo's I have taken so far with it.

__________________
Darren

have you browsed the native lens sample forums for those lenses to see how people have used them?

__________________

The best shot you take is with the camera that you have with you.

Don't you mean 'legacy' not 'native'?

__________________
EP-3, EM-5, 12/50, 12mm, 17mm, 14/42mm, 40/150, 75/300, Nikon 400mm f/3.5 AIS IF ED, HLD6, FL 600R

The Leica Telyt R 400 can be had reasonably priced if you are patient. Get the stock, too. It is 'faster' (T stop) than the f stop rating would suggest and doesn't need to be stopped down for excellent results.

Yes, I did. I've edited my original post to correct my error. Thanks for spotting that as it didn't make a lot of sense the way it was.

__________________
Sarcasm is my default tone, so please consider that before taking offense to the preceding message.

Criticism (no matter how harsh) is welcomed of ANY and ALL images I post.

Here are a couple I took this morning with the P 100-300mm

There's an excellent thread on "birding" here :

Share Birds

and very often, the participants share with which lens they shot their pics !

C U
Rafael

Tex,

You know where I'm at with the 'perfect' lens choice for birding but you must also realize I'm less than rational. I got lots of decent shots with my 75/300 and obviously the 100/300 is a fine lens. Unless you are obsessed like I am ... stick with the rational lens. I will continue to use my native tele for ANY walking around or hiking.

__________________
EP-3, EM-5, 12/50, 12mm, 17mm, 14/42mm, 40/150, 75/300, Nikon 400mm f/3.5 AIS IF ED, HLD6, FL 600R