Need Help to Negotiate Lens Swap

[Suzan J]

Hello All: Back in May, I started a thread asking what upgrade would be best for birding lens. No surprise, but with my champagne taste and your valuable input, I have placed the Nikon F4 300 prime lens at the top of my wish list. Given the price and my limited budget, this purchase is slated for some time in the future. It currently list new for $ 1176.00 on Amazon and used is not much less.

In the meantime, I asked the local camera store fellow to watch out for any such used lenses as I have overcome my fear of purchasing used equipment. Coincidentally, he lent me a 70 to 300 mm lens to try out for a few days and to compare to my current 55 to 300. He is asking $ 300.00 for it. (Canadian)

My findings are that the 70 to 300 is a heavier build, has immediate manual focus override, and does seem to autofocus just a bit quicker. I don't see much image difference so long as I compare "good" shots. I think I have fewer images to delete with the 70 to 300 which suggests to me that the focusing might be somewhat better. While I am waiting for an ultimate upgrade, would it make sense to trade up for the 70 to 300 now?

If so, what price should I ask for my 55 to 300?

Currently, Amazon is selling the 70 to 300 for $ 586.00 USD
The 55 to 300 is selling for $ 396.00 USD

I have to bring the loaner back on Friday.

Thanks for your help

[Suzan J]

Ooops! I forgot to attach two sample shots with the 70 to 300

DSC_5170 by Soo J, on Flickr


DSC_5242 by Soo J, on Flickr

[DanK]

For the low end, fill in the online form at KEH.com to see what they would give you for it. It will be on the low side because they have to pay enough less than they will charge to cover their expenses, their guarantee, and their profit. On the positive side, selling to them is simple, and I have sold three lenses to them. For the high end, go to eBay and search for completed sales. There is a lot of randomness in eBay sales, and in my experience, one can't always get close to the highest completed-sale prices.

[Polar01]

Susan just a suggestion, buy the 70-300, as your are in Thunder Bay (nice area by the way), there is not a lot of market for used equipment as say in Toronto so you would not be much for the 55-300 at the store. Sell the 55-300 for say $275-$325, then once the new one comes in, you can decide if you want to sell the 70-300, if selling than $475-$525. The market for used equipment is not that large in your area so prices would be as good as in a larger market.

Cheers: Allan

[Peeshan]

Just out of curiosity, wich 70-300 are you talking about? There is several in the market, with important differences in quality, features and price...

[Suzan J]

Thanks Dan and Allan for the replies. I had never heard of KEH before and have now spent some time browsing the site. The quote calculator for my 55 to 300 does come out somewhat low at $ 158.00 This compares to EBay which is somewhat higher with a range of $ 200 to $ 239.

The 70 to 300 that I am testing out is a VR model 4.5 to 5.6 ED

[rpcrowe]

You began your post asking, "what upgrade would be best for birding lens?"

I would suggest that the prime 300mm f/4 might be superior to the 70 to 300mm VR model 4.5 to 5.6 ED because generally birding images are done with the maximum focal length...

1. At 300mm, the prime lens is a full stop faster than the zoom which would come into play to keep your shutter speed high without needing to boost the ISO...

2. The 300mm at f/4 would have a shorter DOF than the zoom at f/5.6 which would allow you to use selective focus more effiectively...

3. At least with Canon gear, you cannot utilize a teleconverter (even a 1.4x TC) and retain auto focus with a crop camera. Adding a Canon 1.4x TC to the 300mm would give you a 420mm f/5.6 lens. Adding a Nikon 1.5x TC would result in a 450mm f/5.6 lens. That focal length increase might be quite handy for some birding...

4. The bokeh (quality of the OOF areas of the image) is very nice with the Canon 300mm f/4L IS lens and I would guess that the same would be true with the Nikon version. I don't know about the bokeh of the 70-300mm zooms - either Canon or Nikon...

5. The IQ of the Canon 300mm f/4L IS lens is a bit better than the 70-300mm (non-L) zoom. This would result in an ability to crop a bit more...

Finally, the auto focus speed and accuracy of a birding lens is of paramount interest. I don't know about the Nikon 300mm but the Canon version is a bit faster than the 70-300mm non-L zoom...

BTW: One of the best birding lenses in the Canon arsenal is the 400mm f/5.6 L... I am not sure if Nikon has anything to match that lens at that price point...

OTOH: As a general purpose telephoto lens, the zooms would be a bit more versatile...