Preface: I know nothing about photography

The wife wants a DSLR for Christmas, and I am looking at the Nikon D3200. My questions is about lenses. Call it selfish, but I want to get her a lense for the camera so I can steal it from time to time to take hunting with me. There are camera package deals that come with a 55-200mm lense, or else I have to shell out more money for a 55-300mm lense.

Can anyone post some pictures as examples of how far each of these lenses could reach out there for picutures from the blind? I really have no reference on whether I need the 300mm, or if the 200mm will work just fine.

Thanks in advance.

How far is your blind from the feeder? At 100 yes, a 200 lens will reach out but its definitely going to need you to zoom in in your editing program to get a clear, full frame pic. If you can get the 300, get it. I think that camera also has a 1.5x crop which means any lens you put on there, you'll actually be getting 1.5x more zoom than the lens will provide. Best advice I can give though, is buy quality lenses.

Pictures would probably be over 100yds. I really don't know a quality lense from a bad one. I was looking at the Nikon Nikkor lenses?

Great lenses can set you back thousands. A good/functional lens can be had for a few hundred. I bought a nikon 3100 package with two lenses,
Etc on Black Friday last year. The 55-200 that came with it left me desiring more reach... I bought a tamaron 70-300mm with VR and am now looking to sell the 200mm nikon.

Another option would be to buy a doubler… They can be expensive as well depending on which one you get, and they also cut down on low-light capabilities, but it can turn your 200mm into a 400mm.

If I could give you one piece of advice, I would suggest buying a good camera and great lenses… Lenses will hold their value much longer than the camera will. I have a Nikon D700 that was over $2500 new a few years ago, and now it's worth less than half of that.

Here's an example of the Nikkor 70-200mm with VR at roughly 100 yards.



And here is the same picture when zoomed in to show image quality and why more magnification would be better.



If I'd had a 300mm or better lens, this could have been an amazing picture hanging on my wall… It's just not quite clear enough after cropping to use.

Get the 300mm lens. You can find one around 500.

I would DEFINITELY suggest the 300mm lens. I think the 200mm will leave you wanting more. These are pics I've taken with my Nikon D5100 and Nikkor 55-300mm....ranging from around 75 to 150 yards.

300, for all the above reasons

Buy as much as you can afford. You can always crop your images. One thing to read up on is how "sharp" photos are with the lenses. If that 300mm is soft, you might be better off with a 200 or 250. Then you can crop and still get better images.

Longer lenses do not work as well as shorter ones in low light, something else to consider as many great wildlife shots will be around sunrise and sunset.

Buying a "crop body" will extend your reach. I believe the 3200 is a crop body.

You get what you pay for when buying this stuff, a 400mm lens is expensive but will take extraordinary photos.

Thanks all. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Not sure what your budget is but take a look at Sigma lenses. They make lenses for all the major platforms. They make a 50-500MM lens that will work great for what you're doing. It's bulky and heave though. Priced around $1500. But that's a steal compared to the Nikon lenses.

These does are about 125 yards from the blind. Camera was handheld using a 100-400mm zoom lens.
100mm

150mm

200mm

300mm

400mm