Nikon D-100 vs. Canon 10D

Which do you think would be better for taking photos of outdoor

birds? And which lenses would be ideal?

Those cameras are about the same in the grand scheme of things. The ideal lens is big, heavy, and expensive. See <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0002QX">"Shooting Birds and Telephoto lenses (beginner)"</a> in the nature photo forum archives.

This is not a very productive question. Nikon owners will say Nikon, Canon owners will say Canon, and people who own neither don't know. If you already own a brand of lens, that will probably be the deciding factor. You might want to compare autofocus performance in your particular application and lens choice.

Since I've used both and own both Nikon and Canon stuff, I'll say go try them out. I prefer the image quality off the Canon and find it to be slightly more evolved than the Nikon in operation (its newer, duh) but there's not any major differences between both. Both have the support of good flash, and metering system. Autofocus will depend more on the lenses however, if you're buying cheaper lenses Canon will generally have the edge because of the proliferation of USM motors in their lineup, however for higher end lenses it will matter less.

 

You'd be best served going to a store and trying them on with the lenses you should be buying, which are big, long, heavy and expensive telephotos for the kind of shooting you're talking about.

Two major criteria you should consider for such shooting is a) selection of IS/VR lenses and b) buffer capacity. As has been discussed elsewhere, birders prefer Canon IS telephotos because Nikon doesn't offer any. Additionally, buffer capacity is also a major difference. The Canon 10D has a 9-shot image buffer capacity when shooting in RAW or JPEG Large. The D100 has a much smaller 3-shot image buffer capacity when shooting in RAW, and a 6-shot image capacity when shooting in JPEG Large. This can significantly hinder your capacity to shoot burst sequences. I supposed it would be quite nice to fire off 9-shot bursts with the 10D, especially with birds in flight, birds landing or taking off. I don't shoot birds, but I shoot lots of other stuff where the 10D's burst capacity comes in handy (brides and grooms fleeing the wedding chapel, kids running around, etc.)

Your first question sounds like a call for the cheerleader squad, and you may get many opinions, but most are strictly for the birds... As to your second question, long telephoto lenses are best suited for avian photography, at least 400mm or longer. There are many books and even <a href="http://www.birdsasart.com/faq.html">workshops</a> on this subject.