I began with a pair of Nikkormat cameras (one for color film, the other for B&W), and upgraded bodies through the EL, ELW, FE, FE2, N2020, 8008, and N90S, with a 6006 for my wife to use loaded with color negative film.
My film days ended in November of 2004 when I got a D70 body and embraced the wonderful advantages of digital. The D70 is now my backup body to a D200. I could never go back to film.
For most of the time until 1998 my primary setup for birds
was a manual focus 400mm f/5.6 EDIF Nikkor mounted on a
TC14 converter (560/8 equivalent). It was a fine lens:
light, compact, portable, and sharp. I retired the 400 when
I went auto focus with a 300mm f/2.8 AF-S and a matching
TC20E 2x converter (600/8 equivalent). Not as light or as
compact, but very sharp with better close focus and
delightful auto focus.
I still use a couple manual focus lenses on my D200,
especially my ancient 200mm f/4 Micro Nikkor.
I always use the big lens on a solid tripod - a carbon
fiber Gitzo 1325, with a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head
and a Sidekick gimbal mount. I'll use this or a smaller
tripod with shorter lenses as well if I want the best image
quality, but will hand hold 200mm or shorter for casual
shooting.
To deal with the harsh shadows of the contrasty desert
light in AZ I use fill flash from a Nikon SB-800 flash when
absolutely necessary, but I'm not a big fan of flash
lighting and avoid it as much as possible.
The down side of digital is the computer resources
necessary to support it. I've been a Mac user since the
early 1990's, using Windows PC's only when required to do
so at the day job (when I have one). I'm definitely behind
the power curve, still using a PowerMac G4 and a 17”
PowerBook G4 of about the same vintage.
Everything is shot in raw format (called NEF by Nikon),
converted in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), and post processed in
Adobe PhotoShop.
