The Best Wildlife Camera To Take On Safari
Good wildlife camera equipment on safari can make the difference
between pictures you will be proud to show your friends and
family when you get back and ones where it’s difficult to figure
out exactly what you were photographing because it’s only a
fuzzy black dot surrounded by green vegetation.
I take wildlife photographs for a living and I have had to
quickly figure out what the best cameras and lenses are to get
the job done effectively.
Digital or Film - Which is better for a safari?
Wild animals are very unpredictable. That’s one aspect of safari
photography that makes it so exciting because you never know
what you are going to get but this also means that the number of
pictures you need to take to get a keeper increases.
And if you use film that can become very expensive whereas with
a digital wildlife camera you can take as many as you want and
then just delete the ones where the lion has ducked behind a
bush, the cheetah has blurred because the autofocus locked onto
a twig in front of it and the exposure of the hippo was way off
because of the reflected sunlight in the water.
You can also make consistent use of bracketing to get the
perfect exposures without worrying about cost or running out of
film which can be a problem in certain remote areas of Africa
where safaris take place.
So more is better in this case but what about quality? The fact
is that digital quality is fast catching up to film unless you
fall into the professional category and are going to be selling
your safari pictures or entering them into competitions. In that
case it might be better to stick to film because the trained eye
will be able to spot the difference but in most other cases
digital quality is more than adequate.
Digital also gives you valuable feedback while you are still on
safari so that you can try and improve on that elephant picture
with the ear cut off the next day. You also have a lot more
control over the final product because you can use software like
Photoshop to enhance and fine tune your pictures.
Digital SLR or Compact Wildlife Camera
A safari is the dream trip of a lifetime and it’s a great
opportunity to get some fantastic wildlife pictures but it’s not
necessary to buy the latest and greatest digital SLR and lenses
to get them unless you are planning to take nature pictures for
a living or are a serious photography enthusiast and are going
to make regular use of the camera and lenses after the safari
anyway.
The cost of a digital SLR wildlife camera is high compared to a
compact but that is only half the story. The lenses that you
need to purchase for decent wildlife photography often cost more
than the camera itself making it a very expensive business
indeed.
And a bulky camera body and multiple interchangeable lenses do
add to the weight of your luggage and the inconvenience of
carrying everything around with you.
Digital compact cameras on the other hand are not extremely
expensive and the results that you can obtain from them are
almost on a par with a digital SLR camera and you don’t have to
worry about any additional lenses if the compact you buy has a
decent zoom covering the range from 80mm to about 300mm. There
are a few of them on the market that do have lenses like this
and the range of the zooms increase every year.
And compact cameras live up to their name by being relatively
small and light and one lens means no additional weight or
carrying and no time wasted changing to another lens to suit the
situation.
The Best SLR Digital Wildlife Camera for Nature
Photography
If you have decided to go with a digital SLR then by all
accounts the best one to purchase for wildlife photography at
the moment is the Canon EOS 20D due to the blinding speed of its
shutter release (near instantaneous) and its continuous shooting
speed of 5 frames per second to a maximum burst depth of twenty
three frames. It also powers up in next to no time at all.
This wildlife camera is as fast as you will ever need to freeze
wildlife action and get the picture in the can before the animal
moves off into the undergrowth.
There are other SLR cameras that are nearly as good like the
Nikon D70 and the Pentax ist D so take a look at them too before
making a decision.
The Best Compact Digital Wildlife Camera for Nature
Photography
Canon comes up trumps again in the compact camera category with
the Canon Powershot S2 IS. The factor that makes this camera
ideal for safari wildlife photography is its huge 12X optical
zoom lens (36 - 432mm equivalent) with a built in image
stabiliser which cuts down on blur when using such a massive
zoom lens.
A 5 megapixal sensor is more than enough to produce stunning
safari images and as long as you can live with a slight shutter
release lag and power up delay this compact wildlife camera is
perfect for a safari trip.
About the author:
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