Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [3]
If you’re thinking of upgrading your camera, consider your motivation. What is it the newest body offers that yours does not? Do you really need those features? Would your money be better spent on lenses or perhaps a photography trip? How much will you have to spend to acquire a camera with the features you need? Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different DSLR formats of similar resolution, as well as examples and additional features to consider when buying a new camera with the goal of photographing wildlife.
Full Frame vs. Cropped Sensor Cameras
In the film days, the image size recorded on 35mm SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras was a standard size of 24mm x 36mm. Not so with digital cameras where every camera brand has its own standard sizes. Nikon, for example, has its full-frame (FX) sensors, which are the same image size as 35mm film cameras, and its cropped (DX) sensors, which are smaller (known as crop factor) and therefore give the effect of having greater magnification. DX sensors are found in Nikon’s entry-level to prosumer bodies. Canon offers three sensor formats in its line of DSLR bodies: full-frame, 1.3X, and 1.6X depending on the level of body.
When looking for a new camera, I always have a wish list. Tables 1.1 and 1.2 contain what I consider to be the advantages as well as the disadvantages between FX (full-frame) and DX (cropped) cameras.
Table 1.1 FX Advantages and Disadvantages
Table 1.2 DX Advantages and Disadvantages
Figure 1.1 was captured with a Nikon D700 and a 70–300mm VR lens. The red and black crop lines show what the effective magnification (crop factor) would be with a DX body. (Black is Nikon’s 1.5X sensor; red is Canon’s 1.6X sensor.)
Figure 1.1 Although image size from a DX body is larger in the frame, giving you the feeling of greater magnification, this is achieved by the image being recorded on a smaller sensor that increases the size of your subject in the final image.
A telephoto lens can be used to fill the frame with your subject. Add a DX body with its magnification (crop factor) for even tighter, frame-filling images. Figure 1.2 was made with a Nikon D3 and a 600mm f4 VR lens.
Figure 1.2 The black and red crop lines represent what the image size would be with Nikon’s 1.5X (black lines) and Canon’s 1.6X (red lines) sensor crop factor using a 600mm lens.
Sensor size is just one aspect of the many important features to consider when buying a camera to photograph wildlife. Other important features include:
• Frame rate. The number of frames per second aid in capturing peak of action. The faster the frame rate, the better when the action is hot and heavy. A fast frame rate gives you the opportunity to capture that defining moment in a flurry of activity.
• 100% viewfinder. What you see is what you get with the 100% viewfinder. Top-of-the-line cameras have 100% viewfinders, whereas most DX bodies have 95–96% viewfinders, which means that you don’t see everything that will be included in your final capture through the viewfinder. I prefer not to crop in order to keep the full resolution of my files and find that having a 100% viewfinder allows me to compose the image and capture it just the way I see it.
• Resolution. The resolution should be high-enough quality to satisfy your largest output. The highest resolution is not always the best solution if the compromise is performance when photographing action or higher noise in low light. Even entry-level bodies have excellent resolution to output up to poster size and beyond if the exposure and focus are good.
• Low noise. There is a balancing