Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [4]
• Cost vs. features. You’ll need to decide how much money you have budgeted for your equipment. Let’s face it, photography is not cheap. I recommend buying the best camera and first lens “you can afford”! Make a list of the features you want or need, and then narrow down your search based on cost versus features. Don’t get caught up in the latest and greatest just for the sake of having the best with no regard as to whether you will benefit from all the features, quality, and so on. The latest, greatest camera in the world won’t do you any good if you spend all your money on equipment and can’t afford to go out and photograph.
• Video. Many DSLR cameras now include video. The camera you select might have video whether you want it or not. However, if you do want video, be sure to include it in your list of desired features and know which resolution and features are best for the type of video you want to make. Complete books on the subject of making videos with your DSLR are available to help you become a better videographer.
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Tip
Can’t get all the features you need and want within your budget? Consider buying last year’s higher-end body used. Once a new model is released, the previous models drop significantly in price, becoming excellent values. And get this—they are still great cameras, just not the latest and greatest.
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Lens Selection
The lenses you select are equally, if not more, important than the body for capturing wildlife. In addition to magnification (biggest is best, right? You’ll see some excellent images throughout the book that were captured with the affordable 70–300mm VR), you need to consider the speed or maximum aperture (how much light the lens lets in) as well as focus speed (how fast the lens will acquire focus). Does the lens you are considering utilize Vibration Reduction? What do all the other designations on lenses mean, and are they important to your photography? Here, I’ll discuss the key features to consider when making your next wildlife lens purchase.
By now you’ve chosen your camera, so you can make good lens decisions based on the camera format and your future needs. DX lenses work great on DX bodies and give you increased range at affordable prices, but they don’t work very well on FX bodies due to the fact that the area of coverage doesn’t fit a full-frame sensor: You must go into crop mode in the camera when using DX lenses on FX bodies, which results in a significant loss of resolution (12 megapixels at full sensor size versus 5 megapixels in DX crop mode on a Nikon D3s). If you currently own a DX camera, consider whether your plans include going full frame in the future; if so, determine if there is a better lens choice for both your current and future photographic needs. If you made the decision to stick with a DX body, you can get away with a shorter, less expensive lens, making up for lack of magnification with the smaller DX sensor. The 70–300mm lens is smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the 200–400mm (Figure 1.3). The 200–400mm has a third more magnification, a larger maximum aperture at f4, and accepts Nikon’s high-quality teleconverters for even greater magnification. See the section “Increasing Focal Length with Teleconverters” later in the chapter in which I discuss teleconverters for potential compatibility issues.
Figure 1.3 A 70–300mm lens (left) and a 200–400mm lens (right).
Both the 200–400mm and the 600mm (Figure 1.4) have maximum apertures of f4. Size, weight, cost, and versatility are the advantages of the 200–400mm lens. But, when the greatest magnification possible is needed, there is no substitute for having the longest lens you can get.
Figure 1.4 A 200–400mm lens (left) and the 600mm lens (right).
Choosing