What is the Best Equipment for Wildlife Photography?

What is the best equipment for Wildlife Photography?

When considering what is the best equipment for Wildlife Photography there are many things to think about. Wildlife Photography is one of the most difficult genres, it can also be one of the most expensive. Having said that it is one of the most rewarding, especially when you consider that most of the time you only have a split second to capture that once in a lifetime image. It is important to invest in your photography gear as it is an investment in yourself. But it is also important to understand the limitations and advantages of whatever equipment you do have.

When purchasing camera gear, it is important to consider the following:

• Budget
• Brand
• Specifications
• Usage
• Reviews

Budget

What is the best equipment for wildlife photography really starts with a very simple question – how much can you afford?

Remember that you will need a camera, lens or lenses, possibly a tripod, cleaning kit, bag, memory cards. Everything adds up.

If you are starting out and need to purchase everything, make sure that you cost for everything and stick to that budget. If you are looking to upgrade, do you need to upgrade everything or just a lens or the camera body.

Once you have your budget decided. Shop around.

Explore the 2nd hand market. MPB for example offer a massive range of 2nd hand cameras and lenses and you can save a fortune if you purchase used equipment. For example, in 2022, when Nikon launched their new mirrorless flagship Z9 camera and lenses, a lot of photographers instantly sold their DSLR gear. For the same price as a Z9 I was able to purchase a 2nd D850 camera body, a 200-400 zoom lens and an upgraded 70-200 lens.

I waited until 2024 to purchase the Nikon Z9 and by then the price had dropped considerably. I also then sold one of my D850 bodies and my 200-400 lens and purchased the Nikon 180-400 lens with built in 1.4x teleconverter.

I vary rarely use anything but the Nikon Z9 and the 180-400 lens.

Brand

Are you Nikon or Canon? – that is a question that used to be asked a lot. Now with the mirrorless camera revolution and the advancement of all DSLR’s you are more likely to hear are you Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus etc etc.

Full disclosure – I am a Nikon user. I have been for the last 20 years and have shot on pretty much every Nikon camera body made. That being said, I am Nikon because I started on Nikon, and I like the image quality that I get from Nikon cameras. If you are using a particular brand, it is much more cost effective to upscale your gear than switch to a different brand and have to purchase everything again.

If you are just starting out and looking at making your first purchase, then don’t get too caught up with the brand, more look at what you can get from your budget. Look at all of the specifications available for the price. Olympus are making a name in digital photography and tend to be priced lower than their competitors.

Specifications

The mirrorless vs DSLR camera debate has been happening for a few years. So which is better? While the decision will always be a personal choice, the camera manufacturers are starting to make it a lot more straightforward.

Both Canon and Nikon have been discontinuing, or simply not updating, their DSLR models in recent years. This means mirrorless is very much the default format for new cameras. But it isn’t quite that simple, because DSLRs continue to offer excellent value and have large, established ranges of lenses. And that counts for a lot when you consider your budget.

Back in the early days of mirrorless cameras during the late 2000s, the situation was very different. If you were a pro, you tended to pick up a DSLR. Hobbyists and amateurs, who were more bothered by weight and portability, would instead lean towards their mirrorless counterparts.

This has now changed. With flagship cameras like Sony A1, Nikon Z9 and Canon EOS R3, the giants have confirmed that mirrorless is both the present and the future for their best professional cameras. Incredibly, the Nikon Z9 doesn’t even have a mechanical shutter, which makes it the real leader of a new, all-electronic shooting style.

But what exactly are the differences between a mirrorless cameras and a DSLR?

Let’s start with the basics and look at the key differences between these two types of cameras. The key is in the names. DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex, which works by the light hitting a mirror angled at 45 degrees. That light goes straight up into an optical viewfinder which allows you to see precisely what the lens is looking at. This is a true optical path, with no digital processing in the middle.

When you’re ready to take a photograph, that mirror moves out of the way – to reveal the image sensor – and if you’ve used one in the past, you’ll be familiar with the satisfying (but fairly loud) noise it makes as it does so.

 By contrast, mirrorless cameras – you’ve guessed it – doesn’t have a mirror. With these cameras, the light passes through the lens and straight onto the sensor to be processed. It’s then displayed either on the monitor on the back of the camera, or in the electronic viewfinder (EVF), which is in essence a very small monitor. This time, when you take a picture, the camera is simply recording what is on the sensor at that moment in time.

 DSLRs use the same technology as their film counterparts, which have been around for decades. They’re very familiar for anybody who has been serious about photography in recent years. Legacy companies such as Canon, Nikon and Pentax have been making them for all those years and so have a lot of experience to draw from.

 These days, almost no new DSLRs are introduced to the market, but there’s still plenty you can buy. They tend to have great handling, offer fantastic image quality and one advantage that doesn’t look set to go away for a while yet – extremely impressive battery life.

 By taking away the mirror, mirrorless cameras give you several advantages (and very few disadvantages). The key one is that, since they don’t need that big clunky mirror setup, they can be smaller and lighter than their equivalent DSLR counterparts.

 Some of the tasks of the camera, like autofocusing, can take place on the sensor itself, leading to super-quick focusing speeds. Speaking of speed – with no mirror to move out of the way, frame rates aren’t limited so much by physicality. Mirrorless cameras routinely offer at least 10fps, with some high-end models delivering 20fps or 30fps at full resolution, with continuous autofocus between each shot.

 In the beginning, mirrorless cameras tended to use smaller sensors than DSLRs. But now, the most popular sensor size in these models is full-frame, with Sony, Nikon, Canon and Panasonic all producing this type of camera. APS-C is also a common sensor size, for both mirrorless and DSLR. All of this means that there’s a common sensor size, for both mirrorless and DSLR. All of this means that there’s no generally discernible difference between outright image quality in DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, no matter which you choose to go with.

The electronic viewfinders found on early mirrorless cameras weren’t particularly great, being low in resolution and slow. But over the years the technology has advanced so much that many photographers now prefer the super high-resolution viewfinders on the current crop of high-end mirrorless cameras. They show a truer reflection of what your final image will look like, as well as allowing you to see a preview of your image after you’ve shot it.

 All of this makes it sound like mirrorless is the obvious winner – and while the fact that no new DSLRs have been announced in the past 12 months might seem to back that up, there are still some advantages of the older technology.

By taking away the mirror, mirrorless cameras give you several advantages (and very few disadvantages).

Article taken from Tech Radar – they explain it so much better than me.

So, I should buy mirrorless right?

Not necessarily – if you have the money to purchase one of the flagship mirrorless cameras and the relevant lenses then yes I would advise you to buy mirrorless.

But as I have described a few times. It comes back to budget and a good quality DSLR bought 2nd hand with a selection of lenses could be well worth the investment.

Usage

This is a short paragraph when it comes to consideration, but an important one. If you are intending to go out in all weathers regularly with your gear then you will need to consider how resistant to the elements it is, this however can easily be solved by purchasing rain covers from somewhere like Lenscoat or Wildlife watching supplies.

Also, if you are only intending to use the equipment occasionally is the investment in top of the range gear worth it?

There are companies that offer the opportunity to hire equipment – so if for example you are going on a safari to Kenya and feel that you need a better lens, look at hiring rather than purchasing if you don’t feel you will use it after the trip.

Reviews

The final thing to consider is reviews. If you have a budget in mind – look at several options that you could buy for that price and read reviews on those cameras. Look at You Tube for tutorials or ask other photographers for advice.

My suggested equipment based on budget:

Under £300

Camera – Used Nikon D300s. Approx £154

Lens Used Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED. Approx £94

Total = £248

Under £400

Camera – Used Nikon D300s. Approx £154

Used Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G IF-ED VR. Approx £209

Total = £363

Under £1000

Camera – Used Nikon D500. Approx £750

Used Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G IF-ED VR. Approx £209

Total = £959

Under £1600

Camera – Used Nikon D500. Approx £750

Used Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR. Approx £830

Total = £1580

Under £3000

Camera – Used Nikon D850. Approx £1500

Used Nikon AF-S Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED VR II Approx £1200

Total = £2700

Under £4000

Camera – New Nikon Z7ii. Approx £2300

New Nikon Z 180-600mm f5.6-6.3 VR Lens. Approx £1600

Total = £3900

Over £4000

Camera – New Nikon Z8. Approx £3500

New Nikon Z 180-600mm f5.6-6.3 VR Lens. Approx £1600

Total = £5100

Budget not a concern

Camera – New Nikon Z9. Approx £5500

Nikon Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 S Lens. Approx £2400

Total = £7900

All of the above are examples of Nikon equipment because that is what I am the most familiar with but a simple google search of Canon/Sony/Olympus equivalent should give you a relevant comparison.

These are the companies that I would recommend  when looking for equipment.

Used – MPB
New – Cotswold Cameras

Please note – I am not affiliated to either company and are not paid for links or clicks. These are just my recommendations based on my own experiences when buying camera equipment and who I would recommend based on my experiences.

Make a shopping list of all the things that you may need:

• Camera
• Lens/Lenses
• Camera Bag
• Tripod
• Memory Cards
• Spare Batteries
• Computer/Laptop
• External Hard Drives
• Cleaning Kits

All of these add up and all should be considered at the start of your photography journey. It is easy to think you have a budget of £1500 and spend it on a camera and lens and then realise very quickly that when you add the memory cards/camera bag/ tripod etc into it that you actually needed a budget of close to £2000.

In Conclusion

When considering what gear to buy or whether to upgrade then it always comes back to what you can afford, it is a myth that you can’t take decent images with entry level kit. A lot of the images in this article were taken with entry level cameras and the main header image of the cheetah and cubs was taken with a Nikon D70s a 6.1mp camera. The technology in the newer camera kit can make the process easier but you still need to understand how to use the camera and understand a lot more about the process and the technique behind creating stunning images. Just do your research, and get as much information as you can, to enable you to make an informed decision on buying the best kit that you can.

My advice would always be to start well within budget and practice, practice, practice with what you have and if you find the camera and/or lens isn’t able to do what you want it to then look at upgrading, but this should be through a technical requirement like more frames per second or more mega pixels rather than through a lack of technique.

Another option is to consider going on a workshop, on a workshop the photographer should help you with the camera and lenses that you have and help you get the best out of them. There are lots of photographers that offer workshops so consider this as an option and if you are Scotland based or willing to travel then consider one of my workshops where I will set up your camera and lens with you for wildlife and talk you through all of the relevant settings and let you know what your camera and lens can and can’t do and we will develop a way for you to shoot to mitigate any limitations and really get the most out of your camera.

To view my workshops then click here

A more detailed look at camera considerations can be read here.