What is the Best Camera for Wildlife Photography?

What is the best camera for wildlife photography?

The 6 biggest things to consider when buying the best camera for wildlife photography

So what is the best camera for wildlife photography?

This question is very hard to answer without knowing things like budget, usage etc. You might want to read my general article on considerations on buying equipment for wildlife photography before you read this article.

This article covers more the Top 6 things that I would consider the most important when choosing a camera for wildlife photography.

Frames Per Second.

Ideally something faster than 8 frames per second is best. You will need this to capture action shots. That being said in the early days I took images on much slower cameras so it is possible to still photograph wildlife with slower cameras, however you may need to find a workaround and one of those could simply be studying your subjects behaviour. If you can anticipate when something will happen through a specific behaviour then you will gain the equivalent of an extra couple of frames per second.

Fast Auto-focusing.

This really needs to be quick and have the ability to lock on accurately.

The advancement in auto focus performance is unbelievable, with a lot of the top mirrorless camera bodies even having settings for animal and bird eye detection autofocus. However, most DSLR camera bodies will perform well for autofocus.

One thing to consider with this is that at one point all cameras had the latest autofocus capabilities and award-winning images were taken with these cameras and the relevant autofocus settings. So yes it is important and autofocus capabilities tend to improve every time a new model is launched but look at the best you can get for your budget.

Megapixels.

The greater the number of megapixels, the more detail you will have on file and therefore the more you will be able to crop without losing too much detail.  An important consideration for photographers that specialise in birds – particularly birds in flight.

Usually unless you have a higher budget you will have to balance the amount of megapixels with the frames per second as the higher the megapixels the slower the frame rate seems to be.

Sensor

Put very simply you can go for a full frame or cropped sensor. A Full frame sensor will give you better dynamic range, generally is better in low light, gives you a wider angle of view and shows more detail and resolution. That being said a cropped sensor gives you additional zoom. For example, if you use a 300mm lens on a crop sensor camera with a multiplier effect of 1.5x, your effective focal length will be 450mm, this can be a way of getting more “reach” without paying more on a lens. A cropped sensor camera also tends to be cheaper in price.

This is a key decision to make and It again comes down to budget. I usually recommend to my workshop clients that are just starting out that they start with a  cropped sensor, simply because they will get more reach on the lens without having to invest substantially more money on a longer lens.

Cameras with good low-light capabilities.

Usually this translates to the ISO range. Read reviews on the cameras low light capabilities. Generally newer cameras with newer technology are better, but you can still get decent results with older cameras too. It is a consideration as quite often you are photographing in low light.

The same point that I made when considering autofocus capabilities is valid here. At one point the older camera models were the best in class for low light capabilities and although there is no doubt that they have improved on the newer camera bodies the older ones can still do a job. Another consideration here is the image processing software that you may use. I use Topaz which is simply incredible at removing noise in images. For me the advancement in the photo editing software and the use of AI to achieve this has completely changed the way I can shoot in low light situations.

 

Lens availability.

With the new range of mirrorless cameras, lens availability is currently not as varied as the older established lenses used for DSLR bodies.

However, most DSLR lenses can be used on mirrorless cameras, mostly through the use of an adapter, but this means that you can now get some brilliant quality DSLR lenses in the used market.

As a general rule every time a camera manufacturer launches a new lens the equivalent older lenses will make their way into the used market and the more of them that are available the more the price will reduce. So, shop around and be aware that timing is everything.

I am a Nikon user and have always shot with Nikon equipment. I bought my first digital Nikon Camera the Nikon D70 back in 2005. It was only 3 frames per second and 6.1mp. If you read a review back at the launch, It sounds like an incredible camera and for its time it was. But when you compare the spec of this to the Z9 that I now shoot with the 2 cannot even be compared to each other. The Z9 is 20 frames per second and 45mp.

However this does back up my point that at one point every camera was “the best”.

All of the above considerations are important and they can make the image taking process either, but it is far more important to buy the best equipment that you can comfortably afford and learn how to use it. Practice is far more important than having the best camera available, use the camera that you have and understand its capabilities and limitations and then if you need to look at upgrading.

Here are a few of my suggestions for cameras to suit any budget. These are just for the camera bodies and not lenses. But you can read a separate article on lenses here.

Under £100 – Used Nikon D70s. Approx £35

Under £300 – Used Nikon D300s. Approx £154

Under £1000 – Used Nikon D500. Approx £750

Under £1500 – Used Nikon D850. Approx £1500

Under £3000 – New Nikon Z7ii. Approx £2300

Under £4000 – New Nikon Z8. Approx £3500

Budget not a concern – New Nikon Z9. Approx £5500

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.

Another option is to consider going on a workshop, on a workshop the photographer should help you with the camera that you have and help you get the best out of it. 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 with you for wildlife and talk you through all of the relevant settings and let you know what your camera 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

To read an article on general advice on buying equipment for wildlife photography then click here

To read an article on lenses for wildlife photography then click here.