Getting Started...

[mustad]

Disclaimer - I know very little about photography. Any stupid, ignorant comments made are made with the request for tolerance...

Hi,

I spend a great deal of time in the woods here in Quebec, Canada. I am looking to understand better what kind of equipment I would need to capture high quality photographic images of wildlife (deer, moose, bear, etc...) in their natural habitat. I am an avid hunter and take my 5.x megapixel sony digital camera with me, and have used it on occasion, but have been very underwhelmed by it's performance (ex. focuses on a twig rather than the animal; clarity and zoom doesn't match). I would not be looking to replace that camera on my hunting trip; but would more be looking to properly outfit myself and have the option only to take still images.

Development of these images would be another question, but I'm not prepared for that yet.. really looking for info specifically on the equipment needed to take the images (camera, bi-tripod, lenses, flash?, etc...)

Any advice would be appreciated, even if it's pointing to another reference.

thx,

 

[Rob]

Canon are probably the brand to go for as their AF seems to be slightly better/faster than Nikon from my experience. To do this kind of low-light rapid action shooting, you're going to need to have a low f-number zoom super-telephoto lens which is long and this is expensive. 70-200 f2.8 IS would be ideal, or perhaps the 100-400 which is a bit longer. There's a tradeoff between light and zoom range, so if you know your average shooting distance, you might be able to go for a prime, like the 600mm f4.

Anything white!

You'll want a nice body to go with it Perhaps a 1Ds MkII or a 5d

Ok, so I've got your shopping list up to a hefty $10,000 so far! We haven't even added the pistol-grip manfrotto tripod and massive Canon flash rig yet.

Am I way off your budget? You did say "properly outfit yourself". Well, that's probably the daddy outfit. Actually I think the EOS3 35mm SLR is a bit faster on the AF and the number of burst shots, so maybe that would be an option - after all, a lot will happen in the DSLR world in the next year and you're not going to spend $7,000 on film when shooting in one year are you?

Let me know if this is actually helpful or not.

Rob

 

[wyldkard]

I would also suggest a DSLR. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, there are cheaper DSLR's available. Olympus has one that you can get for around $700-800(US) with lens(es) depending on where you buy from. The manual focus will allow you to focus on what you want. If you don't want to purchase a new camera, you can try focusing on something that's the same distance as your target and then moving the camera onto the subject and see if it's in focus.

BTW, That area of Canada is beautiful. I spent a week in Prince Edward Island NB a year ago. I figure it's not too different from Quebec.

 

[Rob]

Erm, here's some links for you to look at:

Lenses:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=183202&is=USA&addedTroughType=search
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=234444&is=USA&addedTroughType=search
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=186153&is=USA&addedTroughType=search

Bodies:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=354004&is=REG&addedTroughType=search
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=397314&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

http://cgi.ebay.com/MINTy-CANON-EOS...yZ107916QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

A rough budget would be helpful...as you can see, the best equipment is very expensive. Are you thinking digital? A film SLR would be a lot cheaper...but the lenses are still expensive.

Also, are you just wanting photos for yourself? or are these something you will want to sell or blow up very large? Pro wildlife photogs use very large, expensive lenses...and usually have expensive cameras to go along with them. It's not absolutely necessary but it makes a big difference...that's why the pros use them.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I've known one or two wildlife photographers and a couple of them swore that this system
http://www.novoflex.de/english/html/lenses.htm
was by far the best. In terms of zoom and focus it beats conventional lenses hands down (so I've been told).

 

[Rob]

Wow, that looks cool! It also looks "price on application" expensive.

 

[Renata-Brazil]

If you can't afford a fancy SLR with long lens, I would suggest a Panasonic FZ-20 or FZ-30. They have very long zoom range (35-432mm-equivalent) and they have all controls you might need for you purposes. They have manual focus (wich you should be using to focus you animals properly) and good number of pixels for an amateur. And FZ-15/20 have the same maximmum aperture (2,8 )through the whole "zoom". I am an owner of a FZ15 and I get good pictures at the zoo, I believe... See for yourself. Almost no crop. They're not HIGH QUALITY photos but...