Which camera should I get?

[mikoh4792]

I will be shooting mostly live reptiles, in different types of situations(in door, outdoor, studio type, inside terrerariums...etc). I understand above all, it's the person behind the camera that is most important, and not the camera itself. That said I also understand different models offer different features which will be better suited for different types of people.

I would like a camera that has an on-body focus light assist(not one that needs the flash to pop up). I feel having the flash as the focus assist light may not be good for my type of shooting(live animals). It will also need to have good/fast autofocus. Since I'm shooting live animals, I will need to take shots as they move around.

So far I am looking at the different higher end crop sensor dslr's of canon, sony, and nikon, but I am not sure which way to go. Which models would you use for this type of work?(nikon d7100, canon 70d/7dmii, sony?) The 7d mii seems to have the best af but I'm hearing the color rendition is not as good as it's competitors.

 

[goodguy]

Near my home we have a reptile zoo, wonderful little place and I took my D7100 there
Here are the pictures I took there

Reptilia March 2014 - an album on Flickr

So if you want a crop sensor body I think Nikon D7100 will be a very good choice, it has a terific AF system and is good in low light.
I would try to convince you to go for a full frame body as it will be helpful in these lower light situations but it depends of course if you can afford it.
In any case a fast prime lens will be a must, preferably f1.4

 

[The_Traveler]

Rather than my personal opinion, which is of no value in this case, I suggest you ask orionmystery, a member here who does wonderful reptile shots)

A few lizards of Malaysia | Photography Forum

 

[Village Idiot]

Hasselblad HD-50 of course!

 

[goodguy]

Hasselblad HD-50 of course!

Now why didnt I thought of this camera
Why dream of FF if you can dream of Medium format.
Of course OP will have to sell his house to own it but think of the low light performance

 

[Microbois]

If you are not in a hurry, I would wait a little... There's a rumor of an upcoming Nikon D7200 which would be a little better than the D7100. That being said, do you have a budget in mind?

 

[Overread18 6]

Certainly have a talk with Kurt, friendly guy and he really knows his stuff!

I will say though that for what you're after the camera is the least concern. Any DSLR on the current market will do it; of course higher end models will have improved features, but even the entry level can do this.
AF is an iffy thing in so much that a lot of close up work like this is done in manual focus - lizards oft being quite docile at the right times. So you don't need lightning fast super powerful AF nor AF assist lights. What you can work with is manual focusing - though I'd say something like a full bodied lizard is half way between AF and manual focus (which is to say that either would work so use the best in the situation)

Lens is, of course, next up the importance list. I think Kurt is using a 60mm macro; Sigma also make a 70mm and either option would be ideal for close up work indoors where you don't always have all teh need to move back and where subjects are quite relaxed so getting closer isn't a problem. You might also find that for lizards a macro lens is too much power - a regular even a kit lens will do close-up work of subjects lizard-size. Macro lenses can go closer but you just might not need it. Depends if you want full body only or also eyes and scales.



Top of the light though is lighting. It doesn't have to be a huge multi-light setup but the bulk of what you are going to get image quality wise is going to be good control over the lighting. In effect you're doing portraiture but with lizards rather than people. A good controlled lighting setup (which outside might just be one flash off-camera with diffused light) will let you really capture the great shots you want to.


Which all comes back now to defining your situation more clearly. What is your total overall budget and what kind of shots are you going for. The more info you can give the more we can give ideas that will suit your needs. Talking of the 7DMII sounds like you've got a fairly good budget to spend on this; with a value we can start to plan those three core areas of camera, lens and lighting to get a setup that will work.

 

[mikoh4792]

Thanks for the replies.

My budget is around the $1000 mark for the body alone( a few hundred dollars either way won't hurt).

I don't think I want to get into FF just yet, as I know the lenses will also be big $$$ and I'm not planning on going professional. Just want to take nice photos of reptiles like goodguy and orionmystery.

So far the d7100 seems to be my best bet. I was checking out the 70d, and while I don't doubt it's capabilities, it lacks an on-body focus assist light. I don't want the flash popping up just to get a focus in low light.

Are there any people here that would recommend dslr's from sony or pentax?

 

[Overread18 6]

How low light are you thinking on working?

If its really dark chances are the best would be an AF assist beam, that comes on a speedlite flash unit rather than on the camera.

Also as a point, reptiles appear to (from mine and others experiences) have no ill effects from flash. Indeed I've not ever read of any negative effects of the use of flash barring upon creatures which inhabit naturally exceptionally dark conditions and thus have highly sensitive eyes. That's of course assuming a few shots - if you're taking shots for hours of the same subject chances are you might stress it out - also some animals at an individual level will display like or dislike of flash.

 

[mikoh4792]

Also, are there any particular differences with each company I should know about?

How low light are you thinking on working?

If its really dark chances are the best would be an AF assist beam, that comes on a speedlite flash unit rather than on the camera.

Also as a point, reptiles appear to (from mine and others experiences) have no ill effects from flash. Indeed I've not ever read of any negative effects of the use of flash barring upon creatures which inhabit naturally exceptionally dark conditions and thus have highly sensitive eyes. That's of course assuming a few shots - if you're taking shots for hours of the same subject chances are you might stress it out - also some animals at an individual level will display like or dislike of flash.

Not really sure to be exact. Just dim enough where the focus assist will need to be used.

I didn't know about the assist beam on the speedlites. I will look more into those. Are these speedlites(with the assist beam) expensive?

I know the flash shouldn't be harmful, but I'm more worried about the bright light scaring some of them and causing them to move out of their poses.

 

[mikoh4792]

Near my home we have a reptile zoo, wonderful little place and I took my D7100 there
Here are the pictures I took there

Reptilia March 2014 - an album on Flickr

So if you want a crop sensor body I think Nikon D7100 will be a very good choice, it has a terific AF system and is good in low light.
I would try to convince you to go for a full frame body as it will be helpful in these lower light situations but it depends of course if you can afford it.
In any case a fast prime lens will be a must, preferably f1.4

Beautiful photos. Which lens did you use to capture these?

 

[goodguy]

Near my home we have a reptile zoo, wonderful little place and I took my D7100 there
Here are the pictures I took there

Reptilia March 2014 - an album on Flickr

So if you want a crop sensor body I think Nikon D7100 will be a very good choice, it has a terific AF system and is good in low light.
I would try to convince you to go for a full frame body as it will be helpful in these lower light situations but it depends of course if you can afford it.
In any case a fast prime lens will be a must, preferably f1.4

Beautiful photos. Which lens did you use to capture these?

Used my Nikon 24-70mm 2.8G
The problem with these shots is if you go aperture wide open you will get nice clean image but very shallow DOF so its good to have powerful camera in low light so you can close down aperture a bit yet still get these nice clean shot!
Also shooting through the glass is always tricky.

 

[Overread18 6]

Not really sure to be exact. Just dim enough where the focus assist will need to be used.

I didn't know about the assist beam on the speedlites. I will look more into those. Are these speedlites(with the assist beam) expensive?

I know the flash shouldn't be harmful, but I'm more worried about the bright light scaring some of them and causing them to move out of their poses.

In my experiences most lizards don't respond at all to flash. This might vary species to species of course, but most are totally docile and ignore it.

As for the speedlites the Canon 430 EX II has an AF assist beam as does the 580EX II (that is now out of production but is the superior model to the 430 - the 600 now replaced the 580 but the 600 is very pricey - though it has the bonus of a built in radio trigger setup).

A 430 EX 2 or a pair of them would set you well for lighting for this kind of work. The flash if mounted on-camera will have the AF assist beam which will help significantly in very dim lighting, though of course even it has its limitations.

As said above, if the lizards are docile chances are you can focus manually.

 

[mikoh4792]

Used my Nikon 24-70mm 2.8G
The problem with these shots is if you go aperture wide open you will get nice clean image but very shallow DOF so its good to have powerful camera in low light so you can close down aperture a bit yet still get these nice clean shot!
Also shooting through the glass is always tricky.

Would you say the d7100 fits the bill for that?(powerful enough to close down and still get clean shots).

I've heard that the d7100 has "back focusing" issues. Is there any merit to claim? Or would you say those are just minor cases of malfunctioning?

 

[Overread18 6]

"closing down" the aperture is a property of the lens only. Most will close down more than you'll ever need and if you close them down too far the shots will get softer because of diffraction. f13 or f16 are most people limits for crop/35mm cameras (somewhat variable model to model).

Back focusing and forward focusing are things that are a result of miss calibration of the AF system (sometimes overall, others only with specific lenses). Modern cameras do have AF adjustment options that let you change how the camera focuses using auto-focus so that you can fix back/forward focusing issues yourself.