Good Nature Photography Equipment
CAN Improve your Nature Pictures

Some professional photographers tend to hammer on the point that the nature photography equipment used does not create a good picture, but the photographer does. I agree to some extent, but I believe high quality equipment enables you to create professional quality pictures. This is very important if you hope to have your pictures published some day.

Therefore, it is important to get the best equipment possible considering your budget constraints, and this can involve quite difficult decisions. The market is flooded with acceptable quality photography equipment.

Nature Photography Equipment articles:

Choosing a brand

In this section, I discuss a good nature photography equipment setup, including some personal recommendations. These recommendations are (obviously) biased. I like Canon and have a good Canon setup. However, I consider the quality of Nikon or Sigma products to be close enough to Canon that I will also be able to get along with equipment from one of these brands. I will think long and hard before going somewhere else.

A good lens lineup? This is the most important thing to consider when choosing a brand. Canon wins hands down here. Another yardstick I suggest you consider when choosing a brand is the availability of an affordable but decent digital SLR camera body. We will get to this shortly...

My (latest) favourite lens - the Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM

Digital vs. Film

Quite a number of the old school professional photographers still believe in film. And why would they not? Film is what they used to make a name for themselves. Film is the format their whole photo collection is in. It will be really tough to convince these guys to switch, but it is inevitable. Some are already seeing the light...

I have operated only with a digital camera since September 2002.

Two of my friends, both professional photographers switched their whole nature photography equipment setup to the digital format in the past year. Another of my friends taking photos for a living forked out close to 30,000 South African Rands ($3,000 at the time) for a Canon EOS D30 some time ago. These guys know what they are doing. This, together with all the scientific comparison studies available on the net, proves to me that digital is finally as good as, if not better than film.

No! Stop! Let me rephrase... Some 35mm digital SLR camera bodies compare well with their film counterparts. You are unfortunately not going to beat the quality of slide film in a decent film body with a professional standard lens, with your 3.2 megapixel Sony Cybershot.

So which digital cameras produce better pictures than film? I discuss this in detail on the Digital Camera Comparison page, but will mention here that the professional photographers I know only work with digital SLRs and then mostly only with Canon EOS 10D (now discontinued) or the Canon EOS 20D. There are slight disadvantages to the entry level bodies like the EOS Digital Rebel series. I discuss these further on the Digital Camera Comparison page.

Does this mean that film is a total no-no? Not at all. I would not spend money on any NEW film equipment now. Mainly because the shift toward digital is inevitable, but it might also be hard to sell second hand equipment in a year or two. However, if you have a decent film SLR with the necessary lenses and you are not ready to upgrade to digital, you will still be able to compete with the best. I think Richard du Toit might also still be using film :-)

I think that digital SLR cameras (both those aimed at consumers and pro’s) have become a lot more affordable in recent times. So, consider getting one of these rather than a slightly cheaper film SLR when you buy your next camera.

I split my discussion on nature photography equipment under the following headings: