Digital Wildlife Photography


Left Image:
Canon EOS D30, Tokina ATX  300mm f-4, Bogen tripod and ball head
multi-patter metering,  1/60 sec at f5.6,  Aperture priority and autofocus

More and more photographers are switching to digital photography. There are two ways to enter digital photography. One is by switching to digital SLRs or continue shooting film and then scanning the negative, transparencies, or the prints. Wildlife photography with digital cameras has several advantages and disadvantages. As of this writing (September 2001) Nikon and Canon offer digital cameras that accept lenses and accessories you might already own. Contax and Pentax will soon introduce their own versions. No word from Minolta so far for a digital model that will accept Maxxum lenses and accessories, but this might change in the near future.

Wildlife photographers will get increased magnifications of between 1.3x to 1.6X with their telephoto and other lenses. Digital cameras have sensors smaller than 35mm frames which results in higher magnifications. A 300mm lens becomes 480mm, 500mm becomes 800mm, and 800mm lens becomes 1280mm lens. If you work with zooms, you get lots of magnifications in one lens. A 100-400mm zoom becomes 160-600mm. Your 80-200mm becomes 128-320mm. Best of all, maximum aperture does not change. Take the 300mm f-2.8 lens for example, on a digital camera it becomes 480mm f-2.8. That is one awesome fast telephoto. Try the 80-200mm f-2.8 and you get 128mm-320mm f-2.8 fast telephoto zoom for covering mammals and larger birds. If you own teleconverters, you can instantly increase magnifications even more. Add a 1.4X teleconverter to 600mm f-4 lens and you end up with a 1344mm f-4 lens! Avoid longer focal lengths unless you really need the extra reach. At high magnifications it is very difficult to hold the camera and lens steady for sharp images. It is fun to experiment and play around with your lenses. For serious work, choose the right focal length and change lenses as you need.

Digital cameras give immediate results. You can quickly view the image on an LCD monitor on the back of the camera. Keep the images you like and delete the bad ones. You can check composition, sharpness, and exposure instantly. If you own and carry a laptop computer, you can download your images and edit them on location. You can also e-mail your images to clients. Memory cards store images which can be off-loaded to a laptop or Digital Wallet. Large capacity cards allow continuous shooting at high resolutions. You get more shots with high capacity memory cards than traditional films. You no longer have to wait to replace films or switch to faster ISO films in low light. Digital cameras let you change speed from image to image. You can set the camera to ISO equivalent of 100 for normal shooting and increase sensitivity to ISO 200 or 400 to gain more speed. Noise will be noticed at higher speeds which look similar to grain found on faster films. However, the ability to shoot at different speeds without having to reload film is a major plus

Right Image: Canon EOS D60, Tokina ATX 300mm f-4, 1/500 sec at f-4, Bogen monopod

There are some draw backs to digital cameras for wildlife photography. In order to produce quality results, large files are required. You need high capacity memory cards to store images and either a laptop computer or Digital Wallet to off-load your shots. High capacity cards are expensive and you probably need more than one. Continuous high speed shooting is another problem. You won't have the luxury of eight frames or even five frames per second shooting unless you use a top expensive pro model. Although it is possible to shoot several shots per second, camera needs to pause before you can fire more shots. Improvements are being made to correct this by Nikon and other manufacturers. Autofocus is not as fast with digital cameras as traditional film cameras. Current autofocus cameras are much faster and perform better for fast moving wildlife. The real draw back to digital SLRs are the price. Currently we are looking at $3000 to $5000 price range. If you have the money and need a digital SLR, then by all means purchase the camera. Otherwise buy a quality film scanner and take advantage of your current system and investment. You don't have to own a digital camera to photograph wildlife. I know this seems obvious but there are those who believe digital age requires them to invest in expensive digital SLRs and perhaps newer lenses and accessories. You don't have to abandon your current system. A quality film scanner can be bought for around five hundred dollars. You can scan your films and have digital images in minutes. Quality is excellent. Current ISO 200 films are so good and scan so well that you can shoot under any light even with telephoto zooms with maximum aperture of f-5.6. In the past an f-2.8 telephoto and slow films were required in order to record sharp fine grain images on film for making large prints or for publications. 35mm cameras can now be loaded with ISO 200 or even 400 films to photograph wildlife that can be scanned and enlarged with excellent results.


Top Image: 500mm F4.5 EX DG/HSM telephoto lens optimized for digital SLR cameras

Whether you use digital SLRs or traditional film cameras with scanners, approaching and photographing wildlife is still the same as before. Stay at a safe distance for your own as well as the animal's protection. Use the best photographic technique. That means paying close attention to exposure, light, composition, and using a solid support. Think how you will be using the image in your computer. There are so much more that can be done with each and every shot you take. Image editors are fantastic tools for improving your photography. As always, respect and care for what you love to photograph.

 

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