What is the best digital camera (mid-high range) for taking wildlife photos?

Question

Hi, I am looking for a digital camera to take clear, close up photos of birds and animals along the river bank. I am prepared to spend money to get a really good camera, but am new to digital so all advise greatly appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

I bought a digital camera last March (my first digital camera)........ and the one thing I've learned so far is that Digital compact cameras are bloody useless for photographing birds & animals, as by the time it has switched on + you've got it in focus, the creature you were intending to photograph has cleared off out of sight.

You don't necessarily have to go to the expensive of a Digital SLR either, as there's a type of digital camera that sits between compacts + SLR's referred to by the manufacturers as either a "Super Zoom" or an "Ultra Zoom".

The 3 best ones currently available are all made by Fuji (one of the top 3 or 4 manufacturers of Professional level Digital SLR cameras) + also one by Olympus, which isn't too bad either. Here they are:

Fuji Finepix S5200 / S5600 - £123.09
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wormdanglecou-21/detail/B000B69IDI/203-9338484-3266364
Review + Sample Pics (Earlier version / USA version):
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/fuji_s5200.html

Fuji Finepix S6500fd - £198.57
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wormdanglecou-21/detail/B000IHYS2Q/203-9338484-3266364
Review + sample pics (USA model name = S6000fd)
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/fuji_s6000fd.html

Fuji Finepix S9000 / S9500 / S9600 - £253
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wormdanglecou-21/detail/B000INUDMY/203-9338484-3266364
Review (Earlier / USA version)
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/s9000.html

Olympus SP-510uz - £150
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wormdanglecou-21/detail/B000HDXH28/203-9338484-3266364
Review + Sample pics
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/sp510.html

The Fuji Cameras are probably the best bet, as they have manual focus lenses. You'll also need to buy a bigger memorycard (all digital cameras come supplied with a little 16mb card that holds hardly anything) + a set of High capacity rechargable AA batteries, as digital cameras eat disposable batteries pretty quickly.
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wormdanglecou-21/203-9338484-3266364?_encoding=UTF8&node=11
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wormdanglecou-21/203-9338484-3266364?_encoding=UTF8&node=12
http://www.steves-digicams.com/nimh_batteries.html
If you want to stretch to a Digital SLR camera, then I'd suggest the Nikon D40 @ £354
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000N7F014/ref=nosim/203-9338484-3266364?tag=wormdanglecou-21&linkCode=sb1&camp=2378&creative=8430
Review:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/nikon_d40.html

If you want to go totally nuts, one of the best Digital SLR cameras out there is the Nikon D200, which costs about £900, but you've got to buy the lens seperately
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000CDG4UK/ref=nosim/203-9338484-3266364?tag=wormdanglecou-21&linkCode=sb1&camp=2378&creative=8430
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/d200.html

Answer 2

Buy a DSLR, Canon or Nikon are the best, the camera's not important, the lens is the main factor to good pictures. Only snag is that for wildlife you really need a 400mm or greater lens and Canons Lenses at that level go from around £850 for a fixed 400mm lens at f5.6 to £1100 for a 100-400mm right up to circa £4000 for a 400mm lens at f2.8 at anything higher the prices get really stupid, but the difference between the L series lenses and the normal stuff is so big it'll make your head spin.

Answer 3

Unless you want to pay really silly money, go for a high-end compact which offers a 12x zoom. You can pick up a good one for £300 and the suggestion of a Sony is sensible. This will give you a focal length of about 436mm and if you add another £100 for a telephoto converter, you will get a focal length equivalent of 782mm. To get this kind of length with a DSLR would cost a small fortune on top of a camera that will cost at least £500.

Answer 4

Nikons are good, but a decent one is 3 thousand quid.

Sony is good, so are cannons, and fuji,,,

however, an Olympus e500 runs rings around all of them.. its start time is faster, its meter is better, the manual over-rides go from 20 minutes to 8000th of a sec, F2.1 to F22, (same on auto) and i can plug any old flash head into the socket and get TTL metering... and 3 FPS till the cards full, (4gigs CF ebay 23 quid (toshiba 10yr guarantee)

and it does RAW... and Jpeg options.. plus the usual host of extras... one thing it can do with the manual focus is see in the dark... focussing in low light is easy and accurate without resorting to the assist lamp, or IR giving you away.

had it a year, put over 8000 images thru it, without any problems whatsoever... and you can buy one new for under 500 quid... ive seen English shops selling them on ebay for 350... cant hurt to look...

oh, comes with 2 lenses 17.5- 55(35 to110) and 45-150 (90 to 300) and it produces 8mp...

oh yes, and it only takes photographs... theres no video option... which is great...

Answer 5

A great combination would be the Nikon D80 and the Nikon 18-200 VR lens. Along with a 2 GB Sandisk Ultra II SD memory card, this will set you back $1,725 (plus or minus), but it is a great set-up. If you want the killer lens and have money to burn, get the Nikon Zoom Telephoto AF VR Zoom Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED Autofocus Lens (Vibration Reduction) for $1,430 instead of the $750 18-200, which is unavailable anyhow. This would raise your price to $2,405, but my God, you would have some beautiful pictures!

I am going for this mid-to-high end set-up since you said you are "new to digital" in a tone that makes me think you have previous 35 mm film experience.

Answer 6

I have recently bought a Leica V lux 1. It cost £490.00 including a £100.00 discount for any camera swopped. I can honestly say that it takes FANTASTIC photos of everything. I took some really good pics of the recent moon eclipse. It zooms from 35mm to 420mm (about 12 x) optically. I have a range of cameras including Canons and Olympus and the Leica Vlux is the tops!.

Answer 7

hi, i own a kodak p712, i did not realise just how good this camera is until ibought it has a 36mm-432 zoom on it, but the lense length is only about 1.75 ins long when retracted,, ideal for what you want. it has a ton of extras but if you buy it simply put it onto fully auto and the results will amaze you, and with a little time you can get used to the rest of the features, on line i got this delivered and all for 254.00. go to store and check out the zoom and ease of use it ill kill you, a brill camera for the money! happy snapping, johnboy!

Answer 8

If you are an experienced photographer accustomed to using film SLR's, and apparently can afford to pay the money, definitely go for a DSLR. Dr. Sam's suggestions on this are perfect so I won't add to it.

If, however, your experience is not with film SLR's, but you enjoy taking birds and animals, let me suggest the Canon Powershot S3 IS. It has a 12x zoom, negligible shutter lag, and image stabilization. Also makes a good backup camera for those who use DSLR.

Answer 9

For wildlife, long focal length and continuous shooting are the order of the day. If you are prepared to spend the money the fastest shooting DSLR is Canon's 1D Mark IIn. 8.5 frames per second comes with a $3,999 price tag! Then a good telephoto lens will cost about $2,000 for an L series lens, in the 300mm focal range, with an Image stablizer.

Answer 10

A friend of mine said that many digital cameras have a short, but noticable, delay. Check for that when buying a camera, because animals won't hold still while your camera tries to focus!
Check out dpreview.com . You can compare hundreds of cameras side by side. I am checking out the Minolta 7D now, myself.
Good luck!