Fun with food

Camera Buying Guidelines

At some point, you’ll be upgrading to a new camera. Even though the number of camera companies has dwindled (anybody still remember camera companies named Minolta, Topcon, Ricoh, Praktica, Asahi Pentax, Rollei, Kowa, or Voightlander?), the number of camera models is large. It can be a confusing experience to make a decision. Even if you’re committed to a particular manufacturer because of your investment in their lenses, it’s challenging to know what to get.

I’m not going to recommend a particular camera, but I want to go over a number of features that you should be looking at in making a decision. Depending on what you shoot and what you’ll be doing with the pictures, these guidelines should be helpful to you in narrowing down the choices.

1. Megapixel count. Most good cameras now offer between 21 and 24 megapixels. This is fine for most people and for most applications. You can make superb prints, you can sell the images, and of course this kind of resolution is more than what’s needed to post images in social media, email photographs, and enter contests.

I recently bought the Canon R5, and one reason

is because it has 45 megapixels. The high megapixel count is particularly useful if you need to crop an image. For example, birds are often a little further away than we’d like and they appear small in the frame. With many megapixels in the image, you can crop the picture so the bird fills a significant part of the frame. I did this with the green jay on the previous page, and the subject remains sharp. A 45 megapixel image opens to 128 megs in Photoshop, and when this is cropped even 50%, the resolution of the photograph is still very impressive.

2. Frame rate. If you only shoot landscapes, still lifes, and architecture, a fast frame rate is irrelevant. However, for action photography where important elements like galloping legs or fluttering wings change shape every centisecond, the faster the frame rate, the better. years ago when I led my first photo tour to the Pantanal region of Brazil, I was shooting with the Canon 5D Mark III. Its fastest frame rate was six frames per second. A client of mine in the group had the Canon 1Dx -- the first model in that line -- which had a frame rate of 12 fps. When I looked at his images of king fishers diving for fish, he had twice as many frames as I did of the sequence and, as a result, he was able to capture many more excellent images compared to what I was able to get. On my next trip to the Pantanal, I’d purchased the Canon 1Dx Mark II. This camera could shoot at 14 fps, and remarkably, I was able to capture all the nuances of the wing positions and the splashing of the water as the birds dove for fish. The picture on the next page shows the full wing extension during such an action sequence.

I know this from first hand experience. Several 3. Autofocus speed and accuracy. It is amus-

ing to look at the history of autofocus in light of modern cameras. Leica was the camera manufacturer that first invented autofocus in 1960 but, at the time, they didn’t see its value! The first mass produced autofocus camera was the Konica C35 AF point-and-shoot camera in 1977. Since then, autofocus is now considered essential, and with technological advances never dreamed of in the 1970’s it has evolved into a state-of-the-art tool.

The latest innovation is an AF system that can lock onto the eye of a bird or animal and hold focus on it as it moves through the frame or as you pan with the subject. I tested this during my photo tour last month of the Mystical Swamps of Louisiana. Just after sunset, my group and I were in a boat heading back to the dock. We were moving slowly, then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an egret flying by. My camera was in my lap, and I quickly aimed it at the bird, pressed the button I’d assigned to eye-focus, and captured a sequence of flight shots at 12 fps. The camera’s AF system instantly locked onto the bird and gave me 5 sharp frames. Even in the dim light of dusk, the eye-focus technology enabled me to get useful shots that, to be honest, would have been impossible with the much more expen-

PANTANAL PHOTO TOUR

Nov. 8 - 15, 2022

Jaguars in the wild Exotic birds in flight Caiman Giant river otters

In considering a new camera, read reviews about the autofocus system. Ascertain if it is fast enough for your kind of photography.

4. Two card slots. Most of the newer cameras have two card slots. This is important because it gives you the ability to backup your images as you shoot. Of course, you can always opt to double the number of frames you’ll be able to shoot, but SD and flash cards are large enough now to store hundreds and hundreds of hi res files. When a card gets filled up, it’s a simple matter to change cards and continue shooting. Instead of doubling your shooting capacity, I feel the better option is to backup your images in case one of the cards fails.

5. Weight and size. As we get older, the amount of weight we’re willing and able to carry gets less. I used to carry 45 pounds of gear on my back as I traveled all over the world. I’d basically bring everything . . . just in case. I can’t do that now, and I’ve thus opted for the Canon R5 which is a mirrorless camera. It is about half the weight of my 1Dx Mark II, and that’s a big deal. Lower back problems and heavy camera equipment don’t go well together.

In considering a new camera (and lenses as well), study the specifications. Lighter equipment makes photography more enjoyable. I recently traded my Canon 100-400mm telephoto for their new 100-500mm lens and ,even though I have more reach with the new addition, it is .61 pounds lighter. That makes it easier to hold over a long period of time and easier to carry. When I was younger, a few ex-

tra pounds here and there didn’t matter. Now it does.

6. Image stabilzation. There are many places where the amount of light you have to work with is low and yet no tripods are allowed. The beautiful cathedral in Sienna, Italy, shown on the previous page is an example. To prevent using a high ISO, image stabilization is a life saver in allowing you to use a slow shutter speed and still end up with a sharp picture.

Some camera systems, like Sony and Canon, now feature IBIS -- in body image stabilization. Not only do their higher end cameras feature stabilization in the bodies, but in the lenses as well. The two communicate with each other and offer up to 8 stops of stabilization. This is revolutionary in the photographic industry.

In choosing a new camera, I would definitely buy one with IBIS. It takes all the stress and frustration out of situations where tripods are prohibited

7. Custom functions. Most dSLRs and mirrorless cameras give you the option of setting up three custom functions, designated as C1, C2, and C3. You can use these functions to save camera settings for landscapes versus birds in flight, for example, or 5-frame HDR sequences versus 7-frame HDR shots. This can save a lot of time from messing around with menus and buttons when it’s so easy to forget what various commands do.

In my camera, I have the custom functions set to 5-frame HDR, 7-frame HDR, and birds in flight. The image below that I took in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is a 5-frame HDR.

There are many other features to consider when buying a camera, but to me these are the most important. §