Gear for Bird Photography
This video aims to provide information on the necessary gear for bird photography, regardless of budget, for both beginners and photographers looking to try a new subject. Here is a brief written summary for your convenience:
Decide Your Goal
Deciding on a goal is one of the most daunting parts of getting started with photography, especially for those without prior photography experience.
Figuring out the necessary gear can be overwhelming due to the numerous options available, making it essential to pause and reflect before making any purchases.
Before considering what gear to buy, it's crucial to ask oneself a fundamental question: why do you want to start bird photography?
Why?
The ultimate goal of starting bird photography informs how much one needs to invest, and understanding this goal is crucial in determining the required gear and budget.
Birding itself is free, and while gear can enhance the experience, it is not a requirement, and the same principle applies to bird photography (although you do need at least a camera and a lens.
The goal of bird photography can range from simply keeping track of seen birds to becoming a professional photographer, and this goal determines the type of gear needed.
Gear is just a tool to enhance the experience, and the cost should not outweigh the benefits, similar to how a screwdriver is sufficient for occasional use but a professional carpenter requires better tools.
The answer to this question helps define the minimally acceptable quality level of a photo, which can be categorized into three image quality level buckets: any quality, decently good quality, and high quality.
The three image quality level buckets are: any quality (being able to tell there is a bird in the photo), decently good quality (taking decently sharp photos for personal use or social media), and high quality (taking high-resolution and detailed photos for printing or selling).
Once the desired image quality level is determined, it can be applied to the first bit of photography gear needed, which is the camera.
The Camera
If the goal is to achieve “any quality”, a phone camera may be sufficient, but it has limitations, such as a wide-angle lens and small bird size in photos.
Using a phone for bird photography can be challenging, as it's difficult to sneak up on birds and the camera's wide-angle lens may not be suitable, but it can be done with some effort and creativity, such as using a phone attachment or holding the phone up to a binocular lens.
For those who want decently good quality photos, there are various camera options available, but the number of choices can be overwhelming, especially for new photographers.
When selecting a camera for bird photography, it's essential to consider the camera's resolution, with 12 megapixels or above being a good starting point, as it allows for cropping and finer detail in the image.
Another crucial feature is the camera's ability to take multiple frames per second, with 5-10 frames per second being decent, 10-20 frames per second being good, and 30 or more frames per second being fantastic.
Autofocus is also a vital feature to consider, with continuous focus, multiple autofocus points, 3D tracking, and animal eye detect being desirable, although these features may be harder to find on a budget.
While there are many camera options available, it's essential to prioritize the features that matter most for bird photography, such as resolution, frames per second, and autofocus.
When shopping for a camera for bird photography, it is essential to consider factors such as autofocus, sensor size, memory cards, dynamic range, and ISO for low light, although these topics are too complicated to cover in this summary.
Lenses
When choosing a lens for bird photography, two major characteristics to focus on are focal length and aperture, as they depend on the selected camera and personal preference for image quality.
A larger focal length results in a more zoomed-in image, making the subject appear larger in the frame and the depth of the image more compressed.
For bird photography, a lens with a focal length of at least 300mm is recommended, as it provides enough zoom to capture decent images with good technique.
Zoom lenses (e.g., 70-300mm, 100-400mm, 200-500mm, 150-600mm) offer flexibility and affordability but may not be as sharp as prime lenses with dedicated focal lengths.
Prime lenses, such as the 300mm prime lens, offer benefits like high-quality glass and sharp images, but cannot be zoomed.
Aperture is related to the amount of light that can pass through the lens to the camera's sensor, with wider apertures allowing more light in.
A lens's aperture is represented by an f-stop, usually a number, where a smaller number means the lens can open wider and allow more light into the sensor, with each number representing a full stop that doubles the amount of light entering the sensor.
For decent image quality, a zoom lens with the lowest possible aperture that can be afforded is recommended, but for lower light situations, an aperture no smaller than F 6.3 is suggested.
For professional-quality images, a prime lens with the longest focal length and widest aperture is recommended, but be aware that increasing focal length and widening aperture can significantly increase the price.