hi! am kinda a newbie to cameras(have an older sony cybershot) and was trying to find classes in wild life photography for Colorado! I am an avid hike/backpacker/hunter and artist at hand and wanted to try shooting game in Colorado the professional way! I am looking to take a course/classes in wildlife and then purchase pro-equipment to shoot! any suggestions would be awesome! thanks!
looking to shoot wildlife
- Thread starter wildmann
- Start date
The D7000-7200 cameras and the Sigma & Tamron 150-600 lenses are a good option. If budget wasn't a concern and you didn't mind the weight one could go all the way up to the D4 with a 600 f/4 lens. Options can be expensive. As a hunter and wildlife enthusiast i really enjoy the first option.
Pro equipment? I'd look at the kind of distances you're thinking of shooting at, and take my considerations about bodies and lenses from there. If its large game at reasonable distances with a large prime lens (say 400-500mm+) then a D4 or D810 may be a consideration. If its birds at a distance, and you crop deep, the D4 would be a poor option, the D7100/7200 would be the much better choice.
Stoshowicz
Senior Member
I have the 7100, which is hampered by a slow buffer but otherwise gives great reach,( youd be better off with a 7200) the tamzooka , is also really a fine lens , especially for the price , I would love to put a 2x tele on it -though the 5.6 max aperture is not conducive. So though Im agreeing with cbay 's suggestion... I will say that if you like to hike a lot , and that's a primary enthusiasm for you, you may not want to lug the bigger gear around. Some of the bridge cameras give you lightweight and great reach that you want for wildlife, at a more agreeable price. That p610 might be a serious contender. Though you may not feel I am not answering your desire to shoot with more professionally geared .. gear I see Sony cybershot has one thing which is a 20MP 50X setup so as far as worthwhile upgrade goes ,, youd have to be more specific what model you already have ( that being said , I really like this set up I have) .. . so thats my 2cents.
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I might suggest that the OP start out with something like the P610 or the P900 for the added reach. If @mikew's pictures can't convince someone to check it out for long distance wildlife shots, I don't know what would. That camera is a hell of a performer with a CRAZY reach on it for the price. His pix have me looking at jumping in to the P900 already (darn you Mike, money doesn't grow on trees! 
).
).I might suggest that the OP start out with something like the P610 or the P900 for the added reach. If @mikew's pictures can't convince someone to check it out for long distance wildlife shots, I don't know what would. That camera is a hell of a performer with a CRAZY reach on it for the price. His pix have me looking at jumping in to the P900 already (darn you Mike, money doesn't grow on trees!
I wouldn't say reach is its best aspect,its handy if you have nothing else but i would still look at it as a cropped 258mm,the reach is good for a bridge camera.
You've done some awesome work with that camera! I'd like to see a P900 in your hands....
I don't know what to call this other than "ridiculous friggin' zoom".... lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWD6hnik5ZY
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Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Buying equipment will be the easy part, the more difficult part will be learning how to put it to good use. You don't mention what city in Colorado you're in but a good place to start looking for classes is a website called MeetUp (dot) com. Put your location and what you're interested in doing into the search bar and the site finds local groups of people with similar interests.
Just as an example here are the results I got when I put in Boulder, CO and "Photography". A lot of the time local photographic societies and clubs will use MeetUp to schedule formal workshops. It's a great way to find photographic resources and contacts in your immediate area.
Thanks the P900 is on my list but i need to get the 300 and converter next
Stoshowicz
Senior Member
A friend of mine is considering a bridge camera, could you do just one simple test and show 'Secretary of the treasury' clearly readable on a bill 200% crop at some known distance maybe 60 feet?. So I can match and compare, Since the many images you can find are not standardized or are presented at various scales which obscure what the camera can actually do. For example, I saw one pic from the p900 of the statue of liberty ,,,,
A ) its a huge thing , B) theres no texture to speak of and C ) I have no idea how far away it was. D) nor do I know how many attempts were made to get the pic.
Have a look at this sample gallery, some good real world shots in there. Link is to a wildlife shot @ max 2000mm zoom.
Dan-00_ISO-200_2000mm: dpreview review samples: Galleries: Digital Photography Review
Looks to resolve really nice detail @ 1600mm.... http://g3.img-dpreview.com/E82F82EDC4594077AF29AC14B0CE5B8F.jpg
Dan-00_ISO-200_2000mm: dpreview review samples: Galleries: Digital Photography Review
Looks to resolve really nice detail @ 1600mm.... http://g3.img-dpreview.com/E82F82EDC4594077AF29AC14B0CE5B8F.jpg
I could but at 200% it would look like it was knitted in wool
i have said all along you could maybe lose 30% of the original file but thats about all,they are not designed for cropping.Stoshowicz
Senior Member
Yes I know the cameras can do a nice job, I want to match and compare the photo ,which is why I specified. Frankly some of those pix I do not trust, the mallard in particular. I do not believe you get noiseless images at ISO 1600 with the d900 or the d610 either . Is it really such a difficult task to put a dollar bill against something walk a few paces and take a pic of it to post up ? I trust mikew, think he would do a fine job , and I dont know those other folks at all. But if mike showed me my suspicions were invalid , I'd believe it. I dont have that camera or a stationary bobcat. There are plenty of manipulations which one can do which alter an image , like upsizing downsizing etc I want to know what it starts out as.
I think they are only noiseless because they have NR cranked way up in those couple of shots. If you look at the full size images, they are completely devoid of any fine detail and rather muddy which would be indicative of high noise reduction.
I'd like to see Mike's results as well!
I'd like to see Mike's results as well!
We have crap weather at the moment and ime waiting for a call to collect motherinlaw from the hospital, will come back to you with something when i have had chance and some decent light but you cant get 100% crop from them let alone 200%,i have said before mine is not the billed 1400mm its a pre cropped 258mm image,suitable for a decent size image of a smallish subject close to you.
Stoshowicz
Senior Member
Thanks, , when you get the time , are out and about shooting and its no headache. Ill look forward to seeing this, I know when I got my canon Sx , that I was all impressed by the magnification ,It helps cure a host of ills as long as the sensor is up to snuff. I can ID a bird heck ! a quarter mile off sometimes! but in the application, to get pictures of nice smoothness and feather detail ,,that was another thing altogether. I had to sacrifice the raw files for the full zoom , I had much more chromatic aberration and the dynamic range dropped a lot. The keyhole viewfinder and the electronic lag really is difficult for birds in flight or even just jumping around in bushes. I think you have to be even more savvy to shoot well with the bridge cameras , but they are less heavy, less bulky, less expensive ,apply over a broader range of magnifications ,have greater depth of field, heck I think the d900 even has wifi, and shoots more frames in that first second than my 7100. But but but , with the 7100 plus tamzooka, I can zoom to 600mm without losing anything , It is not visibly softer IMO , then with the crop sensor Im up to 900mm 'equivalent' and I can crop in down to about a third of that.
Comparing the ISO performance of sensors of strongly differing sizes and efficiencies, is not an equal comparison. The arrays fill sooner on the smaller sensor and one applies less ISO amplification , for a given amount of incoming light , (which would be a good thing , except the obscuring visibility of noise goes up and the dynamic range goes down).
One has to compare pics between bridge cameras vs DX or FX cameras on a much broader basis which encompasses all the compensations and adjustments of actual use. Hence,, I created that 'one dollar challenge'
Thanks, , when you get the time , are out and about shooting and its no headache. Ill look forward to seeing this, I know when I got my canon Sx , that I was all impressed by the magnification ,It helps cure a host of ills as long as the sensor is up to snuff. I can ID a bird heck ! a quarter mile off sometimes! but in the application, to get pictures of nice smoothness and feather detail ,,that was another thing altogether. I had to sacrifice the raw files for the full zoom , I had much more chromatic aberration and the dynamic range dropped a lot. The keyhole viewfinder and the electronic lag really is difficult for birds in flight or even just jumping around in bushes. I think you have to be even more savvy to shoot well with the bridge cameras , but they are less heavy, less bulky, less expensive ,apply over a broader range of magnifications ,have greater depth of field, heck I think the d900 even has wifi, and shoots more frames in that first second than my 7100. But but but , with the 7100 plus tamzooka, I can zoom to 600mm without losing anything , It is not visibly softer IMO , then with the crop sensor Im up to 900mm 'equivalent' and I can crop in down to about a third of that.
Comparing the ISO performance of sensors of strongly differing sizes and efficiencies, is not an equal comparison. The arrays fill sooner on the smaller sensor and one applies less ISO amplification , for a given amount of incoming light , (which would be a good thing , except the obscuring visibility of noise goes up and the dynamic range goes down).
One has to compare pics between bridge cameras vs DX or FX cameras on a much broader basis which encompasses all the compensations and adjustments of actual use. Hence,, I created that 'one dollar challenge'
I cant do a 1 dollar test as ime from the uk and we have proper money
but will think of something,you need a use for a bridge camera and with me its not the obvious,if i go to the 300 and converter some things will be to large or to close or both,I dont want to be changing lenses as thats the best way to miss a wildlife shot,the bridge camera will be a short close focus telephoto or a wide angle what ever i need.At the moment i haven't had a telephoto for DX just got the sigma 120-400 on loan,this means i have been using the bridge camera for my birding,it certainly makes you improve your field craft and as you say the pictures dont tell any one how close i was this why i keep saying its not a 1400mm its a pre cropped 258mm.