By now, you’ve got a good feel for the needs of the nature photographer you’re buying a camera for, and you’ve had a chance to look in your wallet (or purse) to see what’s realistic. You’re bound to run into a lot of different opinions, ideas and “sales-speak.” Here are some things to think about while you’re looking for the perfect camera.
More megapixels don’t necessarily mean a better camera.
Megapixels affect picture size, not image quality. It would take several paragraphs to adequately explain why, and even then the information would probably make your eyes glaze over. So, boiled down to a basic concept, a 10-megapixel camera will take a high quality nature photo that can easily be printed at 13 by 17 inches, provided that every other factor (lighting, focus, steadiness, etc.) is also accounted for.
So if your prospective nature photographer is going to be taking photos for printing at 8 by 10 inches, or 13 by 17 inches, then 10 megapixels should work nicely. If they’re going to be shooting poster-quality nature photos, you’ll want to search for a professional grade camera with 14 megapixels or more. That’s really all you need to know. If a salesperson tells you anything different, run.
More megapixels don’t necessarily mean a more expensive camera.
You can spend less than $150 on a quality 12.1-megapixel point-and-shoot camera, or you can spend $400 or more. The extra money will be for the bells and whistles.
“Image stabilization” is one of those important bells and whistles.
There are three primary factors that influence camera blur:
- Shooting in low-light conditions, necessitating a slower shutter speed that will allow more light to come in.
- Shooting with a long zoom lens, which also requires a slower shutter speed.
- Shooting when you’ve had a little too much caffeine.
Virtually every top quality camera offers some sort of image stabilization technology, which is particularly important for nature photography. That means it utilizes either software or hardware inside the camera to help mitigate the factors that cause blur. It doesn’t mean you’ll never have a blurry photo (stuff happens), but it does allow more room for error.
The most desirable type of image stabilization is “optical,” or OIS, which utilizes hardware to minimize camera shake. Usually, it’s a sensor inside the camera that measures any movement by the photographer while the photo is being shot, and tells the camera what to do in order to compensate.
The alternative is “digital image stabilization, which refers to software built into the camera that tries to minimize the blur after the photo is taken, rather than while it’s being taken. This isn’t a lot different than what you can do with image-editing software, and it’s vastly inferior to optical stabilization. Fortunately, digital image stabilization is becoming increasingly rare in today’s digital cameras.
Different manufacturers have different names for their stabilization technology, and not all stabilization technology is created equal. Regardless of the name, just remember optical vs. digital. Optical … good. Digital … not good. And if you don’t get the answer you want, or get some salesperson’s tap dance about why it doesn’t matter, then it’s time to move along.
