Which Lens?

Again a tough choice, most cameras will come with a standard lens, usually up to 70mm. This size lens is ideal for landscape shots or for taking photo’s such as portraits where you can get close to the subject.

 If however you’re like us and are interested in Wildlife and therefore it’s not always possible to get up close to your subject a longer zoom lens is required, a length of around 300mm is ideal and should suit most needs. Lenses above 300mm start to become very expensive.

Which Camera/Lens do we use?

We’ve used a number of different of SLR camera, both 35mm and Digital. Our current camera of choice is the Olympus E-520 and we mainly use the Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens.

Although this camera is still at the relatively entry level end of the market, it produces some fantastic results, more so than many more expensive camera’s. We have previously used a number of Canon Camera’s and have found the Olympus to perform much better – quicker and producing a much more natural colour in the photo’s.

The E520 also has IS (image stabilisation) built into the camera and this can be applied to any lens you use to help combat camera shake, especially when shooting using a long zoom length. To use this facility on many other brands of camera you have to by a Lens that has IS as it does not usually come built into the cameras.

Should I just choose the Camera with the most Megapixel’s?

In a word – NO! One of the biggest myths when it comes to cameras is that a camera with higher MP’s (Megapixels) is automatically better than one with a lower count.

Most DSLR’s now have at least a min. of 10MP, so unless you’re wanting to make a print to fit your living room wall, there is no benefit in going bigger (unless of course it’s at no extra cost). What is important when it comes to a camera is the sharpness of your pictures and the technical ability and performance of your camera. I will be creating a section to explain this in more detail shortly.