Bird photography is arguably the most demanding genre. The quality of the equipment, the photographer’s photography skills, and their ability to create stories surpass any other genre. Here’s what I discovered about cameras, lenses, and bird photography.
I’ve always wanted to learn more about bird photography. About six months ago, I spent a lot of money on a top quality long lens. I find it helps me get photos that I previously thought were impossible. Combining it with the new camera I got before its official launch in April, my bird photography has been revolutionized.
With all other genres, the photographer has greater control over the photo than with bird photography. Studio photography is often completely staged. Sports photographers know where the starting and finishing points or the target mouth is. Landscape photographers can plan where to stand at what time. Not so with birds.
Although some behavior is predictable, there is no direction for a wild bird. You can’t insist that it perch on a particular branch or dive for food right in front of you at a certain time. It will not turn its head as requested, so the reflected light will be in its eyes. Furthermore, birds can go from being in the dark to flying against backlight in less than a second. Most birds are small, often moving quickly and randomly to avoid predators.
I’m not saying that shooting landscapes or studio portraits doesn’t require a high level of proficiency, and I certainly wouldn’t pursue any other genre. However, a bird photographer must learn to predict a bird’s behavior, have the right equipment for its speed and size, shoot without disturbing the subject, and be patient. Wait for the action to happen. Furthermore, they still need creativity to take attractive photos.
Buy the right equipment
I’ve wanted a lens suitable for wildlife for a long time, especially for bird photography. But I’m wondering what I’ll get. I always only buy things that I can afford, and at the same time, the best things that my budget can manage. Some sad personal circumstances resulted in me receiving a modest inheritance last year. That means I can buy a lens that I previously considered unfeasible.
Most camera brands produce high-quality telephoto zoom lenses. I bought one that works with the system I use. I chose it for many reasons, but mainly because of its outstanding performance. I find it’s beyond many photographers’ budgets. However, some features are worth looking for on the lenses you buy to match your camera.
It’s not all about reach
Good quality telephoto lenses are essential for good quality wildlife photography. It’s not just about reach, but also the lens’s ability to get the sensor fully into the bird. Most importantly, the lens must also capture enough light to achieve a fast shutter speed. Plus, it needs sharpness to show fine details.
Yes, the popular 75mm – 300mm f/4-f/5.6 lenses are much more affordable, but they are also slow to focus and have poorer image quality than you’ll find with lenses that cost a bit more. little. Many years ago, when using a system other than the one I was using, I owned such a lens. It cannot be used beyond 200mm because it is too soft. I swapped it out for a 50-200mm f/2.8 professional lens and even though it was shorter I had much better success and the images were very clear.
My new lenses has a constant fast f/4.5 aperture over the 150-400mm focal range. This is a clever technique because as the focal length of the lens increases, the aperture size becomes correspondingly smaller. Typically, the F number increases because the focal length is divided by the aperture. Therefore, one often has to compensate by reducing the shutter speed, thereby potentially blurring the motion, or increasing the ISO, which will result in more noise in most cases. With constant aperture, this is not necessary.
Reach still matters
Although secondary to light-gathering ability, lens reach is important. Although I got good results with the 50-200mm f/2.8, it was too short. The ability to zoom to 400mm gives me a much wider range, especially my Micro Four Thirds camera gives me more effective reach than if I mounted a similar device on a 35mm sensor camera. Importantly, having a wider reach means the photographer is less likely to disturb the subject and the welfare of the creature is of utmost importance.
My lens also has a built-in teleconverter that multiplies the focal length by 1.25, giving a maximum focal range of 500mm. While I’m not a fan of such comparisons, on my camera, that’s the equivalent focal length of a 1000mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera. It should be noted that the teleconverter does reduce the f-number of the lens. By activating the switch, the lens adds an additional stop. Furthermore, installing an additional 2x remote switch, e.g OM MC-20 system, for a huge reach of 1000mm. That’s 2000mm, equivalent to a 35mm camera.
I’ve found that having a lens with much more reach than most people have with a 35mm full-frame camera with an equivalent lens offers distinct advantages when photographing birds. . With this lens, a meter-long subject would need to be 23 meters away to fill the frame horizontally, and the depth of field would be 0.44 meters. With a 35mm full-frame camera with a 400mm lens, the subject at the same distance will be approximately half the size of the frame and the photo will have twice the depth of field.
Other useful features
A useful feature to have is a focus limiter switch. That speeds up autofocus by limiting the focus range to within certain parameters. For example, I can make my lens only focus between 1.3 and 6 meters, or 6 meters to infinity. Of course, I can also select the entire range. While available with this lens via a switch, my camera also has a focus limiter built into the menu. You should check your camera menu to see if it has a focus limiter.
A related feature is that there are buttons that help focus in front of the lens at whatever distance you have set. Again, this speeds up the uptake of the topic. Not every lens has it, but speed does
You can also quickly switch between manual and autofocus on the lens. Test the durability of this switch as it may be something you use a lot. With many professional OM System lenses, this is not a switch but what they call a clutch. The entire focus ring can be pulled back. That changes the lens to manual focus, while also displaying a focus distance scale. Manual focus is a feature you may find more useful than ever when focusing on the eye of a bird hidden deep in foliage.
Having the zoom and focus rings close enough together to be operated with the fingertips and thumb of one hand is essential. You also want those rings to have the exact right amount of resistance. Furthermore, they should start spinning smoothly and not jerk suddenly when you start turning them.
My lens has a switch that turns off the beep, letting you know the camera is focusing. That is so as not to disturb wildlife or other photographers. Again, this feature is usually available in the camera’s menu.
Image stabilization is another essential feature of any wildlife system. My lens offers up to 4.5 stops of image stabilization (IS). Furthermore, when combined with the OM-1 Mark II’s In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS), it increases IS by up to 8.5 stops, allowing you to keep the camera steady at shutter speeds very low. I find even more useful the ability to resist the motion of a boat or resist being tossed about by strong winds; I live in the windiest county in England.
Most wildlife photographers turn off IS when photographing birds in flight. In my camera it is possible to perform image stabilization in only one direction. For example, when tracking birds in flight, I turn off horizontal IS and turn on vertical IS.
Other things to consider are a weight-reducing carbon fiber lens hood, a strap-mounted lens mount, and an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod mount.
What is the weakest link in your system?
While lenses improve image quality more than a camera body, any system is only as good as its weakest link. There’s no point buying a great camera if your lens is slow and floppy. Likewise, a fast, super-sharp lens will be held back by a low-performing camera. Additionally, the conditions you shoot in can also affect your images.
Are you the weakest link?
Of course, the weakest link may be the photographer. I know this is controversial, but I believe in giving new users tools that won’t limit them but will allow them to take the best photos possible right from the start. Cameras that are fun to use are much more inspiring than the cheap lumps of plastic found on supermarket shelves. Give beginners a camera with AI bird tracking and a fast lens with fast, accurate focusing, and they’ll get better photos than they would have using the device. inexpensive, so-called low-end devices.
