Which’s the best camera for wildlife photography in 2022?
I am always asked one question more than any other: what is the best camera for wildlife photography? Digital SLRs are numerous now, with plenty of options on the market. But now there are also mirrorless cameras to throw into the equation. Navigating this minefield of camera technology is complicated, especially if you are new to the field.
A faster shooting speed (the number of frames per second the camera takes) is handy for wildlife photography. If your camera is slow, shooting around 3 frames per second, you’re more likely to miss the perfect shot that happens in the gaps between each time the shutter fires. Shooting in burst mode is highly recommended for wildlife photography.
Top DSLR cameras will shoot 12 frames per second and beyond, which is crazy fast. You don’t necessarily need anything like this – but it definitely helps. You can still take good wildlife photos a even 1 frame per second, but you need to be quicker at reacting to each moment.
The number of frames per second is something to be aware of, but it isn’t the be-all-and-end-all when making a choice of which camera to buy.
Cameras come in two forms: cropped or full-frame sensors. The latter is typically more expensive, offering advantages such as better image quality and ISO capabilities (meaning they can shoot well in lower light conditions – a great thing for wildlife photography). Cropped sensors are cheaper, but they also offer increased reach for your lens (so the image will appear more ‘zoomed in’ at a given focal length than it would on a full frame sensor – another great feature for shooting wildlife).
If I were buying my first camera for wildlife photography specifically, I would strongly recommend you chose a crop sensor camera. The extra reach opens you up to more opportunities for photos. It’s incredibly frustrating to find that you can’t get close to wildlife, and until your field craft skills are particularly good the extra reach will be a major advantage.
The best camera for wildlife photography will have a great autofocus system. You basically have no chance of achieving a sharp photo if you’re manually focusing; so 99.9% of the time you’ll find yourself using autofocus with wildlife. Consequently, your camera needs to be good at doing just that: focusing.
Autofocus needs to be accurate and fast. This comes with an increased number of autofocus points in the camera’s AF system. A higher number of points means a camera has a better ability to be accurate when choosing the area it focuses on, and it also means you will be able to track moving wildlife more successfully.
Wildlife tends to come out of the shadows at dawn and dusk. Most animals aren’t that active in the middle of the day – they’re more likely to be predated. The bigger predators will then spend less time moving around as they’ll have successful hunts at dawn and dusk. This doesn’t run true for every animal, but in general this is a pattern seen in nature.
As the light drops and animals start to emerge, your camera will perform less well. You’ll find yourself needing to increase the ISO speed to make the sensor more sensitive to light and brighten your exposure. This brings with it digital noise and, whilst this can be removed in post production, there is only so far you can go until you ruin your photo.
The best cameras for wildlife photography tend to have good ISO capabilities. That may mean looking at a full frame camera, but you’ll be paying more for it. To determine how good a camera is with handling higher ISO speeds, take a look at comparison images on the internet and keep your eye out for at which level digital noise tends to increase dramatically. However, don’t panic. There are ways you can photograph wildlife in low light without paying through the nose for full frame cameras.
The best camera for wildlife photography is a little different to the best camera for anything else. Wildlife photography is a highly particular discipline, requiring both patience and split-second reactions. While there are good wildlife photography cameras to suit all budgets, you do need to be a little more selective than perhaps you might normally. In this guide, we've picked out the best cameras for nailing wildlife shots every time.
A good burst mode. This is going to be highly desirable no matter what kind of wildlife you're photographing. Animals don't sit still on demand, and may exhibit the behaviours you want to capture for just fractions of a second. A camera that can capture a lot of frames within that second is going to be your best bet for nailing the shot.
Decent buffer depth. There is another part of the burst mode equation, and that is a camera's buffer depth. This refers to how many continuous shots a camera is capable of capturing without stopping. A bigger buffer means more shots, means a longer burst, means a greater chance of capturing the moment you want. Be aware that cameras will generally be able to capture a larger buffer of JPEGs than RAW files, so if you don't mind losing a little editing flexibility, this can be a good option. The write speed of the memory card is also a factor, so it's a good idea to get the fastest card you can.
