Wildlife Photography and camaras

PimperneBloke said:

As an aside, I've just skimmed through your Getting Off Auto's again.... any chance you're going to do a post processing update? Pleeeeeeeeeze  I've decided I ought to shoot RAW rather than JPEG, and do some fiddling!! lol

Remembered I didn't reply to this...

What sort of thing are you after? I did a thread on basic post production, but it sounds like you're after more detail. There was also one on merging images and Paul did one on photo editing.

Let me know what you're after & I'll see what I can do

More an evaluation of the different softwares, what with Topaz, DXO, Photoshop, Lightroom et al, most overlapping bits with one another. I've been reading reviews etc on the interweb, but you can never tell who gets a kickback from who, if at all.

Ah with you. Hmm, that might not be the simplest, without lining them all up and processing the same image multiple times! I always work on the basis that Lightroom is an organiser with simple editing features, Photoshop is the all-singing all-dancing creativity suite (and actually overkill for photographers), Elements is focussed on processing individual photos with only basic organiser features. I always prefer Elements as it's a one-off purchase (full PS is a monthly subscription which I dislike intensely) and has plenty of "Auto" buttons for when I don't want to fettle every setting manually! Topaz etc are plugins that handle de-noise and sharpening - and the newest versions of these "AI based" tools are very good (I've taken to using Topaz myself). I suspect that in truth, there's not a huge difference in performance between a lot of these plugins - and as you get updates over time, they probably change week by week as to which is the technical best. So simpler to just choose the one that is easiest to use!

Unknown said:

simpler to just choose the one that is easiest to use

And that is...... ? lol

PimperneBloke said:

And that is...... ? lol

Oh - download them all and try in demo mode

Topaz scans the image and decides what it needs - you can overrule it easily enough by flicking an on-screen switch and it updates the display to show you the effect. Can't get much easier than that

Unknown said:

Well, these two come in at £305 -
www.wexphotovideo.com/.../
www.wexphotovideo.com/.../
(other choices doubtless there but I haven't searched diligently - and remember you'll need an SD card too).
What are you aiming to be taking pictures of?

That will help you decide if this is anywhere near suitable for your needs. It's not Amazon - you won't get stuff from Amazon 2nd hand I doubt - but WEX are reputable and you'll get a warranty on the kit. It's difficult if you're not in control of your own destiny (so to speak) so you have my sympathy!

I mainly take photos of Wildlife im good at action shots and takeing photos of things that go really fast like a bird suddenly zooming past so fast it could be gone before you can say bird or whatever else the subject is for example. If your in the passenger seat of a car being driven to a nature reserve or wherever a bird in the window can pass very quickly cause the car is moving and Exspeacially when the bird itself is going fast so you need to be ready to take a photo the moment the opportunity and there Usually quiet clear considering the car is moving 

like this one for example this was taken in the car while it was moveing 

for walking sometimes I take photos of birds in flight then aswell which is helpful for when I can’t stop and good at catching them in action without much blur 

So I’m looking for one that is fast and good at moving objects 

I do also stay in one place sometimes as well and take photos I take photos of all sorts of Wildlife sone that move alot  including things like beetles, grasshoppers and crickets bees wasps and flys and other wildlife that can be quiet fast and when I see wildlife that are far away I need to be able to get close to the animal without going up to it cause it’s not allways possible. I know one reserve that you can’t go up to the animals cause there usually in the lake and maybe a buzzard might perch in a tree over the water in which case I would need to be able get a close shot without approaching 

So that is another thing im looking for. 

I also need long battery life cause battery is one thing that can be frustrating cause I take lots of photos and films which uses lots of battery and sometimes I go on day trips and things that require long battery life so that is another thing im looking for 

Ok, so do you know what the focal length of the camera you used is? That will guide you in choosing a lens for a DSLR.
My guess is that you probably will need something like 600mm to get shots at a distance, though a shorter lens with close focussing capabilities would be a good choice for bugs etc. I'm not sure your budget will be sufficient for your aspirations....

ETA oh, and extra batteries take care of all day trips, though you will have to factor that in to your budget potentially 

Unknown said:

Ok, so do you know what the focal length of the camera you used is? That will guide you in choosing a lens for a DSLR.
My guess is that you probably will need something like 600mm to get shots at a distance, though a shorter lens with close focussing capabilities would be a good choice for bugs etc. I'm not sure your budget will be sufficient for your aspirations....

ETA oh, and extra batteries take care of all day trips, though you will have to factor that in to your budget potentially 

the quality of the images on my past camaras are bad quality the pictures on it arnt very good when you take them. I can’t zoom in close enough and the battery bar  is very short.  my smartphone is ok sometimes but runs out often even when I charge it to 100 percent cause I use it so often and it just doesn’t zoom in enough sometimes.   Il find out the focal length on my past camaras 

  a crop factor camara one might be good for me one of my dilemmas is  I don’t know if getting a full frame camara  and a long range lens  would be good or weather I should get a crop sensor and get a close lens or long range on that instead 

Since the crop sensor is already cropped  I don’t know if it  will be going overboard when choosing a lens 

So I think I need to figure out which is best I  only got enough for most DSLRs rather than mirorless camaras  so just need to figure out which would be best

if useing something that brings you closer to a subject with a camara that is already cropped since  it has a cropped sensor isn’t going overboard I might get those otherwise if not  a full frame.  cause there not cropped and of course you can use lenses to bring you closer like the  cropped sensor camaras 

some models are cropped sensors some arnt 

witj the insects I suppose I could get lense  for Christmas for that or something maybe. So get A long focal length if possible then get lens for the insects another time  

Il go through a few of the camaras iv found these 3 are compact one Olympus the 2nd Kodak and 3rd aberg best and a camcorder. I can’t find the other camaras I also used so could of gone thrown away and replaced with these ones cause I had a few other ones aswell.

On Aberg best which is one of the ones I used a lot was 21 megapixels 8x zoom and f 7 45 mm it also says f3.0

The Olympus is AF Zoom 5 x optical zoom 6.3-31 mm 1:3.5 - 5.6

Kodak is AF 3x optical zoom Aspheric lens
36 mm- 108 although none of these 2  camaras say f on them