Wildlife Cameras

You need a powerful telephoto lens
for good wildlife pictures.

Digital zoom is almost worthless! A 'real' telephoto lens is needed. It is very difficult to get close enough to use a typical small point-n-shoot hunting camera with a 3x lens. Wildlife cameras need a 'real' zoom lens of at least 6x. Reasonably priced cameras with 10x or even more powerful lenses are available.

Photographic principals are the same for 'any' camera. To get good photos one needs to learn a few skills and the basics of photography.

1. Focus: sets the camera/lens for one exact distance to be "sharpest". The distance, lens type (wide-angle, normal, or telephoto), and the aperture setting; determine how much appears to be in-focus, "the depth of focus".

Auto-focus simply does this for you. It will focus on whatever the AF sensor is pointed at. The sensor must be pointed at what you want in focus. The AF sensor is most often in the center of what you see when looking through the camera. Read the camera manual to learn more.

2. Shutter: The shutter-speed (open-to-close) controls the time (in fractions of a second) light strikes the film/sensor.

The shutter also controls the way movement is seen in the picture.

Simplifying: a fast shutter-speed will freeze movement/ a slow shutter speed will show more blur. (When flash is used the lighting may look unnatural, but it will "freeze" any movement; usually.)

3. Aperture: The opening/size controls how much light hits the film/sensor; while the shutter is open. It also has some control of the "depth of focus"; how much appears to be in focus in the image.

Note: The shutter speed and aperture, together; control the exposure. Automatic exposure or focus has no brain, and can be fooled. Read the camera's book, and the game camera for more information.

Camera manufactures use different ways to achieve an unlimited combination of focus, aperture, and shutter speeds.

The little point-n-shoot hunting cameras are great for your jacket pocket and getting a picture after your harvest. Some are even weather resistant.

As explained above they are not so great as wildlife cameras. If you see something which is very far away; it will still be very far away in your pictures.

Digital zooms are sales gimmicks to sell to the uninformed. Computer picture programs have a "cropping tool" which does the same thing. It is easier/better to crop (if necessary) on the computer after the picture has been made.

The more you zoom (real or digital)the more difficult to hold the camera still, more goes out of focus... Image stabilization is an important feature which helps with this. Read: Why you need a viewfinder.

The memory card is the digital film. Note the different formats are seldom interchangeable. You must buy what your camera uses. Their price has come down and now you can buy a large capacity card for very little money.

You don't want to run out of shells or arrows.
You don't want to run out of digital memory
when you need it either.

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