Which Camera to Use?

When it's been mentioned that I am a nature photographer many people have then asked me what camera they should use for taking pictures. This is a big and wide question. Here's some thoughts.

Some people want to know what I personally use for photography. Let's take a wander down my photographic history to see what I have used and what has worked for me.

My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 100 that I got when my mother got a new camera. I was five or six. It used a 126 cartridge film. I took pictures of everything with that camera. I soon learned that it had limitations but it was fun to be able to take pictures. The biggest problem I had was affording the film and processing. When you're that age you don't have a lot of income and my parents told me that I had to use my money to get the pictures developed. So therefore I learned to be 'discerning' about which subjects to take pictures of. The biggest difficulty that I had with the Instamatic was that I kept trying to use it in ways it wasn't designed. For example I soon realized that it was not set up to take extreme close ups.

But the important thing to remember is that this primitive, by today's standards, camera worked. Was it the best possible combination of camera body, film, lens and photographer. Not at all but it was used to take many pictures that looked good. The biggest problem was that the photographer, me, had very little experience and thus skill. Since then I have had the pleasure of using a number of different camera and lens combinations. Some that I have enjoyed using and others, maybe, not so much.

The first SLR camera that I could claim as being mine is a Minolta X-700. I still have and occasionally use it. I have put this camera through many adventures. It has been all over the western part of Canada. It was with this camera that I did my first gigs as a portrait and then wedding photographer (No, I'm not available for that anymore). One of the advantages and disadvantages with this camera is that it is manual focus. At times manual focus is great and other times it is annoying as anything. I learned a lot using this camera and it is still one of my favourites to use.

My first autofocus was a Nikon F80. Still have it. Haven't used it as much since going digital but I put a lot of film through it. The autofocus was very nice to have but what I appreciated more was that it wound the film a lot quicker than the X-700 could. This made taking pictures of moving objects much easier. My move to digital put me in the position that I am in now.

After a few years of the F80 and the cost of developing so much film I had saved up enough money to purchase my first new camera. Yes! Up until now all my previous equipment had been purchased used. You don't have to buy new to get good stuff. I researched for quite a while and I decided that I would wait until DSLR's had a resolution greater than 10 megapixels. When Nikon released the D80 with 10.2 megapixels I got excited. It was very similar to my F80 and I could use all my Nikon lenses with it. I was so excited.

My Nikon D80 is my go to camera body. I have a number of cameras that I could use. Some with more resolution. Why the D80. There are a couple of reasons.

• I know it the best. I have used it for many years. Shot thousands of images.

• It fits really comfortable in my hand. I find it very easy to hold for long periods of time.

While the resolution is not near what most cameras are nowadays this camera with the lenses I have does the job really well. The key is that I'm using good lenses. They are not the most expensive lenses. They are, what I believe, gives me the best value for the money.

Now back to the original question. Which camera to use? The short answer is the one you have. The longer answer is get to know the camera and lenses you have. You don't have to get the 'fanciest' camera and lens combination available. I have seen lots of great images captured with a point-and-shoot camera or an early cell phone camera. The main goal is to take pictures of what you like.

That's just this bushman's thoughts on the subject.