The right camera for shooting wildlife...

[StefanSC]

In the whirlwind of the Sony A1's launch, I saw a comment that caught my eye, regarding one of Fuji's "small medium format" cameras:

Not the right camera for shooting wildlife.

And this comment reminded me of Nick Brandt (and I thank you dtibbals for this). Of what I know of him, he shoots wildlife with a Pentax 67. Talk about not the right camera for shooting wildlife.

This got me looking dumbfounded at his images (https://www.nickbrandt.com/portfolio.cfm?nK=7617&nS=2) as I find they have a haunting beauty about them for the last half an hour.

Also, this got me asking myself if we aren't too much "gear focused" and "focused on getting the subject", instead of defining our vision and then choosing gear and means of execution?

I mean...shouldn't the purpose define the means? And doesn't that mean that there is no such thing as a "right camera"?

Also, doesn't that mean that, being focused on gear, we end up with rather same-looking images?

 

[arbitrage]

I think you are 100% correct. Unfortunately I still fall into the gear focused, somewhat same-looking images category. I'm hoping once I retire and have way more time I can start to change over to the other category.

 

[DavidT]

In the whirlwind of the Sony A1's launch, I saw a comment that caught my eye, regarding one of Fuji's "small medium format" cameras:



And this comment reminded me of Nick Brandt (and I thank you dtibbals for this). Of what I know of him, he shoots wildlife with a Pentax 67. Talk about not the right camera for shooting wildlife.

This got me looking dumbfounded at his images (https://www.nickbrandt.com/portfolio.cfm?nK=7617&nS=2) as I find they have a haunting beauty about them for the last half an hour.

Also, this got me asking myself if we aren't too much "gear focused" and "focused on getting the subject", instead of defining our vision and then choosing gear and means of execution?

I mean...shouldn't the purpose define the means? And doesn't that mean that there is no such thing as a "right camera"?

Also, doesn't that mean that, being focused on gear, we end up with rather same-looking images?

He has some interesting stuff but I’ve got very different wildlife in TX then he has in Africa from the pics in your link. 800mm plus is what gets it done down here. Medium format doesn’t have anything close to that.

 

[Bristolian]

Thanks for sharing the Nick Brandt link. I had not heard of him before but he has some fantastic images there.

As to your rather philosophical question; yes, I think the purpose should be the prime motivator but I think that also leads us to a "right camera".

 

[StefanSC]

@dtibbals :

Obviously, the conditions in the field and the subjects have an impact on the gear used (e.g: I find it impossible for me to shoot Eurasian Wrens with anything less than a 500mm eq-FOV or with Manual Focus).

And the guy said he sometimes left his gear in the field as a "photo trap"... not sure that is possible in TX .

 

[PhilcTx]

In the whirlwind of the Sony A1's launch, I saw a comment that caught my eye, regarding one of Fuji's "small medium format" cameras:

Fujifilm announced it's $6k GFX100S 102MP large format sensor (43.8x32.9mm) mirrorless camera at about same time as Sony's A1.
The GFX100S has 6 stops IBIS, weighs 900g, AF with 3.76m phase detect pixels covering almost 100% of sensor, etc. weather/dust resistant, etc.

Fuji had to push-back on it's originally announced end of Feb shipping to mid-March due to higher than expected pre-order volume. Marketing b.s.? Not likely as Japan's fiscal year ends in March and Fuji would like to ship as many as possible before end of March. At least according to Fuji rumors website.

Is it a wildlife camera? Based on pre-order demand I imagine that's what many will be destined for given that big sensor's image quality. Many times it's more about image quality than the fastest frame-rates, AF speed, etc.

FUJIFILM GFX100S | Cameras | FUJIFILM X Series & GFX - USA

Official product information for FUJIFILM GFX100S for GFX Series.

fujifilm-x.com