Question by ocean14: Wildlife photography – what is the best type of camera?
I already have a Panasonic Lumix which is decent, but I am going to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador for a biology trip in May. I am a wildlife/photography freak, and I was wondering if anyone knew a better camera that is more equipped and better suited to take wildlife snapshots? so I can get the best possible pictures on this once-in-a-lifetime trip? And help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 
Best answer:
Answer by casperskitty
It would help to know how much you can spend. Go to dpreview:
http://www.dpreview.com/
You can go to buying guide and choose some models to look at side by side. To get the best out of your wildlife photography, you would be looking more for an SLR. These are for anyone from an enthusiast to a professional. They use interchangeable lenses. You can also hit one of the forums on dpreview, probably beginner’s questions:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1002
since you don’t have a preference for brand. Tell them what you want to shoot and how much you can spend on the whole set-up to begin with. I am sure you will get great help there.
I have a 35mm Canon but I am switching to Sony. Sony has the alpha line which ranges from around $ 500-3000 for the camera body. You can use older a-mount Minolta lenses on the alphas.
For the Sony alpha line, if you go with just a body and one lens, I would go with the a700 and the 18-250mm lens. Right now you can get both for about $ 1450 total. The prices are supposed to go back to normal after the Christmas sales, so I would grab one before Christmas. This camera gets up to 5 frames per second (important for moving subjects such as wildlife) and the lens has an amazing range.
If you go with Canon or Nikon, I am pretty sure the 18-250 is availale for them too. The great thing about this lens is that on a camera with an asp-csensor it still has a wide angle of 27mm and on the telephoto end it is more like 375mm.
Give your answer to this question below!
the best would be a Nikon or Canon pro models as they would have weather proofing and be able to keep out water and dust
then bring on some zoom lenses and a macro lens and a wide angle lens and you should be done
so something like a canon 20d or a nikon equivalent
another way would be canon g9
or one of these
Kodak Easyshare Z8612 IS
Nikon Coolpix P6000
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
Ricoh Caplio R10
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Canon Powershot SX110 IS
these are prosumer models with dslr like controls but lighter to carry around
Snapshots? Best possible pictures? Which do you want? Once-in-a-lifetime? Sounds like “best possible pictures” would be in order.
I agree that weather sealing should be on your list of desired features. To me, this means you have to start with either a Nikon D300 or Canon 50D. These cameras are close in features, although the D300 has more auto-focus settings that might be helpful for wildlife, like a moving flock of birds, for instance. It is a little harder to learn all the focus modes, but they are there if you want them.
Whichever one you pick, buy it soon! You will want to have plenty of experience with your new camera before you go on this once-in-a-lifetime trip. If you don’t, you’d make out as well or better with your Panasonic, because you are more familiar with it and will not lose any shots fumbling around trying to figure out how your camera works.
Here are some of my “wildlife” shots. They are not as exotic as you will get, but look for the ones shot with the D300 and also see which lens I used. http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/tags/wildlife/
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_eos50d%2Cnikon_d300&show=all
I’ve read that Olympus SLRs, like the E-420 and E-520 are good for wildlife and sports photography. It has something to do with the sensor size, which has an effect on lens magnification. They use a system called Four-Thirds which has a smaller sensor. Because of this, it basically doubles the magnification of the lens, but keeps the lens speed. For instance, if you put a 300mm f2.8 lens on it, it would work as 600mm f2.8. This is a much cheaper way to go than buying a long, fast lens. Check out the prices of 600mm and 300mm lenses of the same speed and you’ll see what I mean.