I'm Capturing Wild Animals And Nature For More Than 3 Years. I Think These Accessories Wildlife Photographer Must Have. Accessories Makes Your Wildlife Trips Easy And Better. If You Are New In Wildlife Field Then It Help You To Buy Accessories For Your Upcoming Wildlife Journey. Let's Start
1. Binoculars -
The most important accessories is Binocular. Binocular helps you to find birds, observe birds and animals closely without disturbing to birds and animals. Using that big heavy lens and focusing to subject is not easy and also using focus every time is not good for your camera and lens ( I know how expensive wildlife camera and lens are ! ) If you are Indian then you absolutely you got my point. Binoculars are small and light weight so, you can carry anytime everywhere. Using binoculars you can spot birds, wildlife animals and can set focus rapidly. Binoculars are actually made to observe, so you can focus as many times as you want ( terms and co. applied ! )
Wildlife photography is often a waiting game and you might spend hours scanning the horizon for your intended subject. If you thinking to learn about birds and wild animals behavior, habitat etc.... then you definitely need binocular.
The most popular magnifications are 8X and 10X. 10X devices are physically larger but in most cases, I don’t find them to be prohibitive. There is probably some math that you could do to work out the 35mm equivalent of a 10X pair of binoculars but all you really need to know is that it’s a lot! A 10X set of binoculars is going to show you a far closer view than your super-telephoto lens does, and that’s the important thing.
Selecting perfect binocular is also important because now in market you can look many varieties of Binoculars like - 8x42, 10x50 etc... each binocular is made for specific use e.g. - wide range (3x10) binoculars is mostly used in used in theaters, to glasses with 7 to 12 times magnification and 30 to 50 mm diameter objectives for typical outdoor use, and for bird watching more than 8x magnification binoculars are used. Most of the wildlife photographer use and suggest to use 8-10x magnification binocular because when you use 8x magnification you can find and track bird easily and another advantage of using 8x binocular is steady image, if you try +10x magnification binocular you observe image is very shaky.
Popular and suggested binoculars for wildlife ( Also in budget ! ) -
1. GOR® Power View 20 x 50 Military Surveillance Binocular - Best thing about this one is come with camouflage coating.
2. Krevia Binocular 8x40 - Popular binocular more than 2k positive ratings on only on amezon.
3. Bushnell 13-3450C 10x50 Falcon - Bushnell is very popular brand in binocular category.
4. Bushnell 7 X 35 Falcon Binoculars - Wide angel binocular
5. GOR® Power View 20 x 50 - Value for money ( I used this one more than1 year )
6. CASON (DEVICE OF C)-8 X 40 Binoculars - Good
7. Celestron 71009 15x70 Skymaster Binocular - Very popular brand and long range binocular
8. Celestron 71256 G2 10x50 - Very Good
2. Book - A Field Guide
If you spotted bird or wild animal but you don't know which bird or wild animal it is and their behavior, habitat etc... then there no point to capturing photos. You have to know which birds and animals can spot in which area e.g. - Water birds found in near lake or pond like - bhigwan bird sanctuary and you are finding birds like hornbill/flycature then it is very hard to find and time consuming. ( At my early stage of wildlife journey I also do this kind of mistakes but, after some months I realize I'm doing something wrong, I wasted lot of time ). When you read lot of books you learn about birds, animals and insects how they live, how they behave, their reproduction and more, Read Books As You Can ! ( I want to read more but, I also don't want to bore you )
Suggested Books -
3. Tripod
Tripod is necessary to to help you capture the ideal shot in different circumstances. A tripod takes few minutes to position and adjust, yet it can support your camera in the perfect position for however long you wish, helping you to take great images.
Hand holding longer lenses can work for birds in flight, but that’s about it. Many of the best wildlife photography opportunities happen early in the morning or late in the evening when light levels force you to use a very slow shutter speed. Combine this with the magnified shaking effect of longer focal lengths and a tripod is really an essential item.
I regularly find myself shooting well under 1/200 second with focal lengths in the 400-600mm range. Even a 5-stop image stabilizer isn’t going to help you get consistent results in that area without a tripod. The other reason for getting a tripod is simply to prevent fatigue. On a day of shooting, many hours can be spent watching and waiting. Save your energy and use a tripod to have your gear ready and waiting right in front of you.
Tripod helps to hold camera and capture un-shaky images. If you you want to record video then you need tripod. Many peoples think investing in good tripod is not necessary but it is necessary to invest, you are using costly and heavy equipment and you use low cost bad quality tripod then definitely your gear damage soon. Low budget tripod means less carry load capacity so, cheap tripod can't take load of heavy camera and lens. I damaged my gear 2 times because of cheap tripod.
Try to buy tripod that don't have middle stick. Here are my few suggestions >
Suggested Tripods -
4. Backup Camera
Just imagine you spotted rare bird like Cebu Flowerpecker and your camera shutdown for any reason and not working now what? what should you do? that's why keeping a backup camera is very important. ( Do to check 2 times your all gears before going to shoot ) If you are going for wildlife photography in jungle and you are staying in jungle ( like other wildlife photographers ) for more than a week then you should carry backup camera ( you got my point ! Right ? )
If you are making documentary for T.V channel then you can't take risk. Carrying backup camera is must ! If photographer don't have camera then photographer can't do anything, Right?
You also use your phone as a backup camera, now days phone come with good cameras like Apple phones, oppo 10x zoom etc...
Suggested backup cameras -
5. Two Lens - One For Close Shots And Another For Habitat Shots
Why you should carry two lens? For wildlife photography mostly photographers uses telephoto lens but, if you want to capture creative photos then you need a zoom lens ( semi-telephoto lens ) for habitat captures like -
Keeping one telephoto lens e.g.- 600 mm and zoom lens 70-300 always great decision. Why? because, You can not capture images of close animals with 600 mm long focal length in that case you should have 70-300 mm lens. Most of professional wildlife photographer keep two lens always.
Suggested lens -
1. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR
2. Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD MACRO
3. Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2
4. Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3
5. Sigma 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS
6. Sigma 500mm F4 DG OS HSM
6. Extra Batteries -
You definitely need extra camera batteries for backup. In wildlife photography you need to on your camera and need to capture multiple shots. A standard camera captures around 250-1000 shots in full charge.
7. lens hood -
In photography, a lens hood or lens shade is a device used on the front end of a lens to block the Sun or other light source(s) to prevent glare and lens flare. Lens hoods may also be used to protect the lens from scratches and the elements without having to put on a lens cover.
The main reason you use a lens hood is to stop stray light coming onto your lens which can create lens flare and give your images less contrast. This normally happens when shooting into the sun or when you have a strong light source in front of the lens. You will need sharp images without any distractions e.g. - sun flare ( some times photographer not use lens hood because they want to capture creative images with sun flare )
8. Camouflage Cloths
Why use camouflage cloths - Most ethical wildlife photographers use camouflage in order to not disturb the wild animals to the extent which is practically possible. Another reason is that bright clothing can scare wildlife away and they would not be able to capture them on screen if that happens.
You can go to much closer to animal with camouflage. But you have to stand or site still (without moving ) You have to select camouflage according to the surroundings and season ( you cant use dessert camouflage in green forest). Colors of leaves changes in every season.
To be continued ...
rain cover
power bank
solar panel ( if you are going for more than 3-4 trip and planning to live in jungle)
at least 2 memory card
memory card carry box
bean bag
a good camera gear bag
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