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All information and recommendations given
here are those of the webmaster, there are obviously other viewpoints and
preferences. The pictures
on this site are my results.
Don't get obsessed with photographic gear, most
of my photographs that I have published on this site (those in the
Picture Galleries)
were taken using a mid-range completely manual and mechanical camera (a
Pentax MX) mainly using a standard 50mm lens for scenery and general shots
or a 100mm lens for wildlife. Great photographs are taken by great photographers
and once you get to a certain level of ability (lower than you might think)
spending more has little effect. It's always nice to have high quality,
highly featured equipment - just don't expect it to compensate for pointing
it in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Digital cameras have come on
tremendously in recent years. When I first wrote this piece in 2001,
I said that I wouldn't take a digital to Antarctica as my only camera. Times
have moved on however and digital cameras are now of a quality, price and
reliability that they can be used as the only camera with confidence. There
are still limitations compared to my camera of choice - the 35mm SLR, but
for the majority of people they are the ideal selection because:
 | Pictures can easily be stored on a computer
and shared on the web, by email, on CD or DVD storage media. |
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| They enable the photographer to keep only
those pictures that are worth keeping and discard the rest,
they are great for practising in this regard - so long as you
learn as you go on. |
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| Prints and enlargements are easily obtained
- at home with a photographic quality printer, or by taking
the memory card to a photographic store where many now allow
you to select and print out your pictures, editing and cropping
in the process in a way that was unheard of not so long ago. |
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| Pictures are easily edited with the
software that usually comes with the camera itself. |
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| Storage media has become much cheaper
than it used to be, so even if you don't have a computer handy
(and many people actually take a
lap-top with them to Antarctica to download the days photographs
to) you can easily have a couple of memory cards that can store
hundreds of images for less than the equivalent cost of traditional
film - with the added advantage that you can use them over and
over again. |
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| A 3 mega-pixel camera has now become
pretty much entry-level and these can produce good quality prints
up to 8 x 10 inches. The more pixels the higher the quality
and the bigger the prints available or greater the degree of
editing and cropping. I'd recommend 5Mp or above. |
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On the downside, things to be aware of are:
| Battery power, digital cameras are still
fairly battery-hungry, but advances in battery technology
and price reductions mean that the cost and convenience of carrying
a fully charged spare battery is an easy and obvious option. |
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| Resolution of image - this is designated
by the number of pixels or rather millions of pixels - Mega
Pixels / MP for short. To get an equivalent quality to a 35mm
SLR, you need about 20MP. Digital cameras still have some way
to go before they get to the same resolution of film cameras
for the same cost. For most people though it doesn't really
matter too much. The extra resolution of a 35mm camera that
may be never used is like having a sports car but never wanting
to go above 30mph. |
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Received by email (edited)
"Just arrived back from a tourist trip to Antarctica
and discovered your website.
On cameras - the Pentax zoom I brought broke, the digital
was a life saver and the pictures are excellent. I recharged the batteries
as we went and there was no problem.
The camera is a
Canon power shot S100 - digital ELPH - 2.1 mega pixels and a gift from
my son. It has a CF card. I took an extra rechargeable battery pack and
the recharger so charged the batteries fairly often. I'd heard that the
charge one gets on the ship is not as strong as that gotten on land (not
sure that makes sense). Since I am very new at this, not a professional
photographer and not wanting to lose the pictures I took the CF card to
the store and had the pictures that I selected made for 20 cents each. I
have photo albums of all our trips so want to continue this although I know
I could just put them on a CD and use the computer to view. I will delete
some of them from the CF and then have a CD made of the ones I want to keep.
There are 200+ pictures and since I don't know what I am doing and since
son, the computer expert, lives 3000 miles away I am hesitant to put them
on the computer and use up all that room (the Alaska trip is on there now).
Several people were viewing their pictures on their laptops. Since I am
used to using the Pentax 160 Zoom, I was concerned about getting good pictures.
This Canon does have a 10.8 zoom and it worked fairly well."
Phyl - USA
For the vast majority of purposes a 35mm camera is
ideal. (If you are interested in using larger formats, then you are
already beyond the scope of the advice offered here). 35mm is an excellent
compromise between size, weight, affordability, ease of use and quality
of results.
There are some excellent compact cameras around with integral
zoom lenses covering a wide range. For the best photographs, I believe
that you can't beat a good SLR camera, and I strongly
recommend that if you don't have one already, that this is what you purchase.
SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. It means that
you look through the taking lens (it only has one), and so see exactly what
the film sees. Just before the photograph is taken a small mirror that enables
you to see flips up and out of the way so the light falls on the film.
A "standard lens" has a focal length of 50mm for a 35mm
camera, this means that the camera sees whatever your eye sees with no magnification
and no wide-angle effect. Most 35mm cameras these days come with a zoom
lens which gives a range of focal lengths from wide angle to short telephoto.
Anything less than 35mm is a bonus, and for the majority of shots, you won't
need much longer than 100mm. There are many zoom lenses that will cover
this range and you will probably use them for the vast majority of your
photographs. Something towards 200mm is nice to have, but anything beyond
is really in the realms of the very serious photographer and will hardly
ever be used by any other than the photography buff or professional.
Browse 35mm SLR cameras
My preference is for a 50mm standard lens, a 100mm
fixed and then a 70-200mm (ish) zoom. I use these in the ratio of about
5:5:1 respectively. I feel that wide angles (less than 50mm) are a matter
of style rather than necessity. I like fixed lenses rather than zooms as
they make you move about and think about where you will stand to take the
photograph. They slow the process down and get your brain involved more
- that makes for better photographs.
Fixed lenses are lighter in weight than the zoom equivalent,
have a larger maximum aperture (they are brighter to look through) and will
always be of better quality than a zoom. Lenses longer than 200mm are essential
for much wildlife photography - but not in Antarctica, you can get close
enough without them.
My favourite is called an "Elephants trunk" due to it's
shape, it has a large "head" where the camera body sits and a long, narrower
"trunk" region where the lens is. I don't think they're made any more,
but there are plenty of alternatives. I can fit my camera and extra lens
with a couple of rolls of film into this bag and put it around my waist
on a belt. More easily accessible than in a back pack and more freedom of
movement than a shoulder bag.
Browse camera bags
Film is rated according to how sensitive it is to light,
very sensitive films are called "fast" and less sensitive "slow", use as
slow a film as you can, the slower the film the finer the grain and better
the quality. It's bright in Antarctica in the summer, so there's no real
need to go above 100 ASA (ISO). Colour print film is excellent these days,
it's most peoples favourite unless you have a particular reason to go for
slide film.
Many processing labs offer a CD of scanned pictures from
the processed film as a part of the processing package for just a little
more cost, so you are able to load the pictures straight onto computer with
no extra effort. Pick one good quality type of film (i.e. one that you've
heard of, not "Funpix" own brand or the like (apologies if such a name exists,
let me know and I'll invent another)) and stick with it. Always have plenty
available - $1000 worth of photographic equipment is useless if you don't
have a $5 film.
You should always have a skylight filter on every lens
you have to protect it from damage, a polarizing filter can be useful
too to get some good deep blue skies and clouds. Beyond this - forget it.
I've never seen a single good wildlife or landscape shot that has been enhanced
by the use of a "creative" filter. To (mis) quote Samuel Johnson they are
the "last refuge of a scoundrel".
Seriously though, "creative" filters are a bit like the
"creative" effects you get with your computer photo editing programme. Great
fun to play around with, but how many "enhanced" pictures have you actually
saved, let alone would want to print or show anyone?
Black and white photography on the other hand is enhanced
with the use of yellow, orange or red filters which darken certain colours
and lighten others, in most of the references here I as assuming that photographs
will be taken in colour.
A must if you're a wildlife fanatic and
a "nice to have" if you're not.
"Incidentally, I see
you recommend avid wildlife watchers should take binoculars - everyone
should have them! It is very annoying having to share your binos with
someone for that rare glimpse of a distant blue whale or even just getting
a better view of scenery!"
- Robert Burton Antarctic tour guide and lecturer.
Binoculars are described by two numbers "10 x 50" for
instance. The first number is the magnification and the second is the diameter
of the front lens in millimetres. This tells you first of all how much bigger
things appear and then how much of it you see at that magnification, (a
bit like looking down tubes of different diameters). A front lens diameter
of 50mm is about standard, but the binoculars will be quite bulky, anything
less than this is described as "compact", much easier to carry about, but
a smaller diameter tube.
A magnification of 10 or 12 is about as much as most people
can manage to hand-hold without shaking about all over the place and is
generally most useful . Don't go for the "most powerful" binoculars you
can get, you won't be able to hold them steady without a tripod.
If your pocket will stretch to it
there are now
"image stabilizer" binoculars available. These have an electronic method
of eliminating shake and reducing curvature of field.
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Recommended
35mm film camera photographic equipment list:
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Quality 35mm SLR
camera*
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Standard lens, around
50mm*
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Short telephoto lens,
100-135mm*
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Longer telephoto, around
200mm
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Camera bag on a waist
belt
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Skylight filter for each
lens*
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Polarizing filter for
standard lens
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Blower brush and lens
tissues to keep it all clean and dust-free*
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*Minimum
kit
You could use one or more zoom
lenses to cover the range, I prefer fixed lenses as they are
lighter, better quality and encourage you to move around which
I think makes for better pictures.
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