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Equipment for Wildlife Videos

  • 23-01-2012 7:45pm
    #1
    adamkane
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11 ✭


    Hi

    I'm doing some research on vultures and would really appreciate some advice on what gear I should get to film them.

    I want to be able to record the birds feeding for approx two hours at a time from a distance of 100m. I reckon the field of view will need to be around 4-5m. The quality has to be good enough to identify individual birds.

    I've narrowed it down to three options: a regular camera with a high optical zoom, a purpose built video camera or something like this: http://www.opticron.co.uk/Pages/es_scope.htm http://www.opticron.co.uk/Pages/fs16kit.html

    It's a scope with a camera adapted to it.

    What's the best option?

    Cheers

    I should say I have a budget! I couldn't go over a thousand euro.


Comments

  • #2
    Paulw
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,381 ✭✭✭✭Paulw


    Best option -

    In the Canon lineup, a 1D MkIV with an 800mm lens

    or else a 600mm lens

    Not a cheap package. ;)

    I'm sure you could get similar in the Nikon range too.


  • #3
    Ballyman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,822 ✭✭✭Ballyman


    While maybe not the best a much much cheaper option would be a Canon 550D and a Sigma 50-500mm lens. You could also use a 1.4x teleconverter to give you 700mm and when you include the 1.6x magnification of the 550D sensor you are looking at 1120mm which should be plenty long enough.

    You should be able to pick up the lot for <€1K and for this you get HD quality video. You will need a very steady tripod as well.

    The image quality isn't going to win you any awards for sharpness but it will be perfectly acceptable for video which is what I presume you are looking for? You will also have to manual focus but if the birds are feeding then this will be no problem as they won't be moving.

    One issue though is that the Canon's only record video for 12 mins before shutting off. You can put a firmware hack onto the camera called Magic Lantern which will allow you to record for longer and it also has a huge amount of video tools that are not on the native canon firmware including focus assist which is a great feature so it's definitely worth a download.

    If you want to record for 2 hours then you are going to need a LOT of memory and you will need class 10 SD cards as the others are too slow to record video without the buffer filling up. You can get 24 minutes per 16GB card at 1920x1080 so you will need at least 64GB to be able to record for close to two hours unless you record at SD.


  • #4
    stcstc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,262 ✭✭✭stcstc


    you should have a look at the new range of canon semi pro camcorders

    they can use slr lenses, which mean you could stick a digiscoping setup on it

    or the other option is to get one of the high quality security cameras that you could attach to a digitscoping ring and have a battery powered recorder for it


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