Nature Photography (Film)

The Digital technology is indeed a revolution in the world of photography and has changed all the definitions of film photography. However, to understand the basics of nature photography - a quick look into the traditional (film) photography would be relevant and helpful.

Nature photography gets largely enhanced if you are using a 35 mm SLR camera and a basic set of interchangeable lenses. The point and shoot kind of cameras are not quite suitable for a serious nature photographer. Normally a 35 mm SLR body is preferable due to its versatile performance and ease of operation. This provides you “what you get is what you see” …so the image composition and focusing can be previewed exactly as it would appear in the final result.
Choose a model / make which can provide you rugged operation, automatic exposure with manual override, built in motorized film advance. There are plenty of books and literature available describing the working of a camera and lenses.

For landscapes and general photography, lenses like 28-80 mm or 28–105 mm are good. Avoid very high zoom ratios (like 28-300) because this is at the cost of image quality and the lens construction is not robust enough to withstand the wear and tear in the wilderness. Such lenses are quite good for holiday travel photos, but are not the preferred choice of wildlife and nature photographers demanding high performance.