CHOOSING A BRIDGE CAMERA
If you want better quality wildlife photos than a mobile phone can take, without the frills of a DSLR, then a bridge camera is the solution.
Photography is a fantastic way to document your travels and share your discoveries with your friends and family on social media. But whether it’s a stunning landscape or an intimate animal encounter, many of us rely on the humble smartphone to capture those moments. If you want to take your photography to the next level, it pays dividends to upgrade to a dedicated camera, which will enhance your image quality, zoom range and creative options.
Combining the portability and long zoom range usually associated with point-and-shoot compacts, with the ergonomic build and manual modes found on professional DSLRs (digital single-lens reflex cameras), bridge cameras literally ‘bridge’ this gap, providing you with the best of both worlds. The size of the imaging sensors found in these cameras strikes the perfect balance between image quality and camera portability. Although the sensors are smaller than those found in larger DSLRs, they are key to enabling bridge cameras to achieve their vast optical zoom range. Some bridge cameras take you from a wide-angle of 24mm to 2000mm, all in a single lens – a feat unrivalled by DSLRs. These astonishing optical zooms take you closer to your subject, so you don’t have to edge towards it and risk scaring it. The sensors are also usually much larger than those found in compact cameras and smartphones so it is possible to see an upgrade in image quality, particularly in low-light environments.
There are two types of zoom that a camera might have: optical and digital. An optical zoom is the one to pay attention to as this is where the elements in the optics can move to make your subject appear closer, whereas a digital zoom is essentially a digital crop that reduces your megapixels to create the illusion of a more ‘zoomed-in’ image. This can also be easily applied in post-processing, so this shouldn’t sway your decision.
Getting familiar
While the larger build of bridge cameras makes them easy to hold steady and get a sharp shot, they are also a great way to get accustomed to a DSLR-style body, should you decide to upgrade to one further down the road. They also come with advanced ‘manual’, ‘aperture priority’ and ‘shutter priority’ creative modes so you can dial in the settings to take more control and get the exact image you envisage. Use ‘shutter priority’ to slow down the shutter speed and inject a dynamic rush of movement or open up the aperture in ‘aperture priority’ mode to achieve a
shallow depth of field (DoF) and blur your background with ease. There’s also a quarterinch mounting thread on the camera base to mount it on a tripod. This will help you remove camera shake altogether for a sharp shot, or it can be used with a slow shutter speed to get a sharp scene with moving parts. Some models also have modes to help you capture specific subjects such as birds, so this can be a handy feature to have if your photographic knowledge is limited.
Powerful ‘image stabilisation’ systems are often built into bridge cameras to tame the long zooms and give you a better chance of eliminating camera shake – when the vibration of your hands gets transferred into the captured image. The maximum stabilisation of a camera or lens is usually listed in its specification sheet. If it boasts an image stabilisation of up to ‘5 stops’, you should be able to shoot at shutter speeds that are five stops slower than would normally be required. So, if a shutter speed of 1/200s – one two-hundredth of a second – would usually be needed to rule out camera shake, you could switch on the ‘5-stop stabilisation’ and shoot a sharp shot at a slower shutter speed of 1/6s. This is a handy feature and it is definitely worth considering when you are looking at what works best.
Other key features to look out for are an electronic viewfinder, which makes the camera handle a bit more like a DSLR and gives you a better view if the rear LCD is hard to see from too much glare in harsh sunlight. Most rear LCD screens are the three-inch type and many have a resolution of 920k dots, though you can find some with a higher resolution to give you even better clarity when framing up or playing your images back. Bridge camera screens can also be tilted, flipped out or rotated which is handy when taking images above or below eye-level.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that some bridge cameras come in a variety of colours. While it may be tempting to go for that flash red paint job, it’s best to play it safe and go for traditional black, as this is less likely to bring attention from wildlife that’s easily spooked.