Im looking for a good camera

Invertebrates Scorpions
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Heyas MM residents, as many of y’all know i’m sorta the unofficial arachnid girl around here. What is also known is that i love my animals very much and try to be a good ambassador for them.

Im currently looking for a good camera to be able to shoot my animals but i know nothing about cameras. I need advice on what is an easy camera to use but takes excellent pictures.

The nature of my animals is many are small from a few mm to about 4 inches. Secondly due to them being potentially life threatening i obviously don’t handle them and want to be able to photograph them from the safety of the glass enclosure. In addition to wishing to photograph from a distance of up to 12 inches i also wish to be as minimally invasive as possible. My animals are very skittish and they tend to not stay in one spot for long if they see,hear or feel vibrations from me. They often scurry to their hides pretty fast which makes capturing great pictures a real challenge. Often times by the time i grab my phone and open the phone app they are no longer there.

The features im looking for in a camera is macro of course or where i can zoom in from the outside of the enclosure. Im also looking for low light capability as scorpions and spiders don’t like lights especially flashes. Im also looking for a fast camera so i can rapidly capture since my animals run away pretty quickly. A video option is something im looking to for my IG posts. I also prefer a large view screen since my vision is pretty poor.

My budget for a camera is between $1000.00 and $1500.00

I could really use some great advice about a camera since many of you photograph your animals. My phone is “ok” for some things but its not great with low lights and close ups.

Thanks again MM residents for advice.

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I suggest looking into the canon m50 mark 2, an m to ef adapter and a nice zoom lens. I used a Canon t3i for about a decade and last year picked up the m50 mark 2. I haven’t used it to the extent I would like but when i have I’ve been very pleased with it.

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For most close-up photography I recommend a DSLR and a macro lens or reversed lens. But, for most macro lenses you get extremely close to the subject. If you use a DSLR keep in mind that the mm of the lens (eg. 50, 100, 200) means how far it can zoom in from a distance. On a 50mm lens taking a macro picture you will need to be extremely close to the subject. But, on a 200mm lens, you can be a bit further away to take the picture. You could also use teleconverters and/or extension tubes (I made a little write-up about them here) but they still have some faults. No matter what you get you should find someone that has that setup or test it first, to make sure that you can get close-up pictures without getting too close to the scorpion.

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Im definitely planning on doing research and getting all the advice i can from people that photograph animals especially exotics and potentially dangerous ones.

Im pretty sure that if i walked into a camera store they would just see dollar signs and sell me a bunch of stuff i don’t need.
I also don’t wish to stress my scorpions out which could potentially cause them or myself harm.

This isn’t going to be something i rush out to buy and it may be several months before i settle on a camera and accessories. As always i listen to all advice and try to implement it in my animals lives.

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