The Best Wildlife Kit

Wildlife expert Tesni Ward chooses the camera and lenses she favours for shooting flora and fauna images...

The Best Wildlife Kit

by Kirk Schwarz |
Updated on

Tesni Ward is a professional wildlife photographer based on the outskirts of the Peak District. While the majority of her work focuses on British wildlife, she also photographs projects across the world and aspires to promote conservation and education through her images. She runs workshops and tours throughout the UK. See more of her work here.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 MkII
Price: £1577.39

With its 2x crop factor, this Micro Four Thirds marvel is perfect for capturing those close-up details. Its increased depth-of-field means that I don't have to select a narrower aperture and sacrifice light and shutter speed.

Prime Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm f/4 IS PRO

Rrp: £2999.99

Price: £2699.99
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This powerful telephoto gives a 35mm equivalent focal length of 600mm and has a minimum focusing distance of 1.4m. When paired with a 1.4x teleconverter, it's perfect for getting intimate frame-filling images without causing any undue stress or disturbance to the subject. This lens is almost permanently fixed to my camera due to the flexibility of moving from faraway wildlife images to close-ups without the need to change my equipment.

Zoom Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Price: £1180.88

This lens can achieve very similar images as the 300mm in terms of depth-of-field and composition when used in combination with a 1.4x converter. However, it's much more compact, lightweight and flexible in terms of focal length. This gives me a greater scope for images, especially if I'm working with subjects that are a little less skittish and more approachable. Want to know more?

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