A frequently asked question when it comes to photographing butterflies is what equipment is needed to get good photos. Butterflies range in size from the tiny blues to the big swallowtails. But unlike birds you do not have to spend a lot of money to get good photographs. For the most part even those with limited budgets can get great photos. Butterflies are a bit more democratic and inclusive that way!

First, let me explain the technical terms that I’ll use in the rest of the article for those who might be new to them. A DSLR is a Digital Single Reflex Camera which allows the use of different lenses for different situations. To know more about SLRs and why they are so popular and useful please go here. To put it simply, a macro lens facilitates close up photography by allowing you to magnify small objects just like a microscope. Focal length of a lens is basically the angle of view you get with that lens and the size of the image relative to that of the object and is normally mentioned in mm. In other words, the focal length of a lens determines how much of a scene you can capture in a photograph and how big the objects in the scene will be. What this means in practical terms is that a wider focal length lens or a wide angle lens as it is popularly referred to (approx. anything between 10mm-28mm) captures a greater area of a scene than a telephoto lens (approx. anything over 100mm). Conversely, the objects in a photo captured by a telephoto lens will look bigger than those captured by a wide angle lens as the telephoto lens is narrowing the field of view. A sensor is the object in a digital camera that captures the image and is analogous to film in film cameras. A rough rule of thumb is that all other things being equal bigger the sensor size in a camera better will be the quality of the photos captured with it.

Now, coming to the equipment, if money is not a problem then almost any DSLR and a dedicated macro lens is the best way to go to photograph butterflies. Nothing else will do as the image quality given by a macro lens and flexibility of a DSLR is well worth the price. It is often difficult to approach and photograph butterflies using budget options such as reversal rings, cumbersome bellows or compact digital cameras with their close focus functions as butterflies get disturbed at the slightest movement and fly away. In such circumstances, the decent working distance a dedicated macro lens offers helps a lot in getting close and capturing the photo without disturbing the butterfly.

This does not mean that it is impossible to get good butterfly photos with compact digital cameras. It is possible if you are patient enough. Most of the compact digital cameras offer special macro modes (often highlighted using the symbol of a flower) that will allow one to do close up photography. But practically this means that you will have to almost touch the butterfly to get a magnified photo. In addition, since digital compact cameras are slow to focus the butterfly would have flown away by the time the camera has focused on it! Moreover, due to the smaller sensor size in digital compacts compared to those in DLSRs the quality of the photos you get is nowhere near that of photos captured using a dedicated macro lens on a DSLR.

Almost every camera company offers a dedicated macro lens (Sony, Canon, Nikon, Pentax etc), often in multiple focal lengths, in their respective lens lineups. Some third party lens manufacturers (Sigma, Tamron etc) also offer dedicated macro lenses that rival those of the camera companies macro lenses in terms of image quality but at significantly lower prices. So before spending your hard earned money spend some time researching the options available on the market, read reviews online by other users of the equipment you are thinking of buying or talk to experienced photographers you may know. Once you have a good idea about what you want to buy, only then loosen those purse strings and splurge!

Anil Cherukupalli is a freelance writer and photographer based in Hyderabad. You can visit his website here.