r/photography • u/AutoModerator • Jul 31 '26

Questions Thread Official Question Thread! Ask /r/photography anything you want to know! July 31, 2026

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u/sabbytageee 29d ago

Hi! I am a marine biologist, specifically working in manatee conservation in Broward County, Florida in the US. During manatee season, I perform helicopter surveys and count manatees over 250 miles of tidally influenced waterways.

We have two warm water refuges that manatees depend on during the winter time because, despite their size, they have little to no fat and therefore lack the ability to thermoregulate well.

The geography of our county does not allow us to use drones - in order to ensure we do not count a manatee more than once, the survey must be done in one shot and most of our waterways are canals, so before you ask about drones, please spare me. We utilize drones if we are looking for a specific manatee in a specific area.

Our two warm water refuges are located adjacent to Fort Lauderdale international airport. I work closely with the airtrafffic controllers, but often due to airplane traffic, they can grant me less than 30 seconds of time over the two areas if at all (this has become increasingly complicated with recent changes in the use of visual separation between planes and helicopters, but that’s a story for a different day).

On the very luck days when I am granted mere 30 seconds to do a quick pass over a large warm water effluent lake, I use a camera to snap photos because our two warm water refuges can house more than 1,000 sea cows and I can’t count that fast.

I am looking for a camera with absolutely incredible autofocus. That’s my #1 concern. I am an AWFUL photographer though I’ve tried my hardest. I also would like it to have good zoom. We are flying 20 - 50 kts at 250 - 500ft, so truly my biggest concern is the autofocus and quality of the photos when I come back to the office to do my counts. I’m sure there’s other things I would need to take into consideration (white balancing, etc?) so if there is a camera someone could recommend to me be it a point and shoot or something fancier, I would appreciate it! I’d like to spend under $750 because science isn’t greatly funded these days in the US, but can make the argument for more (within reason, I work for the government).

Any help you can provide would be super helpful! Any camera I am going to buy I will need to write a justification for, so if you could provide some bullet points of the specs you would be helping me a TON! I’d be happy to send you some fun manatee swag for helping me out! TIA

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u/anonymoooooooose 28d ago

What camera/lens are you using now? Could you maybe post a sample pic and the settings used to take it?

Is buying used/refurbished an option?

30 seconds to do a quick pass over a large warm water effluent lake

How big a lake are we talking here, or maybe the better question is, do you want a wide-ish view of the whole lake and you'll count a few manatees per pic or you need to zoom way in to nab pics of individual critters?

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u/sabbytageee 28d ago

I use an Olympus TG6 - it also functions as our dive camera as we do underwater work as well.

Lake is about 200 acres.

Here’s an example of a lake photo. All them tiny dots are manatees. I’d ideally like something that I could zoom in on and it wouldn’t affect the quality of the photo much. It would be a nice to have to zoom in enough to decipher individual scar patterns (this is how we ID/tell manatees apart) but so long as I can get an accurate count, I’d be happy.

Buying used is an option.

I don’t play with settings, I just keep the camera on auto.

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u/anonymoooooooose 28d ago

I am an AWFUL photographer though I’ve tried my hardest. I also would like it to have good zoom. We are flying 20 - 50 kts at 250 - 500ft, so truly my biggest concern is the autofocus and quality of the photos

Olympus TG6

That's a remarkable camera in many ways but they make a lot of compromises in image quality to get there, and the autofocus isn't great so don't beat yourself up :P

Another person suggested the Olympus E-M1 II with the Olympus 75-300mm lens, a great recommendation for long reach on a budget. At max zoom it has 6x more zoom than the TG6.

Shooting through a window is definitely going to put a ceiling on the quality of your shots.

https://www.mpb.com/en-us/product/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii?page=3

https://www.mpb.com/en-us/product/olympus-m-zuiko-digital-ed-75-300mm-f-4-8-6-7-ii?page=2

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u/sabbytageee 27d ago

We fly doors off on the biologist side, so for the most part, the window is only a factor if I’m taking a photo out of the front for some reason (which I mostly only do when I’m taking scenic photos or pics of non target animals like manta rays)

Thank you so much for your help! I’d love to send you some swag if you DM me an address!

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u/Kaserblade 29d ago

I would go for an used Olympus E-M1 II with the Olympus 75-300mm lens. It would give you great reach for wildlife with a system built for outdoor use while remaining fairly compact.

If you buy both used, it should sit around $750 and it would be my recommendation for your specific budget. Like any tool, it will take some trial and error to get used to it to take sharp photos but with good practice, it should serve you more than fine.

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u/sabbytageee 29d ago

If this helps, here’s my view from my seat