Let's keep this section really brief. There are just too many brands, models and features to cover in great detail without this section devouring the entire book. Besides, there are always new models coming out, and my book would be out of date in a couple of months. We'll just briefly touch on a few common features, and I'll give you my invaluable and completely, utterly impartial opinion about their merits.

Brand names

There are many camera brands out there, and they all have their own cult-like followings. The weird, twisted little secret is that no company can survive long in the competitive marketplace if they produce junk. All of the major companies generally make good cameras. All of the major companies occasionally produce models that aren't so hot. If this were a simpler world, we could just say use ThisBrand Cameras; all of their models are great, all of the other cameras in the universe are junk. But it's not, and we can't. The key is finding a system and model that's well suited to your particular needs and has good availability of usefull accessories.

One important consequence of your choice of camera system is that it limits your choice of lenses. You can't mount a Minolta lens on a Nikon camera, for example. In addition to lenses made by the same company as your camera, you can also choose from a wide range of third party lenses, many of which are excellent, some of which are essentially coke bottles with lens mounts attached. Some third party lenses have interchangeable mounts, so you can mount the same lens on different camera brands.

Important features

In order to make sense of the jumble of brands and models, we need to know which of the myriad camera features are important for nature photography, which we can live without, and which are pretty much worthless. Let's start with a list of important features which are often left off of today's hyper-technological cameras.

A good camera for nature photography should have:

1. Easy to use manual focus. Auto focus can be nice... sometimes. But other times, you won't want to have the prime focus on whatever happens to be in the middle of the frame. Some systems have wimpy little manual focus rings that are hard to find and hard to use; others use ridiculous "focus lock" contraptions, where you point the camera at the spot where you want the prime focus, lock the focus, compose your shot, and shoot. This is supposed to be easier than turning a focus ring. Yeah, right. Good camera systems have nice wide focus rings that you can easily set yourself to where you want the prime focus.
2. Easy to use manual exposure. Most auto exposure systems are pretty good for most situations, but sometimes you will need to adjust the exposure values yourself. A good camera should have both an automatic mode with exposure compensation (so you can set it to over- or under- expose relative to the auto exposure value) and full manual (so you can set the exposure how you want regardless of the meter reading.)
3. Depth of field preview. Pretty much all SLRs these days have automatic apertures, which means that you are looking through the lens' widest aperture when you are composing your shot. When you press the shutter button, the lens stops down, and then the shutter opens. Fine and dandy. But sometimes, it's nice to look through the lens in its stopped down position in order to see whether or not you have adequate depth of field. Some camera systems allow you to do this, some don't.
4. Mirror lock up. Behind the lens in an SLR, there's a mirror which reflects the light into the viewfinder. This enables you to see through the lens that's making your image. When you press the shutter button, this mirror has to flip out of the way before the shutter opens. The flipping of the mirror can cause just enough vibration to reduce the sharpness of an image which uses a long exposure. To prevent this problem, some cameras allow you to manually flip the mirror before you press the shutter.
5. Auto Timer. Most cameras have a timing mechanism that allows the shutter to open several seconds after you press the shutter button. This is important if you want to include yourself in the picture sometimes. With some cameras, the auto timer is the only way to get the mirror to lock up in advance.

Dubious features

There are lots and lots of bells and whistles on many camera models. Many of these features have little or no value for nature photography, but some may be useful sometimes, or may be valuable for other types of shooting.

Let's look at some features you can probably live without:

1. Auto focus. Many cameras these days have really spiffy-diffy high tech mega-woopie autofocus systems. I seldom have any desire to use such things, although they might be handy for wildlife photography. For landscapes, I normally focus for maximum depth of field, rather than focussing a particular point in the frame.
2. Programmable or pre-programmed exposure modes. Some superfluously high tech cameras have many auto exposure modes or accessory program cards. You can buy a plug in card for certain cameras, for example, for "depth mode;" it stops the lens down for you. Wow. Other cameras have various icons for different program modes: a tulip for close ups, a head and shoulders outline for portraiture, a smiley face if you're a complete idiot, etc. Woop-dee-doodle-dingdong. You're better off learning the craft of photography rather than relying on patronizing, high tech gizmos to take your photos for you.
3. Built in flash units. While flashes are occasionally useful for nature photography, the wimpy little built in flashes on many cameras are pretty much worthless. For close-up work, the on camera flash won't light the whole frame; for wildlife, it's just not powerful enough; even for portraiture, these flashes seem to have been designed to maximize red eye.
4. Motor drives and winders. Many cameras have electronic motors to advance the film in your camera automatically, enabling you to take pictures faster; you can shoot a whole roll in a few seconds. Terrific... if you're in the business of making or selling film. For most of us, a winder is just another doo-dad we can do just fine without. Some wildlife photographers insist that a winder is really important. I have an accessory winder which is noisy enough to spook birds at a hundred yards. So, if you want a winder for wildlife photos, make sure it's a quiet one.

OK, that's just about enough stuff on the topic of cameras. Well, maybe a quick summary... try to find a camera model that has the features you need without many gratuitous bells and whistles. Make sure it is supported with a good variety of lenses and other accessories; can you get a macro lens for it? Consider the weight of the camera, since you're going to be carrying it around a lot. Consider the reputation of the model and the manufacturer, but don't let one or two anecdotes overwhelm all other criteria, and don't get sucked into a camera brand cult.

Flash units and miscellaneous thingies

There are lots of accessories which I haven't covered, but most of them can be skipped without too many horrific consequences. You might want to get a bubble level which slides onto the flash shoe on your camera; it will help minimize wide angle weirdness and keep horizon lines level. A cable release, a device that connects to your shutter button and allows you to fire the shutter from a distance, can help reduce vibration on long exposures, yielding sharper images.

But the major category of accessories which I've mostly neglected is the flash unit. There's a reason I've mostly neglected flashes: I don't use them much for nature photography.

The main time I do use a flash is for macro photography; I've got a small flash with a cord that enables me to direct the light where I want it. Still, it requires special circumstances for a flash to be necessary; usually it's a flower cluster on top of a tall stalk swaying in a persistent wind. In such circumstances natural light doesn't quite work; if I stop down, the motion of the flowers in the breeze blurs the image, if I open the aperture, I don't get adequate depth of field.

When you use a flash for macro photos, you generally wind up with a black background, since the light from the flash doesn't reach very far into the distance. Sometimes this is kinda cool; it certainly helps focus your audience's attention on the primary subject. I still prefer to use available light wherever possible, since the black background doesn't look natural.

Another big group of accessories I've neglected is camera bags. The reason I've neglected them is pretty simple: I don't have much to say about them. You'll obviously need something to carry your camera, film, and whatever other doo-dads you use into the field. Your bag needs to be padded, to protect your expensive goodies from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and it needs to be water resistant, since good shooting days frequently have showers. It also needs to be big enough to hold what you need, but not so big that you feel obligated to fill it with stuff that you don't need, can't afford and is too heavy to schlepp around. And furthermore, the bag needs to be comfortable to carry; you'll be carrying it for great distances, over mountains, across rivers, through jungles, etc. A well stocked camera store will have about a bazillion bags from which to choose.