The Best Cameras For Surf Photography In 2023 (For Every Skill Level)

✅ Editing software

The best editing software for surf photography (and other kinds of photography) is Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. It’s easy to use and you can edit the colors, lighting and more to make it look more realistic and professional.

✅ Camera Cleaning Kit

This Altura Photo Professional Camera Cleaning Kit is an excellent choice for a high-quality kit for your camera and lens! It’s really important to have one on hand, and to regularly clean your gear, after being subjected to the elements like saltwater and air, sand and heat all day.

📷 Get the Altura Photo Professional Camera Cleaning Kit

✅ 4-In-One Travel Tripod

The best tripod for surf photography is one that is versatile, so you can use it with your camera or phone, or even as a monopod or selfie stick. This one is also perfect for traveling and walking around because it folds up smaller than most and is lightweight:

📷 Get this 4-in-1 Tripod

✅ Camera Insurance

If you’re going to be taking your camera and gear into the water, or doing other sports, you may want to spring for insurance. Companies like Progressive and Nationwide offer insurance for cameras and photography businesses.

👉 For travel insurance, I use Allianz.

✅ High-Quality SD cards

High-quality cameras are not made for regular SD cards. Especially doing video, I learned this the hard way when I first started out (my first DSLR came with a standard SD card). You need the best card to ensure you’re going to get the video without it stopping, say, every 10 seconds – and same goes for photos, especially with continuous shooting so you don’t end up with your camera stalling in-between shots.

I’ve been using SanDisk Extreme Pro Memory Cards for years.

📸 SanDisk Extreme Pro Memory Card for DSLR and Mirrorless

📷 Get the SanDisk Extreme Pro Memory Card

📸SanDisk 128GB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card for GoPro

📷 Get the SanDisk Extreme MicroSDXC for GoPro

✅ External Hard Drive for backups

Always back everything up in 2-3 places! This is usually on the cloud, on your computer and on an external hard drive. Seagate is one of the top brands for external hard drives, and I’ve used them for years.

📷 Get the Seagate 2TB External Hard Drive

✅ Waterproof Backpack

The Peak Design Everyday V2 20L waterproof hiking backpack will fit your camera and accessories – plus other things you need, of course! Also, it’s top-rated by reviewers and companies alike, so it’s definitely one of the best ones out there.

🎒📸 Learn More About the Peak Design Everyday V2 20L backpack here

✅ Waterproof Camera Case

I absolutely love this waterproof case for my DSLR and lens. It’s not 100% sealable – it has a velcro cover – but it’s made to fit inside any backpack! I love that I can switch it out between my travel and hiking backpack.

📷 Get the DSLR Waterproof Camera Insert Case

✅ Camera Strap or Clip

Get a high-quality camera strap or clip – and, if you’re going to be hiking with your camera you may want a clip or even a harness. Check out these amazing options for hiking and backpacking:

📸 Best Camera Straps For Backpacking

✅ Remote Shutter (this one works with Canon cameras)

A remote shutter helps you take long-exposure photos at night and sunrise/sunset with your tripod, and for continuous shooting and any kind of photo remotely for less blurry, clearer shots!

👉 Remote shutter (2-pack) for smartphones:

✅ Other accessories for the best cameras for surf photography

Here are more things you’ll need for your camera, and to keep it clean and dry:

• Lens for DSLR and Mirrorless cameras – this is up to you, and you. can have multiple ones. I recommend getting a good zoom lens since you’ll need to have a good range of focus with surfing.
• UV Protection Lens Filters – these can help protect your lens and camera from the sun, like sunscreen!
• Circular Polarizer – These help you get better photos, especially of water reflections and the bottom of clear water. Just make sure to get the right size to fit your lens!
• Backup battery and Backup Battery charger – you’ll need these for those times when you forget something or when you run out of battery charge.
• Backup lens cover – if you drop yours in the water or sand, you’ll want a backup for sure!
• Bag of rice – this is great to have on hand for surf photography in addition to your cleaning kit in case you actually drop your camera or phone in the water, or if it gets hit by a big wave (it’s happened to me with my phone)!

🏄‍♀️ What Your Camera Needs For Surf Photography

When it comes to surf photography, there is land-based and water-based surf photography. You may do one or both and the cameras listed can be used for both – you’ll just need to prioritize water-sealing and water resistance, plus get the best water-housing for your camera for water-based photography.

Land-based surf photography can also benefit greatly from water protection because of the sea air and sand.

🏄‍♀️ Environmental and Element Protection

Your camera needs waterproof protection plus protection from the salt air, heat, moisture and sand. You’ll need:

✅ Weather-sealing. Most cameras (and lenses) will say if they’re water resistant and/or water-sealed.

✅ Waterproof housing. Especially for water-based photography, but also if you’re going to get close to the water and waves, you’ll need waterproof housing, which you can buy separately. You can also bring a rain sleeve for added protection when you’re not using waterproof housing.

📷 Get this DSLR Mirrorless Camera Rain Cover Sleeve

🏄‍♀️ The Right Lighting Features

Lighting is extra important with surf photography because weather conditions vary, which means constant lighting changes. You’ll need control over things like ISO, as well as a camera that can capture the most realistic lighting and colors, even the most cloudy or sunny of days.

✅ Full Frame Sensors are better than cropped because:

• Full frame sensors allow more light to enter, which lets you capture a more complete range of color and mood.
• If you’re using a wide angle lens, it also helps your photos have more realistic (less warped) angles.
• Your camera sensor determines the type of lens you can buy, so if you get a full-frame camera, you’ll usually only be able to fit full-frame lenses. This is a good thing, because even if you’re not a pro, your camera is an investment.

✅ F-stop and Aperture

The Aperture is a hole in the lens that has an opening for light. It determines how much light comes into the sensor. The aperture’s blades (or diaphragm) opens and closes when you take the photo. If they aperture is low, the opening is smaller, and if it’s high, the opening is wider. This makes your photos lighter or darker, and also determines the depth of field, which is how much of your photo appears in focus versus blurry.

If you can control the aperture, you can control your photos more.

The F-stop (or F-number) is the ratio of the lens focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil, or basically the number you see when you adjust the aperture size. This is basically the aperture written out as a fraction. For example, f/2 is larger than f/16, which is smaller.

People will pay much more for cameras that allow for a larger maximum aperture, particularly for low-light photography and for allowing for more depth of field. The minimum f-stop isn’t as important.

✅ ISO

You can use ISO to brighten photos (by increasing it) when the weather conditions aren’t light enough, like on cloudy days or even at night. Cameras with a range of around 400-200 are needed for surf photography. You will only need ISO when the aperture and shutter speed don’t do enough for your photos.

🏄‍♀️ The Right Camera Features for Fast Surfing

Surf photography is a type of sports photography. Waves and surfers move extremely fast, and if your camera can’t capture the action, you’ll miss the moment when “the shot” happens. Here are the features to look for in a camera to capture the action for surf photography:

✅ 12 or higher Frames Per Second (FPS)

Look at this to see how many photos you can take per second continuously. This is absolutely important for action photos… 12 or higher is the best. Don’t go lower than 5.

✅ Shutter Speed for Fast Burst Shooting

This is about the light that your camera takes in. If it’s too low, your photos will turn out blurry, especially with motion as in surfing. In contrast, you want slow shutter speed for night photography, but everything has to be still because of the long exposure. Fast shutter speed means shorter exposure time.

✅ Autofocus

Autofocus is always important, and even more for beginner and intermediate photographers. It’s normal for photographers to be snobby about not using auto-anything, but don’t listen. No one is going to know if your amazing shot was made with autofocus… and you’ll get more amazing shots with it on!

I always like to experiment with both to make sure I get non-blurry shots (if I happen to not see the image clearly enough on the viewfinder).

✅ FPS

FPS is the frame rate, or number of frames recorded, per second when capturing video. The higher your frame rate, the smoother your videos will be, which is especially important for fast-moving waves and sports like surfing.

✅ Continuous Drive (Burst) Mode

Continuous Drive, or Burst Drive Mode is when you hold down the shutter button and your camera continues to take photos. It’s great for surfing photography, so you can ensure that you’ll get the shot, or even to capture a series. The higher the burst mode, the more shots you’ll be able to capture!

🏄‍♀️ Durability for The Best Cameras For Surf Photography

Durability will depend somewhat on the type of camera you buy, and a lot on how well you care for it (see how to make your camera last longer at the end of this post).

Higher-level cameras are built to be more durable, which is part of the reason for the high price tag.

✅ Weather-sealing

I’ve mentioned this already, but it’s an aspect of durability to ensure you’ll get a camera that can withstand the weather conditions for surf photography.

✅ Construction materials

The most durable and high-quality cameras are crafted with a single piece of metal. Many lower-priced cameras are made with plastic, and can still be quite durable.

✅ Shutter actuations (DSLR)

This varies by model and there are estimations for how many each model is expected to have. Usually, you’ll be wanting to upgrade by the time the camera wears out, if you care for it well!

🏄‍♀️ Additional Needs for Best Cameras For Surf Photography

Here are a few more things to consider when choosing the right surf photography camera for you:

✅ Video capability

Unless you’re never going to want to capture video, this is important. A high FPS, as mentioned earlier, is a factor to consider, and how long the camera can capture video (usually not more than 30 minutes at a time). With social media, it’s definitely a plus to have high quality video capability!

✅ WiFi capability

Having WiFi lets you automatically send photos from your camera to your phone or laptop, as well as taking photos from your phone with an app (selfie, anyone?). This is helpful for getting backups to ensure you get each photo safely to your computer, or for being able to send photos to others or yourself on-the-go without messing with the memory card download process.

✅ RAW image format

Shooting in RAW is very important because it captures more data so you can edit, print large photos and more, all of which will give you the highest-quality, professional photos to share!

🏄‍♀️ The Best Cameras for Surf Photography: Brands and Types

If you’re considering which brand to go with for your camera, here’s some things to consider:

• Canon: Considered industry standard and overall best brand for photography and video.

• Nikon: Another great brand, but more expensive and less options. Also not as great for video.

• Sony: More affordable and easy to use, great for video and really improving especially in the mirrorless arena.

• GoPro: A GoPro is an action camera, and much like a drone or 360-degree camera, it’s in its own category. This makes an excellent addition to a good camera to get action shots, and it’s best for video.

• Phones: If you get an upgraded phone with a higher quality camera, you can get great photos. However, you’ll want to be careful when zooming in – usually the megapixels can’t match a high quality camera. You also may not be able to print out large photo prints of phone pictures.

🏄‍♀️ Tips for Choosing The Best Cameras For Surf Photography

Here are a few extra tips to consider when making a choice for what camera to get for surf photography:

• Don’t purchase used gear from other surf photographers. Other used cameras are okay, but the ones from photographers who have been out in the ocean air and around the sand and heat will have damage that has built up over time from the elements.
• Use a GoPro mounted on your camera water housing to capture video while shooting photos! This will help you get lots of easy extra footage, and you can take stills from the GoPro video.
• Don’t use a point-and-shoot. If you’re serious at all about photography (even as a hobby), trust me – you’ll never be truly satisfied with a point-and-shoot. Plus, even starting from a beginner DSLR or Mirrorless camera will help you learn the settings. Once you’re used to it, it gets easier!

🏄‍♀️ Making your camera last longer for surf photography

✅ Don’t leave batteries or memory cards in for long periods of time

✅ Don’t charge your battery or camera on the wrong kind of charger (you could ruin it)

✅ Keep your camera out of extreme heat or cold, or high moisture for long periods of time. Also don’t take your camera from one extreme temperature into another right away. You can use a bag to prevent damage for this kind of circumstance.

✅ Use a high-quality camera strap or clip and avoid letting your camera bump or bounce around too much

✅ Use a protective bag specific for cameras when traveling

✅ Know how to use your tripod and always make sure everything is secured and leveled correctly.

✅ Always turn the power off immediately when you’re not using the camera

✅ Bring a soft cloth, bag of rice and cleaning kit to make sure it’s dry at all times

✅ Keep your lenses clean

✅ Let the professionals take care of anything else

🏄‍♀️ FAQs for The Best Cameras For Surf Photography

👉 What is the best camera for surfing?

The Sony A1 is the best Mirrorless camera for surf photography, the Canon 1DX Mark III is the best DSLR for surf photography, and the GoPro HERO 11 Black is the best action camera for surf photography and video.

👉 Is 300mm enough for surf photography?

For lens, you’ll want a really good zoom especially if you’re photographing surfers from land, so you can get close-ups as well as photos with some scenery. 300mm telephoto lenses are enough, but you may want stronger eventually.

👉 How do you take a good surf picture?

For surfing, a few tips are important for taking good surf pictures: Practice leveling the horizon in the photo; experiment with lighting so your subject gets good light; make use of continuous shooting and get a good camera for surf photography.

👉 How do you photograph surfers in water?

Get comfortable in the water, and use both a GoPro for consistency and a good camera like the ones listed in this article. Make sure it’s not too heavy for you and that you have waterproof housing for it. Then, it’s all about practice!

👉 What’s the best waterproof camera for surf photography?

GoPros are the best waterproof action cameras for surf photography, but you’ll need waterproof housing for anything deeper than 10m (33ft). The best cameras for surf photography in general are DSLRs and Mirrorless, and they’re listed in this article. You’ll need waterproof housing for all of them.

👉 What’s the best surfing camera that follows you?

GoPros are the best surfing cameras that follow you because you can attach them to a surfboard, helmet, or literally anything else and just press record. Later, you can pull video and photos from the footage. GoPro has Emmy award-winning stabilization, too.

🏄‍♀️ All In All: The Best Camera For Surf Photography In 2023

I hope this guide helps you in your quest for the best cameras for surf photography! Happy photo-taking, surfing, and traveling!

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