Shoot to Kill

One of the most frequent questions I hear is what kind of camera should be used for climbing photography. Most people expect that pro photographers carry many cameras and many lenses to get that professional result.

Actually, most photographers that I know will carry a bag of gear to the base of a route and, like racking for a pitch at the Cookie Cliff or for Indian Creek their camera gear is customized for that particular climb. The photo gear selection, like in climbing, is a process of elimination. Each piece of gear is selected for optimal performance. You don't want to haul a pile of camera gear up on a wall just so you'll have it on hand in case you need it.

The best climbing journalism is shot using a lightweight and efficient camera system, usually just one or two cameras and a couple of lenses. My choice for a perfect climber's camera set-up is a 35 mm SLR camera with a zoom lens that tends toward the wide-angle perspective. My personal favorite climbing lens is a 20-35 zoom, but I can shoot 95% of my photos while on a climb with the smaller and much cheaper 28-105 zoom.

For even more speed and ease or if an SLR is too much to carry I'll use a point and shoot camera. Using a point and shoot is a compromise over an SLR because of the "slow" zoom lenses and lack of custom controls to override the auto settings, but you can still "push" a point and shoot and get very good photos. The best point and shoot camera for climbers is one with a wide angle zoom lens. Some great affordable cameras in this group are the Pentax IQ zoom 928 with a 28-90 mm zoom, the Olympus Stylus zoom 80 wide with a 28-80 zoom or The Minolta Freedom Zoom Explorer with a 28-70 mm zoom. A higher-end camera is the Contax TVS II with a Zeiss 28-56 zoom.

But really, who cares what kind of camera you use, as any photo editor will tell you it's the results that count. Just don't tell my editor that! All of the photos in this article were shot using a point and shoot camera.