- Winners of the Wildlife Photographer of The Year 2025 announced
- Overall winner was captured using an 11-year-old Nikon D810 DSLR
- The Canon EOS R5 is the most popular camera amongst competition entrants
The winners of the Wildlife Photographer of The Year 2025 contest have been unveiled, and once again, it’s a set of incredible images. The overall winner was shot by South African photographer, Wim van den Heever, who takes home the Grand Prize.
His image depicts an otherworldly scene of a rare brown hyena exploring the dilapidated remains of the abandoned mining town of Kolmanskop in Namibia, a setting which creates an almost dystopian atmosphere. Van den Heever explains that he worked for almost ten years to capture his composition of a brown hyena in the perfect location, and his patience paid off, creating a haunting mood that reflects the ability of wildlife to recolonize areas once dominated by human activity.
The Wildlife Photographer of The Year Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious photo contests. This year was a record-breaker, drawing in more than 60,000 entries from across the globe. The contest caters to nature photographers of all specialisms and interests, featuring multiple rounds such as Animal Portraits, Birds, Invertebrates, Urban Wildlife, Underwater, Plants and Fungi, Wildlife Photojournalism, and more.
Eagle-eyed photographers will notice an even more astounding detail; that the overall winning shot, beating thousands of other entries, was taken on a DSLR camera from the last decade. Van den Heever shot his masterpiece on a Nikon D810, which having been launched back in the summer of 2014, is just about ancient in digital terms. In an age of rapidly developing mirrorless cameras, Van den Heever’s achievement is a testament to the longevity of enthusiast DSLRs. It proves that, just because a camera might lack the many bells and whistles of the most recent models, AI autofocus modes, subject recognition and tracking, and global electronic shutter modes to name but a few, this doesn’t make it redundant.
DSLRs are far from dead
The overall winner is not alone in being captured by an older DSLR model. In fact, they feature heavily across many of this year’s categories.
The winner of the youth category of the competition, Young Wildlife Photographer of The Year, also saw the top image captured on an aging Nikon DSLR camera. Andrea Dominizi from Italy used his Nikon D7100 to shoot a close-up frame of a longhorn beetle in the Lepini Mountains region. He paired this with a Tokina 10–17mm fisheye lens for a super-wide perspective, and an off-camera flash to provide some extra fill light.
Meanwhile, Dennis Stogsdill of the USA used an old pro favorite to capture his winning image in the Mammals category. The Canon EOS 1DX Mark II was his tool of choice, a top-level body capable of burst rates of 14 frames per second, or as high as 16fps in Live View mode. This gives many recent mirrorless bodies a run for their money.
Elsewhere, Ralph Pace won in the Underwater category using a Nikon D850 in a Nauticam housing. This DSLR is often considered one of the finest models of the type, blending high resolution with excellent low-light performance – ideal for shooting in an underwater setting.
While DSLRs are showing they have plenty of life left in them yet, Canon still has a good reason to celebrate its mirrorless RF mount system. Of all the high-performing images entered into the competition, it is the Canon EOS R5 that features most often, making it the most popular camera. This isn’t much of a surprise since the original R5 scored highly when we first reviewed it, while its successor currently ranks as the best Canon camera.
This offers a fascinating insight into the type of gear nature photographers are choosing to work with in 2025, and demonstrates that experienced shooters are holding on to tried and tested gear, whether this was released within the past five years, or as far back as the previous decade.
What do you currently shoot with? Would you still use an eleven-year-old DSLR? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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