 Camera choice |
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| I need advice on my choice of camera | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Potterfield Alan Fielding Post Count: 44 Msg: #1 94 weeks ago, February 25th 2008 | Hi everyone, | I am going to be on my way to South America soon and I plan to take a camera with a nice large zoom on it. I cannot afford a DSLR so I am limited to a "compact super zoom". However I need advice before I buy. I have been looking at the Panasonic FZ18 with a 18x optical zoom. Is 18x optical zoom overkill? Or would I be better off saving the money and getting something with say 12x or 10x zoom? Bear in mind I plan to travel to the Pantanal and other wildlife areas where I may not be able to get up close enough to take pictures. Any advice or recommendations are welcome.  Mikey M Mike Meggiato Post Count: 325 Msg: #2 94 weeks ago, February 26th 2008 | Id say that with a compact that a zoom is only good up to a certain level and then after that the quality starts lacking, id say 18 is overkill but im no expert, im just adding my two cents. | Thx Mike:)  TeamTurner Michael & Kelley Turner Post Count: 238 Msg: #3 94 weeks ago, February 26th 2008 | I would agree with Mike above, after a point compact cameras begin to extend their zoom distance by actually cropping the picture digitally. This means that a picture taken at 18x would actually be fuzzier/grainer than one taken at, say, 3x. If you look over some of my safari pictures such as: or | These pictures were taken using a 600mm zoom on a DSLR which creates 10.1 mp pictures. That is effectively a 12x zoom but was done completely with the lens instead of digitally. With a point and shoot the quality can drop by up to 50% as the zooms get longer. Just something to think about. I would tell you that 18x is a bit much but 10x is probably not enough for a safari. Either way, you'll get some fabulous pictures and tons of great memories! Mike T. Potterfield Alan Fielding Post Count: 44 Msg: #4 94 weeks ago, February 27th 2008 | The FZ18 actually has an 18x optical zoom so there wouldn't be any digital cropping involved with this camera (unless I zoom further than 18x) from what I understand. | TeamTurner Michael & Kelley Turner Post Count: 238 Msg: #5 94 weeks ago, February 27th 2008 | I actually just went and checked out reviews of the camera. It looks like it has an effective focal length of 504mm which is pretty darn impressive for a camera of its size. The only negative I saw was that it takes pictures rather slowly which could be difficult when it comes to capturing the moment. Here's the paragraph I was reading which is from a review from cnet.com: | Panasonic's Mega OIS image stabilizer works well, as always. In casual testing, photographing a stationary subject indoors at the camera's maximum 504mm-equivalent focal length using multipoint focus, I was able to shoot a reasonably sharp photo at 4 stops slower than mandated by the reciprocal focal-length rule; 1/125 second instead of 1/2,000 second. On the other hand, the FZ18's relatively low resolution 207,000-pixel 2.5-inch LCD and EVF disappoint. Typical for this class of cameras, they preview completely different color and exposures, but worse, they update far slower those of than competitors such as the S8000fd, making it difficult to shoot active subjects such as kids and pets. Sounds like photos with the zoom all the way out turn out best for stationary objects. Could be a problem. Just a thought! Mike T.  sQuish Gary Post Count: 3 Msg: #6 94 weeks ago, February 27th 2008 | If you havent seen this site before, its a good one for comparing cameras. Camera Reviews | Potterfield Alan Fielding Post Count: 44 Msg: #7 94 weeks ago, February 27th 2008 | Thanks for the advice guys. | Number of Users: 4 | Number of Posts: 7 | |||||||||||||||
