Camcorder for pictures ?????

EddieWalker · May 4, 2006

Mike,

Your right about 12x being the largest available on digital cameras, but I was also considering the digital SLR cameras with seperate lenses.

I have no idea what a 300mm lense translates to in optical zoom or how many power it would be. I have a 500mm lense for my 35mm camera that I used for wildlife pics on a tripod that worked pretty good. Still some fuzzy pics, but with the timer or a remot trigger, I'm able to get a decent pic every now and then.

I did a search on www.mysimon.com for prices and Butterfly Photo http://www2.butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?ref=cnet&sku=S2IS has it for $315.

Still gonna watch Ebay for the right deal. They happen, you just have to wait out the crazy people who like to bid up a price days before it ends. I only get into bidding in the last half hour at the earliest.

Thanks,
Eddie

Gatorboy · May 4, 2006

<font color="blue"> ( I have no idea what a 300mm lense translates to in optical zoom or how many power it would be. ) </font>

The optical zoom is based on the range of the zoom. For example the S2 goes from 36-432mm. Divide 432 by 36 and you get 12. People get hung up on the zoom-X number when it really isn't that relevant on it's own. If the lens went from 20-300mm, that would be a 15X zoom, yet it only goes to 300mm rather than the 432mm of the S2. Optical zoom is a marketing thing. People feel bigger is better.

A 300mm lens for a camera is just that, a 300mm lens. When serious photographers are buying lenses, they don't say, I've got this great 2.85X optical zoom lens -- rather they say, I've got a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens (or whatever the type is). The best lenses are prime lenses -- that is one single fixed size. Zoom lenses are typically not as sharp as primes and the bigger the multiplication factor, (i.e. 12x -- 36-432mm) normally the more degraded quality.

This isn't wildlife, but here is a picture of a high school lacrosse player prior to his game last Wednesday evening. This was taken with a 120-300mm Sigma lens on my Canon 20D from about 60 feet away. Today's camcorders can't come close to this type of quality.

Jimbrown · May 4, 2006

I have a Canon ELURA 85 it has an 18x zoom and takes still and movies. The still are on a seperate memory chip. There are several cameras in the Elura series that do this, mine is a middle of the roader. It does what you want but is kinda hard to use the view finder you would need to try one before you bought it. I also have a Canon EOS Rebel with 55-200 lens it is far superior and takes as good or better pictures than any 35 mm film camera I ever owned. I would buy the Rebel over the movie camera any day for wildlife pictures. At one time my wife was an advid wild life photo person and we made one photo sefari to Africa. She has several of the high end Canon film 35 mm including a 1000mm lens. I like the rebel better than any of the others. manily becuse you can shoot 100's of pictures on the memory chips and just keep the ones you like.

MikePA · May 4, 2006

Hi Eddie,

<font color="blue">I have no idea what a 300mm lense translates to in optical zoom or how many power it would be. </font>
A 300 mm lens would be about an 8x optical zoom. A 500 mm would be about 14x.

A friend of mine had a Nikon 35mm camera body and a collection of lenses. He first bought Nikon D70 and recently traded it in for a Nikon D100. All of his 35mm lenses worked fine with the digital body. There might have been issues with things like auto-focus or some other features, but atl east he could still use his lenses. He's a photographer for a fire/EMS company. I used to have 35 mm (Yashica) and a collection of lenses too but have sold them and gone completely digital with a super zoom. Got tired of lugging around the lenses.

California · May 4, 2006

Eddie, I started out looking at the S2-IS and ended up with a Panasonic TZ-1.

It's 10x zoom @ 5mp, or 12.5x zoom @ 3mp which is equivalent to a 438 mm telephoto on a 35mm film camera. Like the Canon it has image stabilization to make the long lens useful and burst mode so you can select the best shot.

It's small enough to carry everywhere. About $330 at Circuit City, or $300 mailorder. Panasonic also makes larger cameras with more capabilities.

The following Panasonic discussion group is full of amateur bird photographers:

Dpreview.com-Panasonic Forum

I think a couple of hours reading there and looking at the bird pictures posted would be well worthwhile.

(BIF = bird in flight, if some of the thread titles aren't obvious.)

Attached:
Old Sacramento waterfront. I made these from the opposite side of the river at min and max (12.5x) zoom, with my new TZ-1.

California · May 4, 2006

... and there's more info in the image that can be brought out with post-processing. (PhotoShop Elements 3).

Note the sharpness of the brick wall, the train car number, and train passengers now made visible.

(The white mast at the front of the riverboat is common to both the wide and zoom pictures).

I love this TZ-1!

Eddie, I think any of the better Panasonics would be great for bird photography.

EddieWalker · May 10, 2006

California,

Thanks for the like to Dpreview. I read quite a bit of stuff there and found it to be very informative.

Mike & Bill,

Thank you for all your help and advice about the Cannon S2. It seems to be what she's looking for more than anything else we've come across.

Bills pictures really sold her on it too!! The series of pictures with the eagles was just amazing. Thank you.

Over the weekend we went to Tyler and looked at cameras at several stores to see what they felt like and worked. We both really liked the Cannon S2.

Walmart along with everyone else has it for $399. A search on www.mysimon.com and www.cnet.com showed the cheapest we could get it for was $318 from a company with less than steller ratings. Three out of five stars for ranking.

Beach Camera had it for $329 with a very good store rating, so that's who we used. We also added a 1GB SD card for another $50 for a grand total, with shipping, of $379. Still allot cheaper than Walmart.

We were watching them on Ebay for about a week now and the going price seems to run around $300 for used, new and refurbished. Doesn't seem to matter which. Cheapest shipping is $16 on Ebay and it goes all the way up to $40 on some auctions. It's gotton to the point that Ebay is just for checking prices. I haven't bought anything from there in a very long time.

The camera will be here next week and she's very exited about using it!!!!

Thank you to everyone else for your help and advice.
Eddie

BillG_in_TX · May 10, 2006

Eddie,

I'm sure she'll like it. Now that the S3 is shipping (approx $500), I would expect the S2 to start dropping in price, but what you paid is an excellent price for a very good camera. I'm tempted to buy one, even though there's nothing wrong with my S1 (for my purposes anyway). I'm trying hard not to read the user reviews, since they are all basically ga-ga over their wisdom in selecting such a wonderful piece of equipment, /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif and make me feel foolish for even hestitating to take the plunge. However, you might take a look at the 1st user review on Amazon's S2 IS page. He has some good tips and insight on the features of the S2.

And when you get it, y'all might take a trip over to Sendero's place and take pictures of those birds he's having trouble identifying. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

edit: If you decide to get an adapter tube for additional lenses and/or filters, I urge you to get the one of the Lensmate versions. It is machined metal and matches the camera body, while the Canon version is black plastic. The Lensmate adapter also connects very snugly, while the Canon has some slop in it. I bought the Canon first, then sold it to a friend for half price and bought the Lensmate. Also, the Lensmate people are very savvy on all the adapter/lens/filter combinations and extremely helpful over the phone.

EddieWalker · May 18, 2006

Bill, thanks for all your help and advice.

We've looked at the Lensmate website and got a little confused on what to order. She wants maximum zoon ability that will still give her clear pictures.

This picture of the cardinal is a little fuzzy, so she needs to work on that as well, but it's her first day and she's having allot of fun.

Eddie

EddieWalker · May 18, 2006

Bill, thanks for all your help and advice.

We've looked at the Lensmate website and got a little confused on what to order. She wants maximum zoon ability that will still give her clear pictures.

This picture of the cardinal is a little fuzzy, so she needs to work on that as well, but it's her first day and she's having allot of fun.

Eddie