How much camera zoom do I want?
 

I absolutely LOVE my Sony zoom 12x.
Most of the pics in my profile album were done with it.

I am now looking at the new 20x zoom by Sony. But it is pretty expensive still. This is 500 dollars and very new. I am hoping it will come down next year.

My son wants me to get the Panasonic 18x zoom. FZ28.
This model is $305 at Amazon. He said it was a huge value for the price and got very good reviews and has quality.

My old Sony was one of the first...and if it were not for the poor battery life, I wouldn't think of replacing it.

All of the super zooms now have a digital zoom in addition. That gives you an incredible option for fabulous sports/nature and candid portraits. I'd recommend a super zoom over the little cameras any day.

I got my DH a Nikon and he likes it a lot. I have a Panasonic but that was more expensive.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218068778550

Here's a Kodak that's on sale and included a 4mb memory card. It's $135, pretty cheap for all that's included.

I think it depends on what you want to do with the camera, too.

What I want and need are nature and candid portrait.

One does not really need 10 megapixels these days unless you are a professional with certain requirements for reproducing large photos. (this is my son's advice).

But the zoom capability is limited on small cameras.

There is a site that evaluates cameras I found very helpful:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

I used that site to whittle down my Sony which was my first digital purchase. It helped me decide between Canon and Kodak.

There are also forums on the net with people who have bought them. Amazon has a rating place for each too. The Canon zoom at the time had a small viewing screen, and had problems with focus. The Kodak had about 50% of purchasers who were very unhappy with it. So at the time I chose the Sony and I can tell you it is a fabulous camera. Now there are other models. The H50 has replaced mine, for example.

Most of the super zooms have anti-motion feature, and the new ones have very good anti-noise added (wish I had the anti-noise). The anti-noise allows for taking pics in low light, which you may otherwise miss...and when you put them in computer, you will not get as much distortion.

I am stilll waffling on getting a new one. I guess for me it is learning a whole new digital/computerized camera...which will slow me down quite a bit when I get the quick nature event that requires speed...like hummingbirds!

If you have problems like tremor you'll like the antimotion features some have. If you need a large viewing screen, you'll have to choose Sony for example, they typically have the largest.
If money is a factor, you'll probably want Kodak. They are always less $$ than the other names.

All of the super zooms are automatic and have manual features if you want to turn them into an SLR. They typically do not take RAW formats. RAW is a bit beyond me, but my son uses that. Says the pictures are "better". RAW is found in SLR digitals.

I have a Kodak 650z and love it! It was about $250 and came with all the stuff I needed - extra recharge batteries, a dock, etc.

It's probably a lot cheaper now.

Thing is, just get the best one you can afford. you'll end up playing with the features and finding what works for you.


Everyone I know, once they go digi, they never go back.



Oh, and there is digital zoom and optical zoom. Optical zoom is better - it zooms closer to how your eyes do.

I've had a digi for about 10 yrs now. Never could take a decent shot before that. Now, there are some I don't mind hanging on the wall. Even had people ask me for copies.

Mt earlier kodaks - I'm on my 3rd one now - had sad bat life too. This one is impressive. I can go all day and the batt is still good. I've zoomed in and out several times and still gotten like 80+ shots at Best quality w/o charging.

Only thing I'm not crazy about is it takes a few seconds to store every pic so it's ready to shoot again. Are some quicker?

That Pansonic does sound nice.

Yes, the older digital cameras had their faults. Shutter speed was one.

My son and I took hummingbird pics together on the dock, last summer. He has a Pentax SLR with lots of lenses, and I have my Sony zoom.

Mine came out better mostly! He was miffed. But then I am quicker than he is, because of his vision handicap which sometimes impairs him a little.

I have my hummer pics in my album here.
My son got one splendid shot tho of the bird in flight that is very unusual.
This is his Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekevi...7607101413789/

Feel free to look around there. Some of his things are really good..for a hobby.

I agree about quality of digital. I was never very good with a camera, and had a film Olympus zoom 70mm. I got so so shots with it. This digital is just knocking me out. I actually have FUN with it. Get excited sometimes !! LOL
You can delete mistakes, and take more pics for no money spent, etc. I never took pictures of my garden before. Now I can take them, crop them in the computer, and zero into details, etc. FUN FUN FUN.

The pictures of my son on the jet ski (in my album)... he was a little dot on the water, and I could get many of him zoomed in and he was moving FAST too. I couldn't believe it. That is why I'd like the new 20x zoom.
Kevin says the Panasonic is just as good. So I am tempted, believe ME!

The old Sony's only took rechargable Nihydride 2500mv batteries. When using flash+ anti-jiggle+ zoom, it just eats them up. And they don't store long...if you leave them in the camera a month, they are dead!
The new high powered lithium rechargeables are much better. That is why I am thinking "new camera" too.

My son took the petunia with his camera, I am using for an avatar now. It handled really well, being scrunched down like that!

If you have "nice" pawn shops near you I'd suggest looking in them also.

I found a nice Olympus for 150.00 reg sells for 350.00 - checked that when I got it home.

before I bought it -I asked if I find that something is wrong with it can I return for my money back and they said yes for up to 2 weeks.
It also came with an additional memory chip.

I did have to download the manual from the Olympus website and I saved as a pdf but that was easy and fine with me.

I took a bunch of pics experimenting/ trying all the settings at home and found no problems so I kept it.:)

One thing to not skimp on is the lens. You will find better quality lenses on the Nikons, Sonys, Olympus type cameras. I am not impressed with the lens quality on the cheaper Kodaks - the more expensive Kodaks (like Brain's) are better.

You could put a $150 Nikon up against a $150 Kodak and see the difference if all other options (zoom, pixels, etc) were the same. I have done it with a friend's Kodak vs. my Nikon.

Brain is right about digital vs. optical zoom. I do not care how much digital zoom there is, it is all about the optical. Digital zoom tends to compromise photo quality.

I wanted to add find one that has settings and such that are easy to use and to figure out.

No use buying one that has the setting & options but you can't easily use them.

Holly - the lens on mine is a Schneider-Kreuznach. That was one of the features that did sell me, even though I don't know squat about lenses. I figured, if the others were just generic, this had to be better. There is a big diff in quality of pix from my other cameras and this one.

It seems like Kodak has always meant *user friendly* and maybe not focused on having the highest quality, where the other brands you mention are for more serios photographers. I think they are getting down to business now though.

And their software is definately user friendly - if I can do it lol. I can't speak for anyone else's though.

For pix of pets, flowers, this one has been a blast.

My Sony zoom came with 2 manuals. An easy fast access one, that was just folded up, and a regular softcover book (half of which was in Spanish).

My son does fancy things...and he says my camera will too.
White Balance to control color

Adjusting shutter to auto repeat

manual changing of ISO settings (camera does it automatically and sometimes fails with tons of noise in picture)

Picking black/white mode which he likes (I don't typically need this--but it is good for arty effects) There are other color settings I think.

I don't do any of those (and I still don't understand ISO very well). I just point and shoot. The little knob on top gives icons for type... a golfer for speedy fast motion, a moon for pictures in the dark, regular icon, portrait,landscape for far away shots, etc. I only use the fast one with the golfer on it and the regular.

This toad pic was taken in total darkness at 4am--- he is sitting in the cats' water dish...and we wondered where all the water was going from the quart reservoir. He was sitting in it every day. I don't suppose the water tasted very good either for the cats the rest of the day!
Taking a night shot like this is slow...the camera processes and does stuff, so at least 30 sec pass between shots.
The toad didn't like it much, as the flash was bright.
This was the first year I had the camera, so I was excited to catch this event. We had been very low on toads..some epidemic etc. Now they are coming back. We called this one the porch toad. He is probably the same one in my campions that I have in my profile album! LOL

Mrs D - Cool toad! Yeah, I should find the manual and figure that stuff out. Kodak's site has all the tips in the world too, I just never took the time - maybe after I move...


JW - good luck with your choice. You can hardly go wrong with all the good cameras out there. You're just bound to have fun and get good pix, so I look forward to seeing what shots you get.

I agree... the FUN part was totally a surprise for me. LOL
It took me about 2 mons to not be "afraid" of all the techno stuff and once I started practicing I found it wasn't that difficult. Just dunning at first.

I have tons of fun with my camera, which is rather outdated already! I enjoy putting the photos into the computer and making avatars, siggie pics etc too. My program is Jasc/Corel
PaintShop and has many ways to tweak the photos and make them better. My camera is a 5.1 px, and now they are around 9-10 px just 3 yrs later! If you get a pic or situation that is not a good exposure, you can fix it and make it better (can't do that with film). If you have noise reduction feature that is even MUCH better, because some noise may still ruin a shot. The new cameras all have the noise reduction. (when I shoot the deer in the woods, sometimes they are dark, and about 1/2 the time I can't fix them adequately).

So yes, please do come back and tell us what you bought, and how you like it! I am eager to see!

I use Picasa3 & Photoscape the most for my photo editing and such.
both are free:D

http://picasa.google.com/
http://www.photoscape.org/