Monday, March 21, 2011

Cameras

Hi all
I will be needing a decent camera shortly for wildlife photography and would appreciate advice from you clever people.
Mike has suggested interchangeable lenses. What do you use/recommend?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

its all down to your budget,

AndyC said...

Panasomic Lumix for a cheap versetile ,light weight camera..with a good zoom and macro setting.

Nick Carter said...

I'd agree with Andy, I know several local birders have them, even I can take a half decent photo with one. Recommended.

Mike Stead said...

The Lumix has a great lens and is really light - I'd definitely buy another !

Jeff Cox said...

A camera with interchangeable lenses would mean a digital SLR (DSLR). I have a Nikon D40 DSLR and it is a heavy camera. I also have an old Fuji Finepix S5000 but that suffers from shutter lag and that problem alone lead me down the DSLR route to get rid of it. However, the Fuji has a great optical and digital zoom and is light and compact.

I have a 55-200mm zoom lens on the Nikon and an 18-55mm wide angle lens but I rarely use the wide angle lens. I reckon you want at least a 300mm digital lens to get decent shots. A longer lens means more money - back to Nick D's point about budget.

I got my DSLR 4 years ago and if I had to buy a new camera now I'd check out the Lumix range of intermediate/bridge cameras. I don't know if they still suffer from shutter lag (time from pressing the button to the camera taking the photo) but their all round flexibility and light weight makes them worth a long look. They can also be fiddly to get into manual focus mode (at least that's what Nick Dawtrey told me last year) whereas DSLR's are simple to get into manual focus. (Manual focus is useful when branches/undergrowth get in the way of auto-focus).

A friend of mine took nearly 6 months to decide between a Canon DSLR and a compact/intermediate camera. He went to camera shops and used the web to research the thing to death and eventually decided on a DSLR. Each to their own but it does depend on what you want to photograph and how much money you want to spend.

martynbirder said...

As a former keen photograper in the eighties,I've recentley used both type's of digital, a compact (Minolta 4m pix)with macro and a telephoto equal to 400mm which has produced some excellent results and am now using a Canon 550D SLR with a Tamron 90mm for photographing Moths which does produce brilliant results but at a price.(I'm still deciding about a bigger telephoto. A decent DSLR with a couple of lenses will cost anything from £800+ where a great compact will cost about £250+, I'd go for a compact first and a DSLR later if you are very keen, it took me two years to decide and I had been using SLR's for at least ten years in the eighties

Bruce said...

Many thanks to all who replied. I am more confused now! I will have a look today at Janet Greens - just a look.

Alf King said...

I'd recommend a Panasonic Lumix FZ50 which has a good manual zoom. These can be picked up on EBay so that you can get a good idea of their suitability for your purposes and, if you don't like, sell it again without costing you a fortune.

HTH