Looking For A Camera On A Budget, $200-$300, Optical Zoom

Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:33 pm

Alright I have to admit im not great at photography, and I have very little experience shooting. Does anyone have any suggestions for a camera that has optical zoom, Decent(doesnt have to be spectacular) quality, decent battery life(optional), and is good for indoor, outdoor, and high speed passes. And I can't really afford more than $300.

My dad bought a Fujifilm camera that takes 4 or 5 seconds to take a shot after hitting the button, ussualy missing the action. I would like to avoid this if at all possible.

Am I better off getting a 35mm SLR? Thanks

Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:59 pm

I went to Ritz got a Nikkon D-50 DSLR and it was like 550, but they have store credit if you want to go that route, so you can make payments.

Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:10 pm

I have a 5mp Kodak Z 740 with a 10X zoom that I got bundled with a printer dock. It does stills in various lighting conditions (be very still when doing night shots) and video (I love how well it reproduces sound and the picture quality ain't bad either).

Going rate at the Dell store is $280.46

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=A0459292

Here's a shot I took last week. The first one is raw. It appears just as it did when I downloaded it onto my computer. The second is what it looked like after a very slight tweak using picasa 2

Here is a link to some video I shot last summer using this camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYZ_EKFub3o

Hope you find this helpful in your decision making. I know I was really pulling my hair out when I was trying to choose a camera.

Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:19 pm

Warhawk: Hows the delay on the camera?

Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:40 pm

It takes about 6 seconds to boot up when you switch on and on average a second to focus on what you want to take a picture of. It has different settings for taking different kinds of shots.

When the subject is stationary.

When the subject is in motion.

For portraits.

Nighttime and low light conditions.

There are a couple more, but I have yet to use them. I got it back over the summer and all I have used are the stationary, in motion, night and video features.

I know this if I know nothing else. When you click that shutter you've got what you've got. The night setting is the only one that lags because the shutter has to stay open longer. I have messed up more low light shots by moving to soon.........

Here are some night shots.

Can you tell I jiggled?

I really need to get to an airshow so I can put it through it's paces doing stills and video. I will say that any and all crappy shots I"ve taken with my camera have been my own fault and not the fault of the equipment.

Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:21 pm

Would you consider something used? If so, PM me. I have a Sony DSC F707 for sale.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscf707/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/ ... index.html

I upgraded to a Canon with a removable lens so this is in excess to my needs. I also have a Sony tele-extender for it.

It works great for airshows but no image stabilization. Takes good photos in low light as well.

Last edited by bdk on Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:54 am

I bought a Canon PowerShot S2 for about $350 at Best Buy last summer, and have been quite pleased. It's 5 megapixel, with a 10X optical zoom. Knowing how fast technology advances, it's probably been superceded by the next generation model by now, meaning you can probably pick one up fairly cheap.

SN

Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:20 pm

For a high quality point and shoot camera I have three words for you. Sony, Sony, Sony. W50, W55, and W100 are all good point and shoot cameras. They all have glass lenses (some point and shoots have plastic lenses which will significantly reduce picture quality.) If you get a Sony make sure you get one that has a Carl Zeiss lens of some sort. These will make a difference in how your pictures look.

Don't get too concerned about mega pixels (6 mega pixels will get you 8x10 at almost 300 DPI which is good) Be more concerned with the glass and Carl Zeiss makes very nice point and shoot lenses as far as I know Sony is the only company licensed to sell Carl Zeiss in a point and shoot. Carl Zeiss makes some of the most expensive and nicest lenses in the world for the big stuff and the point and shoot stuff is good as well. Canon makes some very nice lenses too but not sure how nice their point and shoot stuff is although I will say that I have seen a couple of their point and shoots and they are nice but not sure what models.

If you want something with big zoom for air shows you can get the Sony H1 which has a 12x zoom and image stabilization for less than $350.

Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:44 pm

I bought the Panasonic DMC-FZ7 for a point and shoot digital. It is a 6 MP camera with a 12X opitcal zoom. bought it online for @ $250.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/FZ7/FZ7A.HTM

I have been pretty happy with it. It is not a Digital SLR (on my wish list) but it will function in Auto or manual mode and everything in between.

It does a fair job with airplanes and at night.

Samples

Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:34 pm

Hey, who owns the helicopter?

Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:55 pm

The n-number search comes up with PHI Inc. http://www.phihelico.com/

It was being used as an air ambulance the day I saw it.

Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:08 pm

Alright, anyone have any experience with a Tamron 70-300mm Di LD lense? Thanks for all the replies!

Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:23 am

Still on the old topic, but you might take a look at the Sony DSC-H2. It's pretty much the direct competitor to Ztex's Panasonic, it has Zeiss glass, long zoom and image stabilization for those airshow shots, and the street price has recently dropped below $300. The tiny 0.4" sensors on all of these high-end non-DSLRs is a problem for the noise they introduce, but if you keep it on lower ISO settings and don't expect the kind of 8x10s you would get from a DSLR or a 35mm camera, you might like it fine. I don't own it though so shop the review sites and see what people think.

August

Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:21 pm

I have a Sony DSC F707 for sale.

Those were great camera's along with the F717.

The tiny 0.4" sensors on all of these high-end non-DSLRs is a problem for the noise they introduce, but if you keep it on lower ISO settings and don't expect the kind of 8x10s you would get from a DSLR or a 35mm camera, you might like it fine.

Yeah the noise factor at high ISO can be detractive however if you are used to cheaper 35mm point and shoot camera's or even point and shoot digital camera's the Sony will outperform. At lower ISO say under ISO 400 then the Sony CCDs perform fine and I have blown up ISO 100 images from my Sony DSC-V3 to 18 x 22 and they look great.

Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:56 pm

Still on the old topic, but you might take a look at the Sony DSC-H2. It's pretty much the direct competitor to Ztex's Panasonic, it has Zeiss glass, long zoom and image stabilization for those airshow shots, and the street price has recently dropped below $300. The tiny 0.4" sensors on all of these high-end non-DSLRs is a problem for the noise they introduce, but if you keep it on lower ISO settings and don't expect the kind of 8x10s you would get from a DSLR or a 35mm camera, you might like it fine. I don't own it though so shop the review sites and see what people think.

I recently bought my first digital camera, and after endless reviews I found the Sony DSC-H2 at Bestbuy. I Like it and here are some pics. These were taken with automatic settings. I still have a lot to learn and it has a nice instruction book

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... hp?t=11622

These were taken using the macro setting.
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... hp?t=10632