 Avicenna |
superzoom digital camera with 'fast' lens I am looking to buy a good superzoom (slr-like) digital camera. I would like to use my camera for wild life photography most, but I am also interested in "selective focusing'. So I guess I need a camera with a good optical zoom but also a 'fast' lens. could u please tell me which are the good camera's with these specifications in the market right now?
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Christopher A. Vedros |
The Canon Powershot S2IS 5MP has 12x optical zoom, max aperture of f2.7-3.5, and image stabilization. B&H has it for $435. The Panasonic Lumix FZ20 has very similar specs at about the same price. For a few more bucks, the Lumix FZ30 also has similar specs but is 8MP for $560. Any of these would fit your needs.
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robert G. Fately |
While all three cameras Chris mentions are good, I think the Lumix FZ20 is the only that has a f 2.8 lens throughout the zoom range. In other words, it does not change to f3.5 or f4 at the longest telephoto length. This is one reason I bought it myself. That said, I am about to sell my Lumix only because I am getting a D200 DSLR. I can tell you that the Panasonic is an excellent - another reason I selected it is that it has a manual focus feature that I don't think Canon offers (one nice thing about the newer FZ30 is it also has manual zoom capability, not just the motorized toggle button that the FZ20 and other cameras use). However, I think 8MP in a small CCD leads to too much oise (marketers tount more MP is better, but there are limits to that logic), so between the two I would still recommend the FZ20. Before I bought it last July, I reviewed various sites like dpreview.com and saw that it gets very high marks in the area of sharpness and detail. You can contact me offlist if you want to know more - f8lee@mindspring.com. Bob
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Avicenna |
thanks for the responses. I too think you are right about the panasonic fz20. But I am not sure about selective focusing with the fz20. I think the problem is the small light sensor that gives u a broad 'depth of field' even though the aperture is wide. I kind of liked the review of the sony cybershot DSC R1 but the problem is that it doesn't offer much on the telephoto end. I wonder if there are any cameras that have a big optical sensor and a good telephoto lens -- or is that aomething impossible??!
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robert G. Fately |
Your fear is well founded regarding the DOF issue with smaller sensors, A. Of course, nothing is impossible - just more expensive. That is, if you were to get a so-called "full frame" DSLR (I think Canon's 2 models are the only ones left - Kodak dropped theirs) you could use 35MM lenses with their DOF properties. And naturally, with an even larger chip (think Leaf or Hasselblad, and think $20,000+US) you could get even elss DOF for a given focal length. Actually, a number of wildlife shooters use the DSLRs with 1.5 crop factors (Nikon and Canon) - with the added benefit of getting "more lens" thanks to the crop factor. That is, a 300MM f2.8 lens on a DSLR with a 1.5 crop factor essentially behaves like a 450MM f2.8. So if your budget can be quadrupled or more (from the FZ20 range) you certainly could get the results you want.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
The fears about not being able to get shallow DOF with a point & shoot digital is valid, but these compact superzoom digitals fall somewhere in between a point & shoot and a DSLR. The sensors in these cameras are usually a bit larger than most P&S digitals, and the lenses are much larger. You can get good shallow DOF images, particularly at longer focal lengths with these cameras. I just posted THIS IMAGE in my gallery as an example. It was taken with the Canon S2IS. Chris
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Avicenna |
Thanks Bob. Your Photo proves that the Canon S2 IS can take photos with selective focus. I'm afraid my budget is not enough for a DSLR, also I feel intimidated with SLRs as I am just starting out in photography. What I was thinking was that Sony's innovation with making a large CMOS image sensor would be inspiration enough for the competition to start a wave of models with similar large image sensors. Has there been talk of some such model in the pipeline cos I would be more than willing to wait a couple of months. till then I can just continue practicing with my canon powershot A510.
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