Hi,
I second Roger's suggestion though I have a Panasonic DMC-FZ30 which is
the latest equivalent.
28 mm to 420 mm equivalent, though you can get an extension lens to make
it something like 800 mm. It has an LCD as well as normal optical
viewfinder and is simple to switch between them. 8 Mpixel and antishake
technology which makes sharp hand held 420 mm photos easy. The only
downside that I have found is that it takes a proprietry battery which
makes them expensive, plus you have yet another of those pesky little
black boxes (which the Americans call wall warts - very appropriate) to
add to the collection.
It cost me about $900 a year ago so may be somewhat cheaper now.
The only extra that I would recommend if you take lots of pictures is to
forget the extra cards and get one of those small hard drive based
storage units. I use a 'DigiDrive' with the smallest 40 Gb drive
($200) which can store about 14,000 photos.
Cheers
Andrew
brian fleming wrote:
wrote:
Greetings, all. I've been offered the gift of any digital camera (as
much under $1,000- as possible). Main needs for me as a birder seem
to be:
- maximum optical zoom
- Mac-compatibility
- maximum pic-storage
- maximum battery life
- shake-reduction
What models would you recommend that would cover these needs?
And what else should I be looking for?
Thanks.
Judith.
Judith,
If the camera is to be used for general use as well as birds - eg.
landscapes - a 28 mm equivalent is useful as it saves you walking
backwards into the lake while trying to fit everything in. I doubt
whether many cameras in the middle price range have more than about
160 mm equivalent - 300 is more common for birds, and Anthea and I use
500 (35 mm SLRs) Electronic zoom is apparently not worth it - not for
your purposes. LCD viewfinders are just about useless in bright
sunlight, so you will need an optical one, although I have seen a
suggestion that a magnifying slide viewer can be used over the LCD
one. I must investigate this for my own digital camera.
No worries with MAC compatability - the down-load cable has USB end
Pic storage - get a 512 card as well as the standard 128. (or a couple
if you can't download them on a long trip)
Battery life - some models will take AA batteries as well as the OEM
rechargable (mine does, but the one I bought for grand-daughter - same
maker, longer zoom, MUCH cheaper, being a year down the track,
doesn't; this may have something to do with the lower price).
No thoughts about shake reduction, but we have both used 500 mm mirror
lenses hand held.
Most nowadays have very quick focus and shutter response times; I
don't know if any enable pre-focussing on a suitable twig
Brian Fleming
Melbourne
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