VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

I'm in the process of trying to decide on a camera. Right now I have a Cannon with a 300mm telephoto lens. Two decisions have to be made. Do I get a digital for just the point and shoot stuff(3X optical) or to replace the cannon with a digital with more zoom(8-10x optical zoom). There is a huge price range out there. I would be really interested to see what winddoc and BWD have to say. Also, is anyone familiar with the Nikon Coolpix 4800(8.3 optical zoom which = 300mm slr lens).

Thanks for your input.

Gareth

Gareth

My wife got the Cannon Digital Rebel last year and we are very happy with it. It was quite expensive, but for a digital SLR camera with 6.3 megapixels you get what you pay for. This camera has all the options for someone into photography but also has automatic modes for the less inclined, like myself.

Hope this helps.

Hey Gareth: tough question. I guess it also depends on how much you want to spend. I guess the Canon you have now is not a digital? Is the 300mm tele auto focus? If you want to use your 300 lens you could get the Canon Digital Rebel DSLR ($1299 with 18-55 lens).

For point and shoots the Nikon 4800 looks pretty good. Here is a good in depth review (+ reviews of others cameras):
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp4800/
and here's the cameras sorted by rating:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=rating

Tough call - most cameras are good now. I'm not too familiar with the cameras with the long zoom - not sure how good the optical quality of the lens would be at 300mm and if you would need a tripod at that zoom. I would read some reviews, check out the discussion forum too on dpreview.com and try out some cams at london drugs.

dave

Yes, the cannon is a SLR(non-digital) with auto/man focus and telephoto.

Hi Gareth,

I think Dave covered it pretty well. I did much of my camera research using dpreview.com as well. I had (and still have) little camera experience. Most of the research I did pointed to the Canon D.Rebel and Nikon D70 being good cameras for speed and ease of use for shooting sports. You may also consider the Canon 10D. Sweet camera, and seems to be dropping in price. Digital preview.com is super informative and also has good forums to post questions like yours.

I'll put in a good word for the Olympus 300 series (don't know if that is what they are still) weatherproof cams. They aren't going to come close to the SLR 6meg plus digitals, of course, but for point-and-shoot they give pretty good pics and the big plus is they are extremely tough for a digital. Metal body and quite well sealed. We use them in extreme conditions at work - sandy mud all over our hands, out in heavy rain for a full day, dirty equipment dumped on them (do keep them in padded case) - never had a problem with them quitting due to dampness etc. Seems like everyone doing bush work uses them nowdays. THey aren't submersible, but I wouldn't hesitate to take one out wading in knee-deep or on a boat through breaking waves. I think they are up to about 4 Meg and 4-5 X optical zoom. Lens is pretty good (and glass) for a tiny thing. They are so small you can put them in shirt pocket.

Thanks for the info.

if i knew then what i know now, and money wasn't too much of a factor, i'd go with the D70 Nikon http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond70/ ... but it's also very handy to have the point and shoot for just tossing in your pocket for snowboarding/biking etc.

If you are planing to shoot sport photography go with the Digital Rebel . The point and shoots take too long to focus and by the time they have, you've missed your shot. If you have a 300ml canon lens it will work with theDigital Rebel which comes with a small zoom lens. I personaly have the Canon 10D and love it

Sunday Mar. 20/05 5-9 pm Future shop is selling Fuji s3000 camera for $274.99 w/256mb card..not bad for 3.2mb with 6x optical zoom....& online 2pm Mar.20- 6 a.m. Mar. 21.....<a href="/http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartn ... k">info</a>

Hey Gareth I have the Rebel and yes it is a good camera
but it is a little slow. It does take some nice photos though
The ones I took on BWD are from a Rebel.
The D70 is much faster and editing is easyer. I think the D70
is a better camera and you will pay around 500$ more for it
If I had to buy another camera It would be a D70. [smilie=pimp.gif]
I think they run about 2400$
Good Luck Gareth

I ended up keeping the Cannon SLR and Zoom but bought a cannon sls1(has steady shot and a 10 x optical zoom(equivalent to aa 380mm lens) ,as a compromise. It works fine, the video is good(unlimited and has zoom capabilities). Look at the windsurfing shots by penquin. Those are taken out the van window on a very wey day at IV. It was the 1st time I had used the camera for sport(other than kids hockey).

What about the Panasonic FZ3 camera. If you bought the cannon and you did some research on dpreviews you must have compared the two. dpreviews seems to put the panasonic ahead of the cannon. I'm looking at buying one or the other and would like to know what swayed you to buy the cannon.

Ultimately my wife is the photographer. She has owned a Canonet, Cannon Rebel and now this one. The older ones still work fine, but as our needs have changed, so we have updated the cameras. Cannon has always made a good camera that is easy to use at a fair price. So really, it was just past exsperience that swayed us. Over the years we have tried a few other brands, but at the end of the day, it is not alwas the best reviewed model that works for you. The other reason is that we do not have to replace our video camera. The cannon has great video(You can zoom while filming and the length is only limited to your memory card size and speed).

the panasonic fz3 in its price range is decent for a 12 times zoom and optical image stabalization, my opinion is the optics of the canon are superior and the digic processor of the canon s1is allows for a very decent digital image stabalizer. However, i would recommend a tripod for both at full zoom the lieca lens on the panasonic is not made by lieca but to their specs by panasonic. the canon lens however is completely canon. You will find response time to be faster with the canon as well the movie mode has a better frame rate. if you are more capable with manual settings the canon is much easier to adjust.