Reviews by bkrownd

This is only my second bird book, so I can\'t numerically \"rate\" it too accurately. I\'ll give it an \"8\" for being good, but not groundbreaking or unique. I bought it because it seemed to have more information than the others on the shelf, and was at least as attractive as the others. I like how each section starts with paintings of all the birds in that section together on the same page, helping to speed ID greatly. The artwork is good, and there are several paintings of each bird in various phases. Calls are described for most of the birds. It has the usual organization and layout most people are familiar with. No photographs.

I use the TC-E17ED with my Panasonic FZ-7. I don\'t have any other teleconverters to compare with, but this combination can produce very good images in adequate light. Naturally, a teleconverter is pushing the limits of the FZ-7\'s capabilities, and depth of field and aberrations can be problems unless the focus is spot-on and the lighting is adequate. However, that isn\'t the teleconverter\'s fault. When the focus is on, the pictures are excellent. The TC-E17ED has a great reputation, and I don\'t have any complaints.

Physically, the TC-E17ED is a thing of beauty. It\'s solidly constructed and you will feel proud to have it on your camera! Although it costs significantly more than the Olympus TC-17, I feel like I got my money\'s worth. It weighs about 3 times as much as the FZ-7, but with a Pemaraal snout and B+W 55-60E adapter ring the whole assembly feels very solid and comfortable, and not too heavy at all. The new center of gravity is at the base of the teleconverter\'s barrel, which is a natural gripping point. The included tripod/monopod mount won\'t close around my camera\'s snout properly since it\'s designed for the geometry of the Coolpix, but it works well enough that I can use it on my monopod with an improvised fastening device. Anyone who\'s handy with tools can improvise something similar.

Fortunately the threading on the end of the teleconverter is 86mm, which allows a decent selection of filters and hoods. I found the Nikon HN-13 hood to be an excellent choice. I have seldom removed the TC-E17ED from my camera since it first arrived.

This is the first digital camera I\'ve owned. I really like it. It is very light, reasonably compact, and comfortable to handle. I wish it had more manual controls instead of on-screen menus, but it is typical of its class in this way. It has a nice zoom lens and a front threading that allows the attachment of various telephoto, macro and wide angle lenses, filters, and hoods. Reviewing images is easy, and several can be displayed on screen at the same time, or they can be displayed in a calendar mode for easier searching. A RAW mode option would have been nice, and the useful ISO range and dynamic range is quite limited. It uses normal SD cards, and the light batteries last a while.

I have found the FZ-7 quite easy to use, in spite of the annoying need to go through menus to access simple camera settings. The nifty joystick does allow faster access to a few settings, which is very useful, but the settings it controls should really be user-configurable. (Note: It appears that Panasonic have added the two most important of these which are missing - focus and metering area selection - to the joystick options on the FZ-8.)

The only serious control problem is that accurate manual focus with the joystick is very very slow and difficult, and would have been much easier with a manual focus ring, or at least a thumb wheel. This would have helped compensate for the slow autofocus which does a lot of hunting in the low/bad light and foliage confusion typical for bird photos. Zoom action is also jumpy.

Conclusion: The FZ-7 has as much zoom as you can get in an affordable, compact, easy-to-hold package. With the Nikon TC-E17ED teleconverter attached it\'s the perfect size and weight for my hands. While it has a few limitations, this is as portable and affordable as high-zoom photography gets.