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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Best camcorder for wildlife filming (1 Viewer)

Steve Babbs

Well-known member
Having recently returned from a trip where we saw fantastic video recordings of jaguar - on a Panasonic camcorder - my wife has decided she's keen on getting one. Rather rashly I've agreed to buy her one. Any thoughts on what to get? I'm willing to pay up to about £700, but it'd be good if it was less!

Cheers
 
If your set on Panasonic have a look at the SD90 for around £400 - more or less. It gets good reviews on the camcorder testing sites, and you can attach a 3D filming device as an extra if you feel the need to.
 
If your set on Panasonic have a look at the SD90 for around £400 - more or less. It gets good reviews on the camcorder testing sites, and you can attach a 3D filming device as an extra if you feel the need to.

Thanks. I'm not at all set on a Panasonic, I was just very impressed with the results - I may have been equally impressed with the results on another - unfortunately I didn't write down the model number. The owner said it was about 1000 Euros.
 
Steve,

Another vote in favour of the Panasonic SD90 (see the thread below yours). For the price the video quality is excellent but the stills are a little disappointing for scenery but OK for closeups.

Mike
 
The sd 90 does look tempting - I'm not at all worried about stills, I'll cover that with my SLR - but the SD900 would appear to produce higher quality films. However it does only have a 12X optical zoom.
 
As a rough generalisation, the really high zoom ratios come with the cheaper cameras until you get into the realms of pro cameras with interchangeable lenses. For instance the Panny SDR-S70 gives you 78x but you trade quality. As with all things photographic - its a trade off.

Sony offer 1.7x tele-convertors (screw into the filter mount) for some of their camcorders for a bit of extra reach - not sure if Panasonic do the same. If I am using a convertor I tend to fit it before going out - the threads are fine and I would not want to cross thread them. One of the main reasons for buying Sony over Panasonic was the choice of useful accessories at that time - my Sony set-up uses a tripod with the main controls duplicated on the pan handle which is really useful.

The SD90 is a good place to start and while the better Panasonic cameras such as the SD900 are fitted with triple sensors I'm not sure that you will find it any better for bird use, bearing in mind the zoom. (Amazon do have it at a very attractive price mind you).
 
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