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mega zoom cameras (1 Viewer)

Keith Dickinson

Well-known member
Opus Editor
Hi folks,
I am using my wife's kodak camera for digiscoping at the moment and am thinking of getting one of the mega zoom point and shoot cameras for myself. Have my eye on a Kodak Z740 which is a 10x optical zoom with a 5 MP sensor, or the Z650 which is 6MP but still a 10x zoom, or even the Canon S2 IS which is 12x optical but only 5MP.
Any comments on their suitability for digiscoping would be appreciated.
 
Keith,

I am relatively new at this but it has been my understanding from reading the various posts on this forum and from other digiscoping sites that any optical zoom above 3-4x is not a good thing for a digiscoping setup. Exactly why I am not sure. Maybe the increased optical zoom does not work well from an image quality standpoint or maybe the type of lens design found on cameras with high optical zooms does not mate well for a digiscoping setup because of the mechanics of the design itself...excessive vignetting, etc...

I tried my wife's Fuji Finepix S1000 (might have the numbers off a bit), 6x optical zoom and large lens with my scope and experienced excessive vignetting with no zoom setting and absolutely horrible vignetting at 6x.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable on this issue can shed more light.
 
I think the vignetting is more related to the amount the lens moves in and out than the actual zoom. Keith is the Kodak you are considering the one with the prismatic zoom where all the moving bits are internal, I can't remember the type number but I am itching to try one, I used to have a little Minolta that had an internal zoom mechanism an it was brilliant from a vignetting point of view shame it was physically hopeless for attaching to a scope and lacked all sorts of controls.

Mick
 
Keith Dickinson said:
Hi folks,
I am using my wife's kodak camera for digiscoping at the moment and am thinking of getting one of the mega zoom point and shoot cameras for myself. Have my eye on a Kodak Z740 which is a 10x optical zoom with a 5 MP sensor, or the Z650 which is 6MP but still a 10x zoom, or even the Canon S2 IS which is 12x optical but only 5MP.
Any comments on their suitability for digiscoping would be appreciated.

I have tried my wifes Olympus 740UZ ( 10X zoom ) for digiscoping and it is a complete no no. All that I can get is a very small section in the centre of the picture and an awful lot of vignette. All the zooming is done internally in the lens so this is not the solution, it would just seem that it is not a good idea. If you are really interested take your scope to a shop and try the camera hand held against the eyepiece, it will give you a very good idea about whether it is reasonable to digiscope with it or not.
 
Zoom power and optics

I’m no expert on optics but I have to agree with the previous posters about zooming and vignette. In most incidences, anything over 3x will start to give you vignetting. This is not to say that you can’t use these cameras for digiscoping but when you do use a “mega zoom” camera just only zoom it to three or less. In many cases when out birding I have been in situations where the bird has landed within thirty feet or less (50 meters) and I could have gotten really great pictures with a 10x or 12x zoom by itself. It is always best to try a camera with your optic setup before you spend the money just in case.

Here’s another thing to consider. I may not have this math quite right but I think it is close. For every power of magnification of your optic device, there is about 37mm equivalent in telephoto magnification so let’s say we have a ten power scope. That of course would be 370mm. Then if we multiply the 3x from the camera it would be about 1,100mm. It is very hard to get a clear picture at this magnification without a rock steady camera so that precludes hand holding. I really think that if you were to apply a 10x zoom with a 3,700mm magnification equivalent, you would never get clear pictures even on a tripod. I use 10x optics for most of my digiscoping and I usually don’t zoom past 2x on the camera. That gives me a telephoto equivalent of about 740mm and this can be hand held for a decent picture and very clear on a tripod. Of course this depends on how close the bird is.

I enclose and picture of my Bino setup FYI and a couple of examples of hand held shots. The camera is a 3x but it was not zoomed all the way.

Edit: For some reason I am not allowed to up load any pictures. I have uploaded the same pictures several times so I know the extentions etc. are right. The pictuer of the Condor and the flag in my signature was hand held through my binoculars. See other examples in my gallery.

Edit number two. I should also mention that some scope manufacturers sell adapters that will mount a DSLR to the scope, eliminating the scope eyepiece (digiscoping) and making the scope function as a telephoto lense. I think that most scopes used in this fashion are the equivalent of about 1,000mm.
Nikon and Swarovski are two that come to mind.

Peace,
Don
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies,
couple of things I should have mentioned in the original post...

1. wanting the 10x for normal photography where the bird is either on the wing and moving too fast to digiscope, or is closer than digiscoping distance.

2. No intention of trying to digiscope higher than 3x or 4 x, I understand about the problems of vignetting....my wife's camera has a 5x zoom and it is bad for vignetting at the top zoom level.

Mick...all the camera's have moving lenses...so you can't just whack them up to the eyepiece and click away. I have got one of the Baader camera mounts and will use that for digiscoping.

My real question was on the output quality of the cameras.....as there is over £100 difference between the top and bottom prices...being a Yorkshireman I don't want to spend more than I have to....LOL
 
Hi Keith,
I have had the canon s2 since last Oct and I love it. It is my first digital camera after having a film slr for years. I like the s2 because it is so light weight and I am not lugging around tons of stuff. It can fit in a large pocket. The 12x zoom is wonderful. The downsides are that is noisy above ISO100 and it is not great in low light. I was a bit disappointed initially as it was winter and I was using it on high zoom and I was learning about the camera but as soon as spring came with improved light my pictures got better. I would like more reach but I think I have made my decision not to carry around a lot of stuff and I have to accept this. It's a fun camera and there is alot more for me to learn about it. I have heard that some people say it "hunts" when trying to focus on moving things but I have not found this to be so. There are bargains around on the s2 now that the s3 is out.
 
Keith Dickinson said:
Mick...all the camera's have moving lenses...so you can't just whack them up to the eyepiece and click away. I have got one of the Baader camera mounts and will use that for digiscoping.

..being a Yorkshireman I don't want to spend more than I have to....LOL
Sorry Keith I was thinking of a different camera, I have had a look round and the one I was thinking of was this one http://www.dpreview.com/news/0604/06042502kodakv610.asp
All the moving bits are inside like my old Minola.
I'm a Sussex man and I don't like spending more than I have to either...LOL

Mick
 
I had seen that one Mick and whilst I quite like the idea of no moving bits outside...not sure whether it can be tripod mounted so could be awkward for digiscoping. Also I want a camera that will double up as an all round jobbie...as I think my photography bump has been tickled again.
I have a film based set up that includes mirror lenses and various bodies etc but stopped using it for bird photography when I found i was shooting a roll of film for 1 decent picture.

Mickymouse said:
Sorry Keith I was thinking of a different camera, I have had a look round and the one I was thinking of was this one http://www.dpreview.com/news/0604/06042502kodakv610.asp
All the moving bits are inside like my old Minola.
I'm a Sussex man and I don't like spending more than I have to either...LOL

Mick
 
Keith Dickinson said:
I had seen that one Mick and whilst I quite like the idea of no moving bits outside...not sure whether it can be tripod mounted so could be awkward for digiscoping. Also I want a camera that will double up as an all round jobbie...as I think my photography bump has been tickled again.
I have a film based set up that includes mirror lenses and various bodies etc but stopped using it for bird photography when I found i was shooting a roll of film for 1 decent picture.

Keith I've just sold my kodak dx6490 which had a 10x optical zoom and an additional 3x internal in favour of digiscoping with a cp 990 from ebay. The 10x zoom wan nowhere near sufficeint and indeed the only bids I could photograph i flight were various gulld because they were big enough. I took the camera to bolton abbey to tyr and photo passerines that I can't digiscope and it was hopleless. must admit I didn't have a tripod but the reach was just hopless, even for things like dipper all you cold see was a white spec.

Saying that the overall image quality for landscapes etc was exceptional and I have many pleasing photo's from it.

I think I have come to the conclusion that the natural progression is

smart compact -> digiscoping -> DLSR -> DSLR with some smart lenses

Currently I'm going through the mental justification to get a DSLR
 
Thanks Marcus....I am wanting a general purpose camera that can do a bit of digiscoping and thinking was that a 10x would be good for other things.
Looked at the DSLR set-up and at the moment I cannot afford both the camera kit and the divorce...LOL
jimmy2faces said:
Keith I've just sold my kodak dx6490 which had a 10x optical zoom and an additional 3x internal in favour of digiscoping with a cp 990 from ebay. The 10x zoom wan nowhere near sufficeint and indeed the only bids I could photograph i flight were various gulld because they were big enough. I took the camera to bolton abbey to tyr and photo passerines that I can't digiscope and it was hopleless. must admit I didn't have a tripod but the reach was just hopless, even for things like dipper all you cold see was a white spec.

Saying that the overall image quality for landscapes etc was exceptional and I have many pleasing photo's from it.

I think I have come to the conclusion that the natural progression is

smart compact -> digiscoping -> DLSR -> DSLR with some smart lenses

Currently I'm going through the mental justification to get a DSLR
 
Hi Keith,
I have an S2 and think it's (almost) great.

Good points small, lightweight, great images, don't find it noisy (but use it mostly at lower ISO), AA batteries, 1.5x convertor gives about 650mm equivalent.

bad point, manual focus is useless and small flying birds are virtually impossible, auto focus can be confused and often grab vegetation nearby if bird is a small image.

If I was to buy again I'd consider the Pansonic FZ30 it has manual focus ring, 8mp at 12x, but lower the res to 5mp and you get about 19x, and it handles better than the S2 (a tiny bit bulkier to carry is the trade off), no need to buy a convertor. Bad point erm a bit dearer and a dedicated battery.

Any of my pics on the Spurn website since early march are with the S2, as are a couple on the thread by Wrexile1 "best camera" lower down the page.

G
 
Keith

I recently got a Panasonic Lumix FZ7 and so far have been very pleased with it. No, it won't give you the close up quality of a DSLR with lens, but it is a good all-rounder. There are several cameras in this range you could consider, Canon S2 and S3, Fuji Finepix, Sony Cybershot DSC H1 and H2.
 
Panasonic FZ7

Seriously been considering the Panasonic FZ7 for a couple of months. Is this or perhaps any of the other superzooms suitable for recording images of birds to a similar quality as you get through a decent pair of binoculars. Obviously if it can capture a decent image whilst a bird is in flight even better.
:scribe:
 
I can vouch for the FZ7 it`s a great camera I have used it now for 2 weeks I bought it mainly for butterflies because of it`s macro mode you can take a picture in telemacro mode from 1m away which is great for skittish stuff or go really close at the wide zoom setting.Coupled with a Leica lens & OS stabilisation it`s superb.I don`t think it would be suitable foe digisoping though & in comparision to my dslr it feels almost toy like(weight size).For an all round camera their are plenty of scene modes,the only thing in reviews i`ve found is high noise at iso200 & above not really used it above iso80 yet so can`t really comment.

Steve.
 
I am retired and spend most of my life photographing birds. I don't even own a pair of binoculars. I would never use them. My camera is a Panasonic Lumix FZ-50. It has a 10 megapixel sensor and a 12 times optical zoom lens designed by Leica. It also has IMAGE STABILIZATION which is a requirement for photographing birds these days. When I playback a photo in the viewfinder I can zoom in 16 times. So that means if I take the photo at 12 times and zoom in 16 times I have about 200 power spotting scope. It sure works for me. For example. Last summer I was at the Grand Canyon photographing Condors. I could shoot a condor flying 50 or 60 feet over my head and read the number on the wing tag. The people using bins could maybe see the tag but could not read it and with your bare eyes you couldn't even see the bird had a tag on the wing.
 
Atomic said:
... The people using bins could maybe see the tag but could not read it and with your bare eyes you couldn't even see the bird had a tag on the wing.
Sounds amazing but don't you still need a tripod to hold the camera still, even with stabilisation at such high magnification? And is it still bright?

I guess, too, that you were lucky the heat haze didn't wreck the view. Using a scope at even 40x in summer on a hot day in the UK can be a pain thanks to haze and dust.
 
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