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Thinking of buying a bridge camera (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter MrBiffa
- Start date
dalat
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Hi Jeff and others,
I had the chance to use my new Lumix quite a lot during the past holidays, and I am extremly happy with it overall.
Unfortunately I cannot answer your question, as I know only the Lumix now and had no chance to compare with a 50x zoom camera. The zoom of the Lumix works very well, it's easy to find the birds with full zoom and the IS copes pretty well. As with the small sensor you can't crop the picutures very much, I think a longer zoom will certainly provide better image quality. That is if the zoom works, ie. if you manage to find birds and the IS is good enough to help a sharp image. Just if the Canon etc. do as good as the shorter Lumix zoon, I don't know.
I was mostly birding in rather shady forests, and there I think the f/2.8 of the Lumix at the long end of the zoom is a big advantage compared to all other bridge cams.
The camera works extremly well for small birds in dense vegetation, I was amazed how well the camera focussed on these targets. Flight shots are difficult, but I hadn't much opportunities to try. With soaring raptors it worked, with fast swallows not at all...
Here some of my better pictures from the first few weeks of using the camera.
Attachments
scodgerott
Well-known member
I have the FZ200 and am very happy with the camera, but the 24x zoom is simply not long enough on many occasions. To help counter this I have the camera set to give a 5mp picture which ups the zoom to 39x and frequently have the picture size set to 3mp, which give 47x. Both settings give pretty good results. On top of that I have a 1.7x teleconverter, which to be honest, isn't as good as the 5 and 3mp settings as far as quality goes, but does give extra reach when 47x isn't enough. The F2.8 lens is great and the camera has very good burst rates, which are also very important. Plus it has a fast AF and is very responsive.
I would love a camera with all that the FZ200 features, plus 50x zoom, but so far it doesn't exist. With birds, the biggest zoom is a great asset and cannot be completely offset with other features, as on many occasions you simply need "reach" beyond anything else. A new camera - the Olympus SP100 has just come on the market, it has a 50x zoom and an inbuilt red dot sight. On paper it looks interesting, but I have yet to see any meaningful reviews (other than the ones that parrot the press release).
I would love a camera with all that the FZ200 features, plus 50x zoom, but so far it doesn't exist. With birds, the biggest zoom is a great asset and cannot be completely offset with other features, as on many occasions you simply need "reach" beyond anything else. A new camera - the Olympus SP100 has just come on the market, it has a 50x zoom and an inbuilt red dot sight. On paper it looks interesting, but I have yet to see any meaningful reviews (other than the ones that parrot the press release).
dalat
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Is that any different than taking the pictures with full resolution at 24x and cropping them later at the computer to 5mp or 3mp?
One of my favourite pictures I've seen on here using a Bridge Camera was by Joe Rawles. I think he was using a FZ200 and it was of a Sparrowhawk and it's prey (Green Woodpecker)
Rich
Rich
scodgerott
Well-known member
Not really, but it has the big advantage of letting you see your subject enlarged and therefore if the focus is good. I have tried the focus assist, but I find it really annoying and now never use it.
scodgerott
Well-known member
Bridge cameras aren't the best for getting birds in flight, the main reason is that you can't zoom in and out fast enough. The FZ200 ins't too bad in this respect as it has a side lever that you can use for zoom or focus. That enables you to zoom, while still keeping focus with the shutter button. Howver there is a way around this and I use this device for in flight shots all the time. Its a red dot sight, cost around $50 from a web site called gadget.brando.com
Here are some results
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Surely there must be some trade off between increasing magnification power and focusing / response time?
Also zoom lenses in telescopes seem to work better with a more limited range (hence the Swaro 25-50x) so I presume that the same will be true for cameras.
One other thing that I would look for would be a decent viewfinder (don't care if it's electronic) as I never get on with looking at a screen
Also zoom lenses in telescopes seem to work better with a more limited range (hence the Swaro 25-50x) so I presume that the same will be true for cameras.
One other thing that I would look for would be a decent viewfinder (don't care if it's electronic) as I never get on with looking at a screen
I think for price and what I need, I have narrowed it down to the Canon SX50 or the Olympus SP100EE. There is about £80 difference (Canon being cheaper and bound to reduce when the SX60 comes out...?). Everything seems to favour the Canon, except that EE red dot sight. The ability of the sight to enable flight shots seems to step up the capability of a bridge camera to that (albeit reduced) of a DSLR. However, there is very little comment on the Olympus section on the SP100EE, whereas the Canon SX50 is well used and very well thought of.
I know it is possible to attach a separate red dot sight, but a built in one is awfully tempting. Does anyone have any thoughts, as I'm probably leaning towards the Canon as this will be my first foray beyond poor digiscoping?
Thanks,
Andy M.
I know it is possible to attach a separate red dot sight, but a built in one is awfully tempting. Does anyone have any thoughts, as I'm probably leaning towards the Canon as this will be my first foray beyond poor digiscoping?
Thanks,
Andy M.
scodgerott
Well-known member
There are some tests that show these cameras are a bit slower to focus at full zoom. Sometimes I can tell and sometimes I can't. I usually have the "Quick AF" setting turned off on my FZ200. That might sound a bit counter intuitive, but what it means is that once the focus is set, it doesn't hunt, like it does if that setting is turned on. So, in practical terms, once I focus on something, it holds the focus, so I can focus on a bird at max zoom and if I re-focus on it the focus is lightning quuick.
scodgerott
Well-known member
The Olympus is the newer camera (doesn't mean better), but the Canon is 18 months old and has a couple features that aren't up to scratch in my opinion. To begin with, it has a low res viewfinder 200,000 dots, the Olympus has over 900,00, so its much higher resolution. Its burst rate with AF is woefully slow, like one or 2 frames per second. To use the short higher burst rate, you have to select the "scene" mode. That doesn't allow you to set some parameters that you can normally set when not is scene mode. Also I believe when you use that setting the viewfinder blacks out completely. To me these factors would turn me off the Canon. We don't know what the new one will feature, hopefully they will do better.
The Olympus is a bit of an unknown quantity, other than the initial press releases, I've not seen any reviews on it at all. The red dot sight is a great innovation and very useful. I use one all the time and would love to have a built in device. What its picture quality is like anyone's guess, the Canon has great image quality.
My suggestion is this, see if you can find a store that will allow you to use the Olympus for a trial and try it out to see how good it is and if it suits your purpose. If you don't like it take it back. You then have to decide whether to go for the Canon, or wait and see if the SX60 (assuming there is one) offers something much better, but you'll probably have to wait until September or so before its available. By then there may be a new Panasonic FZ200 replacement as well.
ROMANICHEL
Active member
Not much talk about the Nikon P600 I have seen a few pictures taken with this camera and I was very impressed, owners also have very good comments, 50X zoom I think and under $600 Can.
scodgerott
Well-known member
That's very true, it and the Sony seem to be off the radar a bit. The only negative I've heard about the Nikon is that its auto focus is slow, but I haven't used one, so that could be completely untrue.
What I suggested to Andy applies to the all the different bridge cameras, see if you can trial one and find out if it works the way you want. A lot of places wil let you try them out for short periods. It won't be enough for you to become completely familiar with the camera, but it might tip the scales toward a particular model.
HantaYo
Well-known member
The Olympus SP100EE has been just released. I am waiting till there are in depth reviews of it instead of just the previews. The dot-sight sounds very tempting for bird photography. I just do not like it shooting JPEG only (no RAW) and the f6.5 at the telephoto end is pretty low light limiting. Also waiting as well to see if there is a new version of the Canon SX50 released soon.
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Hi Andy. I can only speak re. the SX50 but you'll need a memory card. I've used this site previously:
www.mymemory.co.uk
Prices seemed quite competitive.
Rich
scodgerott
Well-known member
Hi Andy, All the cameras have a small amount of built in memory, which might let you save 5-10 shots, depending on whether you shoot RAW or JPEG. In reality, a memory card is essential.
HantaYo
Well-known member
If you will be shooting burst mode (several pictures per second) buy a fast card (ie expensive) especially if shooting RAW files.
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