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

Newbie here.. But an OLD newbie (1 Viewer)

I used a panasohic fz200 for a long while......mostly handheld.Even at its longest focal length,it was fairly easy to get sharp images due to good image stabilization and a constant 2.8 aperture.This bridge camera is now old,but due to the large aperture throught its entire range,still relevant.
 
Thanks for all the input so far everyone! I think I'm leaning towards the Lumix DMC-FZ2500 large sensor. [...]

[...] any reach past 500mm would be hard to keep steady. The ONLY thing drawing me to the small sensors is their reach abilities BUT the fact that a tripod would be needed to be successful shooting anything above 500mm pushes me to the large sensor soooo... Any thoughts?

A dpreview review of the FZ2500 concluded:
Good for Video enthusiasts who want extensive controls, inputs, and outputs. - Not so good for Those 'focused' mainly on still photography. There are better choices in this class for less money.
Since you mention sunrise/sunset photos, are you doing long time exposures? In that case the inbuilt ND filter should be useful.

I've gone from a 1/3.2 sensor to a 1'' system (Nikon V2 + CX 70-300) and don't regret it. The reach of a superzoom is useful for static birds. Overall a 1'' sensor offers more possibilities, for superb photos you'll have to be close to the bird anyway. "Successful shooting above 500mm" is a non-issue imo. Recent models all have fine stabilization. At 8 frames per second or more, shooting in bursts rarely fails to get the shot.
 
A dpreview review of the FZ2500 concluded:

Since you mention sunrise/sunset photos, are you doing long time exposures? In that case the inbuilt ND filter should be useful.

I've gone from a 1/3.2 sensor to a 1'' system (Nikon V2 + CX 70-300) and don't regret it. The reach of a superzoom is useful for static birds. Overall a 1'' sensor offers more possibilities, for superb photos you'll have to be close to the bird anyway. "Successful shooting above 500mm" is a non-issue imo. Recent models all have fine stabilization. At 8 frames per second or more, shooting in bursts rarely fails to get the shot.

The built in ND is a definite plus, I haven't got into too much long exposure but am heading in that direction and is another reason I'm leaning toward the 1" sensor and the wildlife is just something I want to dabble in so I'm thinking the Lumix DMC-FZ2500 in a good choice giving me both worlds. My Sony SLT-A35 falls way short in low light. I do have a range of several lenses for it that can reach out up to 600mm.
 
I've got the Panasonic FZ330 (aka FZ300), which offers 25-600mm (24x zoom) at f/2.8. If I'm taking bird photos, I put it in drive mode and snap off several shots at once to mitigate the effects of camera shake. I tried out a number of cameras, including the FZ2500, which I found too large to be comfortable. The FZ330 is just about perfect for me in terms of size, features, and complexity. There are also teleconversion lenses (of varying quality) that you can get for it to increase the reach even further, which makes it handy for identifying distant birds, or working out whether that blob is a bird or a molehill/hare/bin bag/chimney/etc. The moveable touchscreen is very useful, especially if you've got the camera on a tripod and want to quickly move the focus area, etc.

On the down side, it gets noisy quickly in low light, and trying to photograph distant hen harriers coming in to roost, hand-held, just before sunset was not a successful venture. :\

I found it very useful to go into a camera shop and try out the various models I was interested in, having read up on them beforehand. Even though I was limited to viewing images on the camera's built-in screen, I could assess the image stabilisation, zoom, drive mode, low/artificial light performance, and ergonomics. There are plenty of examples online of the best that all these cameras can achieve, but that doesn't mean much if the camera is too heavy to hold comfortably or you struggle to see the screen or you need to use a tripod to get decent images.
 
You can check my gallery for what the SX60 can do.

Granted, I use them predominantly online showing people on an iDevice, not printed-out.

I shoot relying heavily on ETTL to avoid blowing-out the highlights badly, and making-up for it in post-processing in Photoshop with some Topaz Labs plugins. So my "straight-off-the-camera" shots are just "meh" because I shoot with post-processing in mind.

I do not have the liberty of "getting closer" due to the restrictions of the nature areas available to me, so "range is everything" on most days out.

I hand-hold 99% of the time, even at max optical zoom and digital teledapter distances. I have captured BiF at long ranges (out past 80m). Biggest drawback is the slow zoom speeds and slow first shot...means I get too much "bird butt" a good chunk of the time.
 
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Finally decided

So I ended up getting the Nikon B700, now all I gotta do is learn how to operate it optimally! So sidebar, how the heck do I add an avatar to my profile anyways? I looked everywhere and can't find it and I do believe I meet all the requirements now. I feel naked without one :smoke: :eek!:
 
So I ended up getting the Nikon B700, now all I gotta do is learn how to operate it optimally! So sidebar, how the heck do I add an avatar to my profile anyways? I looked everywhere and can't find it and I do believe I meet all the requirements now. I feel naked without one :smoke: :eek!:

Hope you enjoy the camera.

If you look top right of the page above private message you should see user profile, click that i think.
 
Hope you enjoy the camera.

If you look top right of the page above private message you should see user profile, click that i think.

Thanks Mike! Funny thing is, I clicked on that several times before but the link for avatar and sig line were MIA... I post the question and ba da boom, ba da bing... there they are now! Hahaha:-O Now all I gotta do is choose a photo to shrink down real tiny :smoke:
 
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