Vectis Birder
Itchy feet
I part exchanged my old 35mm equipment for a Minolta Z2 digital camera yesterday, having decided to take the digital "plunge" as it were. This camera has a specification of 4 megapixels and a 10x optical (4x digital) zoom and it is perfectly adequate for what I want it for. I should think it is not the camera for digiscoping, although I haven't tried yet - the lens looks to be too big. However, like I said the camera is ideal for what I want.
This is a neat little camera, and very easy to use. It is extremely lightweight, especially when compared to the enormous weight of my 35mm equipment. The most important thing, apart from lens focal length and amount of megapixels, was shutter lag, and on this camera that is fortunately almost non-existent. There is slight lag, but no more than a tiny fraction of a second.
The only thing I don't like is the viewfinder. Because of its small, grainy nature it is not particularly user friendly and the lcd screen does get hard to view in strong sunlight when the sun is behind you, when you have to use the viewfinder.
As for build quality the camera is well put together, but I very much doubt it would take much rough handling, as it doesn't look, or feel, that robust.
However, it is ideal for a first time digital user, like me, the spec is good and my results, so far, have been pleasing.
I am aware that the Z3 is out, but frankly I am happy with what I've got and I am rather pleased with the deal. :bounce:
I have attached a picture of one of the vast population of Southampton's feral pigeons, taken this afternoon. the picture makes no pretensions, but it is the raw image, and the only alteration has been to resize it down to 800x600.
This is a neat little camera, and very easy to use. It is extremely lightweight, especially when compared to the enormous weight of my 35mm equipment. The most important thing, apart from lens focal length and amount of megapixels, was shutter lag, and on this camera that is fortunately almost non-existent. There is slight lag, but no more than a tiny fraction of a second.
The only thing I don't like is the viewfinder. Because of its small, grainy nature it is not particularly user friendly and the lcd screen does get hard to view in strong sunlight when the sun is behind you, when you have to use the viewfinder.
As for build quality the camera is well put together, but I very much doubt it would take much rough handling, as it doesn't look, or feel, that robust.
However, it is ideal for a first time digital user, like me, the spec is good and my results, so far, have been pleasing.
I am aware that the Z3 is out, but frankly I am happy with what I've got and I am rather pleased with the deal. :bounce:
I have attached a picture of one of the vast population of Southampton's feral pigeons, taken this afternoon. the picture makes no pretensions, but it is the raw image, and the only alteration has been to resize it down to 800x600.