I need camera advice

[Padmei]

Hi all.
I've got a crappy p&s fuji camera & am sick of seeing the pics I take come out looking like crap. I realise there is a lot to a GOOD picture, lighting, compsition & all that stuff however all I want at this stage is for a camera to take a clear photo of what I'm looking at.

I've been looking a many ride reports on adv rider (check out the iceland stickied thread as an example) & some of the pics are amazing.

I am thinking of a Dslr if that's what it takes but may settle for a P&S if the quality is there.

I will most likely buy off trademe & my budget will be $300-500.

Any advice will be appreciated including helpful links or reviews of your own camera (please include model if possible)

thanks in advance

[FJRider]

6-10 Mega-pixels will do you ok. The higher the MP ... the more chance of blurred pic's. If you have a steady hand, 10 MP will get you some great pic's. A good photoshop program to help with colour improvements/sizing etc is not a waste of money either.

A few to look at here ...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/cate...rder=price_asc

[Harry the Barstard]

DSLR's are good. I use a Cannon 400D. Its a good entry level one that I mainly brought for when i go skydiving. I fly as cameraman for the lads sometimes but mainly for tandems.

The Canon 1000D is nice and cheap. Its also alot lighter than other modles. By memory i think it is 10.5Mp. What they have done with this modle is to cut out all the real in depth custom settings. You can still change the TV,AV etc and it still has the good old portrait,sceneic or sports presets.

One of the reasons they are better than the P&S's is because of the lens. a 35mm lens will always out perform a lil guy especially in low light conditions.

I could go on for hours, PM me if you require further info but i would start looking at Canon 1000D's

Better living

[cromagnon]

A thing to look for in P&S cameras is the biggest lens size in your price range. A lot of P&S cameras have tiny lenses which results in crappy photos a lot of the time due to the quality of lenses being poorer towards the edge of a lens. I have the model before this one and takes good P&S photos: http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/product/X...-camera-bundle. Avoid cameras like this: http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/product/X...digital-camera

[Gremlin]

I've got a Canon 400D, and I actually stopped taking it on rides, as it was bulky, I had two lenses, plus filters, to take the entire kit, it has an actual backpack for the gear. Takes up far too much space, but does take very good pictures. Since I never had it on me however, I missed out on the unique stuff.

I ended up buying a Sony P&S (http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...umber=DSCTX5/B), it actually has the same 10MP (obviously won't come close to the swappable lenses) but has a panoramic mode (instead of stitching shots together later) and is waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof and dustproof.

Bought it via parallel, not as expensive as shops, but it's small size means I carry it far more often and the touch screen is a better option for using with gloves.

[FJRider]

I've got a Canon 400D.

I've got a 300D. It lives in my tank bag with my handheld GPS, phone, and spare gloves. Only one lens ... but I manage ok.

6 MP ... but it's enough for me.

[trustme]

Currently using a Canon G10. Son has bought a G12. Good tough cameras that many a pro is happy to use
I gave my SLR to my daughter , it was a pain in the arse lugging around lenses. If I limited myself to one zoom I might as well use a P&S

[NordieBoy]

Big pocket. Go for a Canon Powershot IS.
Big expensive pocket. Go for a Canon G series.
Small expensive bag. DSLR.

Or just clean the lens of yer Fuji again...


Take my Olympus for a test through the Molesworth. We know what it can do with me driving. If the photos are crap, we'll know its not the camera

[JATZ]

I got one of these bad boys in Perth

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/photo/digit...ack-sku-71037/

Takes pretty good pics even when re-sized to 640x480 Big selling point for me was waterproof and shock proof. After going through 3 or 4 normal p&s cameras we decided to get something decent, with no external moving parts which always shit out Seems to have a reasonably fast reaction time too, so now you'll have to be super fast picking your bike up

[pete376403]

You sure you're not getting into the 'workman blaming tools" thing? I've a nice Fuji DSLR thats too big to takeout riding, and a Canon Powershot A470 that fits into a jacket pocket. Cheap enough that I don't worry too much if I crash and kill it, and it's taken some really good pics. It's taken some really lousy ones too, so I know it has operator problems, not hardware ones.

[SMOKEU]

Megapixels have no relationship to image quality. Megapixels is just another word for the resolution of the image. A high megapixel camera with a poor quality lens will still give bad quality pics.

Eg, a cheap, nasty 10Mp camera will give worse pics than a high quality 5Mp camera.

[NordieBoy]

You sure you're not getting into the 'workman blaming tools" thing? I've a nice Fuji DSLR thats too big to takeout riding, and a Canon Powershot A470 that fits into a jacket pocket. Cheap enough that I don't worry too much if I crash and kill it, and it's taken some really good pics. It's taken some really lousy ones too, so I know it has operator problems, not hardware ones.

Dust kills the zoom on the Axxx range though...

[Winston001]

One of the reasons they are better than the P&S's is becuse of the lens. a 35mm lens will always out perform a lil guy especially in low light conditions.

A thing to look for in P&S cameras is the biggest lens size in your price range. A lot of P&S cameras have tiny lenses which results in crappy photos a lot of the time due to the quality of lenses being poorer towards the edge of a lens. I have the model before this one and takes good P&S photos: http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/product/X...-camera-bundle.

I'm gratified to see good advice as above. Most camera discussions focus on P&S value for money yadda yadda but completely overlook the importance of the lens.

IMHO you need two cameras: one compact (shirt pocket) for taking everywhere, and one good one with a BIG lens for those special occasions. Family, sports, children, whatever.

My advice is based on years of enjoying photography. I went to India on an aid project and took a Canon Isus which was marvellous - excellent photos in good daylight. It was so light I took it everywhere and used it because I had it on the spot.

I also have a larger Fuji Finepix which I bought hoping it would be a sort of DSLR. It isn't.

I've taken a lot of photos of my children doing gymnastics over the years under artificial light and regrettably the results have been mediocre. My wife has the use of a full sized Canon DSLR and the photos are extraordinarily good in the same situation.

Forget all the hype - 6 MG pixels is plenty. But the size of the lens is critical. The bigger it is, the more photons get to the CCD/film, the sharper the image.

I use Picasa to edit photos - its free and very good for the average user.

[Padmei]

Excellent advice guys much appreciated.
A couple of things that bug me about my fuji camera - how long it takes to start up - everyone has ridden past by the time it's decided to open the lens - also when trying to catch something moving I have endedup with pics of backgrounds as the subject has moved past due to the time taken to focus & shoot the pic - too slow.
I think being able to deal with light levels - too bright or not enough - also harsh contrast on a sunny day are also big factors.

I may be expecting too much- who knows - there'll always be a compromise I accept so I'm working out which is priorities for me.

You sure you're not getting into the 'workman blaming tools" thing? I've a nice Fuji DSLR thats too big to takeout riding, and a Canon Powershot A470 that fits into a jacket pocket. Cheap enough that I don't worry too much if I crash and kill it, and it's taken some really good pics. It's taken some really lousy ones too, so I know it has operator problems, not hardware ones.

It may very well be operator problems however it's the looking at the lousy pics where you can tell in which situations it works & where it doesn't. Mine is fine taking pics of the kids in the house or of the bike when working on it however it's out in the wild blue yonder where it can't capture the magnificence of the surroundings.

I'm heading doen the canon path I think as they seem to have a good feedback.

[roadkillnz]

You should also check out the mirrorless interchangeable lens systems. Some of them are very impressive, as they have the same sized sensors as they entry level DSLR's so get good shallow depth of field (only parts of photo in focus) if that's the desired effect, good low light capability, meaning you can get photos without so much of a need for using flash.

A good introduction to mirrorless systems here
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/898...s-roundup-2011

A work mate bought a 5N, very impressed!

Also, don't be obsessed with megapixel. Especially on small sensor based cameras, where noise in the images can often be worse when upping the megapixels.