Entry SLR or Super-zoom?! Help!!!!

[harmonist02]

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.

I'm authorized to spend around $300. I could probably justify more if I was getting a much better quality camera...maybe even up to $1000.

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?

Doesn't matter

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

At least 4, probably 6.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)

Ultrazoom or more

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)

8

Do you care for manual controls?

I'll have plenty of time to learn any controls - no preference

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?

I'm moving to Nicaragua. I'll have lots of free time. I'd like to get into photography as a serious hobby while there and maybe start shopping some of my work - stock photos and the like. So I'm a "pre-professional" right now.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?

Occasionally

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?

Not a ton

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?

Wildlife action, perhaps...not much sports

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?

I like our Fuji A303

Are there particular models you already have in mind?

I've looked at the D70, Fuji S5100 and S7000, *ist DS, Digital Rebel, etc.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)

Stabilization would be nice but none of the above are essential.



I've owned a Fuji A303 for a couple years and enjoy taking pictures with it. As I said before, I'll be in Nicaragua and will have the opportunity to do lots of photography - wildlife, landscape, some "human interest", city scenes, etc. I'd like increased zoom capability, increased shutter speed, and better photo quality. I'd love to get into the freelance/part time professional bracket at some point but am not really there now. My main question is this - am I better off to get a superzoom that will only be a slight improvement in megapixels and a decent improvement in zoom (mine has 3X optical right now) or an entry level SLR that's significantly more expensive. How does 10X optical translate to "mm" when it comes to lenses? I don't know how much better a 300mm lense is, to be honest.

Also, I'm wondering whether the increased megapixels of the S7000 would be worth giving up 3x optical zoom capability.

I need to make my decision in the next month. I'd love to buy used, possibly off of ebay to save money and maximize the bang for my buck. I'd welcome any suggestions!

Thanks,
Andy

[kimnicho]

My pick for you would be the highly rated Olympus 8080 which is on clearance right now....$499 at walmart.com (it's actually VERY hard to find btw)....Awesome Camera with Tons of Manual Features and Can Use Both xd and Compact FLash cards.....
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3342536&cat=3959&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A133277%3A3959%3A4468

[PhilR.]

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)

Ultrazoom or more

I'm not trying to rain on Kimnichio's parade, but although the 8080 suggested above is a great camera, it's 5x zoom could not be considered an ultra-zoom.


My main question is this - am I better off to get a superzoom that will only be a slight improvement in megapixels and a decent improvement in zoom (mine has 3X optical right now) or an entry level SLR that's significantly more expensive.

I think it depends of what you will ultimately do with your images. If you just want personal photos to keep in an album and possibly enlarge from time to time, then a superzoom should do just fine. If on the other hand you want/need to do serious photography, then nothing less than a DSLR (or SLR) will do.

How does 10X optical translate to "mm" when it comes to lenses? I don't know how much better a 300mm lense is, to be honest.

10x means the base focal length multiplied by 10. Therefore you need to know what the shortest focal length is, in order to determine what mm the 10x turns out to be (i.e. a 10x zoom lens that starts at 15mm will go to 150mm).

In 35mm terms, a 300mm lens would be considered to be about a 6x increase over the normal 50-55mm "standard" lens, or approx. 10x over a 28mm wide angle.



If you really want to stay within a $300 budget, then you will have to go with one of the less expensive superzooms such as the Fuji 5100 or Minolta Z2. On the other hand, you can get a Pentax *istDS with kit lens for under $700 if you are willing to mail-order. The nice thing about this camera is that it will accept the older Pentax lenses as well, so you can get something off Ebay quite easily.

hth,
PhilR.

[harmonist02]

Your reply was very helpful, Phil. So here's a follow-up question. Lets say I went with the Fuji S7000 for <$500, giving up some zoom but getting better shutter speed and resolution. Would that still keep me squarely within the "photos for my own enjoyment" realm or would it compete with a *ist DS and a low $ zoom lense.

Thanks,
Andy

[timmciglobal]

I'd say stay clear of the S7000. The Jpeg processing on them is terrible.

If you want to get a P&S with a long zoom look at the Panasonic FZ5. It's quite the camera quality wise and produces pretty nice images.

The istDS is a great deal for a cheap dSLR though if you plan to stay with 1 or 2 budget lenses.

Tim

[Bluedog]

Another very good 8MP prosumer camera in the $500 range is the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200. Note it also has built in IS: image stabilization.

[harmonist02]

While looking late last night I stumbled on the Panasonics myself. I've found a good deal on a FZ10 - the 4 megapixel version - with several accessories and a memory card. I'm thinking I might buy it, see how I like the pics, and then keep the accessories resell the camera and move up to one of the 5 megapixel ones if it doesn't do it for me.

[jessie25]

Really the difference between 4 and 5 megapixels is not that noticeable or critical - I mean, sure, it's bigger, but generally not enough so that it would be worth spending more money to upgrade. If you're going to spend money on an upgrade, go to 7 megapixels or something.

[harmonist02]

Well...I may be getting myself into a mess, but I'm having fun doing it! After reading reviews over and over...and over...and over, I narrowed my search down to the Minolta A2 or A200 and the Panasonic DMCFZ10 and DMCFZ20. I liked the lens of the panasonic cameras but was really hoping for RAW format and better image quality. I stumbled on a great deal at Amazon through one of their 3rd party merchants - a new A200 for $400.00. I grabbed it, and I'm going to try and win an ebay auction for a DMCFZ10 that ends tonight. I'll have both around to try and I figure I can resell whichever one I like least for a minor loss. Thanks for the help all!

A couple new questions have arisen: CF II vs. SD? Any decent but inexpensive teleconverters for the A200? I'll do some searching on the site ot find the answers...I'm sure those are questions that have been asked before.

Andy

[Rex914]

Is there any reason why the wonderful Canon S2 IS has been left off the list?

[timmciglobal]

S2 is has focus issues at long end (and anything >2 meters like the S1 it's "soso" with any use of the zoom past 100 mm) plus it's got some serious CA issues.

Unless you want video I don't see why you would go with S2 over FZ5.

Tim

[Rex914]

Not to be confrontational, but where did you read about "CA issues?" Jeff specifically mentioned in his review that CA was not a problem at all. All P&S cameras exhibit CA to some degree, but as of recently, CA has really diminished across the board.

I wouldn't scratch out a strong contender on issues like this. We all know that when you get up into the bulky camera range, things like ergonomics and design account for quite a bit assuming that image quality is more or less equal.