The bits wot you have to take with you
 

Hi
I am treating myself to a new digi camera in the sales but I would like some advice from those who have used them, not those who know the profit margins!
Its primary use will be aircraft shots and motorsport events so I need something that will take a picture the instant the button is pressed, and also it needs to have a flash that can be turned off. Somwhere in the region of £200-£250. Anyone with any ideas?
Cheers
AS

Hi m8!


I bought a RICOH CAPLIO GX a few weeks before. There might be better....and there are better (CANON POWERSHOT G6 e.g.) but this was quiet a good price (270€). And it does a good job, although the picture quality with its 5Mpixel is not overwhelming, but fine.
An advantage is that its wide angle already starts at 28mm, which is not so common with Digital Cams. But therefore the zoom ends at 85mm. On the other hand it has the fastest shutter release in the world, which allows you quick upskirt pics of your female flight attendants!!!!!!.....hehe...I am drifting away a little bit....and it's very compact, meaning that it can be carried very good in your flight kit. But the most advantage is, that it can be set fully manual, because the automatic gives up very fast under more demanding operations....you know what I mean...hehe....and it looks very good...black coloured.
You can buy teles, converter/adapter and an external flash. I bought an 512MB SD flash card....because it is dilivered with a 16MB internal only.....I bought an extra fast...so in the highest jpg resolution mode you can safe 240 pics on it. You can also safe the pics as uncompressed tifs...which is a real advantage, if you want to print the pics in extra big size....
Well...that's it so far.....unfortunately I couldn't test it yet in the aircraft, because I am kinda grounded at the moment.....hopefully again in the air in the new year! Wish me luck!
If you have yet any questions.....just ask!
Greets
oliver

Fuji S5000 or 7000 have excellent reputations as superb cameras and are quite economical. There are some good pictures taken with S5000 at airshows- they are as good as you can get. As for 'immediate' shots- not really very possible with current technology at the price you want to pay- you have to accept the lag.

Please remember not to advertise cams or link to sites and items.

Had both Fuji4900 and Fuji5000. Superb cameras, apart from time lag.Now have a Nikon D70 :ok:
watp,iktch

These two got gear of the year and runner up awards.
1st Canon Powershot S60
2nd Fujifilm F710 (if you can get one, since replaced by the F810)

Or if you want to splash out on an SLR, I could sell you my Nikon D100.

Hope this is of help and good luck.

ummm,

How about turning the whole thing on its head, drawing up what features you need and take it from there. Otherwise you face a barrage of recommendations from within a saturated, visciously competitive market where there is no such thing as the 'best.'

If I was predominantly shooting the subjects you mention my list would go something like this:

Instant start up.

Fast memory architecture for writing to media. 3 seconds is the average in consumer line models - an eternity unless a burst mode is offered as well.

Avoid consumer level wide angle offerings - still too many optical compromises at the 28mm equivalent. Consider only if interiors or up close work are vital to you.

Screw filter ring. Lot's of sky so get easy increase in quality and lens protection with permanent UV and occasional polariser use.

For maximum output quality support of RAW format would be important - everything else (Pictbridge Etc) is a gimmick.

Cheap, easy battery replacement whether dedicated unit or standard cells for cold weather/intensive shooting.

Auto modes offering shutter priority and full manual control. White balance is always an added blessing.

When you've drawn up the things important to you and prioritised them it's time to hit the more geeky digital imaging sites. Strange people will have done the hard slog for you and you'll find it remarkably easy to discount the vast majority of the cameras in your price range.

Please note that in 8+ years of running the site I've never mentioned by name any of the cameras I use. I have used CCD based digital imaging since 1974 and storage was on 1.5 inch magnetic tape. Human nature being what it is we tend to overpraise our buying choices and ignore their foibles. What suits me, how I shoot , the size of my hands, my dominant eye, how often I shoot in the portrait axis is different from every other user.

If a 4 megapixel camera ticks the boxes but a compromised 5 mp or greater is cheaper I go for the 'poorer one. Less than one in a hundred of my shots will go beyond 10X8 and a fractal expansion plug in happily caters for the times you want 20X16 or greater output.

However, if you go for radical cropping of your subjects you might well want as many pixels to start with as possible - I'd argue that RAW + fractal enlargement covers me but your answer and needs may be entirely different

Please don't buy what other people tell you to buy. Old, superceded models may not be sexy but they've drifted down the price table offering more of your wish list in the price range you've mentioned. Take your time and think it through - it does pay off in spades.

Regards to all,
Rob

New Sony Cybershot is great. 5.1 megapixels, although 7.2 also available. Good for the non-technically minded,......yes, I know, I fly A320's.

SLR with interchangable lenses, forget about RAW, JPEG is king.
Anything from the Canon stable as they are field leaders.
EOS 300 or Digital Rebel, as our cousins call it is an excellent starter. Possibly outwith your budget. Megapixels is another bogey word. Anything over 4.5 is great.

Trust me!

Edited for :-


Whilst I remember, because of sensor size, this type of camera has a factor of 1.6 when using standard lenses meaning your 200mm telephoto becomes a 320mm. Now that's magic !!

El grifo
Have the Nikon D70 :ok: won't go Nikon/Canon, BUT the 1.5x [I think] means that for a [decent] wide angle lens it costs an arm and a leg. [Nikon 19-70mm equates to a 27-105, hardly "cutting edge" ] Sooo a"realistic w/a lens has to be 12mm or so...
watp,iktch

"Possibly" busting the budget?

I've tried to keep the advice generic and respecting the budget. A quick trawl for the EOS through Kelkoo gives the best price of £510 quid and that is just for the body!

Adding a the most commonly offered lens to the equation I find the best deal coming out at £544 GBP but that includes a £100 cashback deal.

Continuing to assume the budget is important I've had a look at an online retailer I've had good service from and looked at an area I particularly favour - factory refurbished cameras. Using five megapixels as a baseline we find this:

or how about:

So, hand on heart we're looking at refurbs to get into decent quality 5MP compacts. I chose the first as it only suffers a quarter second shutter lag and the second to show the good and bad side of burst settings on compacts along with the peril of a very expensive memory format.

So - top tips. Look at guaranteed refurbs. Look at cameras from outside the five big names as they occupy some interesting niches.

As to SLR's there's always eBay if you're feeling lucky:uhoh: :uhoh: or, or, umm you'll get a great basic SLR set up if you, gasp(!!) look at traditional film:ok: :ok:

Regards again,
Rob Lloyd

Hey Rob- How are you doing?

I bought the Canon 300D which suits me perfectly and i'm impressed with the quality. Whilst Kelkoo does a good job it only tens to pick up the body only kits. If you do a search on amazon you'll find you can pick on up with a lens for £596.96. Then you can get £100 rebate from Canon. A pretty decent camera for £496!!

Buy the memory off e-bay- I got 1GB Ultra Scandisk 2 for around £40.

Best wishes.

Rob, your research is impressive, but with the spec of the optical zooms (ignore Digital Zoom) the cameras you mentioned are not really up to aircraft or motorsport photography, if action shots are the game.

There must now be some of the older Digital Slr's on the second hand market at reasonable prices and six month guarantees. I know loads of guys who are on their third upgrade by now, simply trading in the older model after six months or so, when a superior model becomes available.

Being that it is a work tool, smug bastard here went straight from film to Canon 1Ds as I hate playing the upgrade game. It actually paid for itself on the first few jobs. It has now been superceded by the 1Ds Mk2 which is actually in excess of my clients requirements, so no tears there.

If a new Slr is outwith the budget, call around the Photo biggies for S/H I say.

Sticking with the client's brief mate;) ;)

(For those who don't know Grif is a working pro photographer in a particularly demanding area.)

I'd be very interested in what prices folks can find warranted digital SLR body and useful lens coverage at.

As an enthusiast working to the specified budget I'd go traditional film SLR with a couple of decent quality lenses. Images per buck being the key in this price band.

Regards
Rob

PS Mooney - you did well on that branded memory but it is a lottery out there - write speeds vary hugely amongst generic suppliers.

PPS A lightning run around the second hand sites that came up on a quick and dirty search showed them trying to cling to the 400 mark for Canon.

Nice one Robbo,

That's the problem with us "pros". Never known to pay attention to minor details like Client brief.

As for deadlines, we just love that whooshing sound they make as they go rushing by.

Nice research !

:ok: :cool: :ok:

I have found that the Fuji5000 is a superb camera, I paid about £200 for mine about 9 months ago, it gives superb quality is very easy to use, but its drawback is lagtime, saying that once you get the knack it can be coped with. Also, allways have a spare set of batteries handy, you get very little warning that the installed ones are about to quit. I still use mine all the time.

If you can splash out (£800) treat yourself to a Canon EOS10D Digital SLR, quite simply 6MEG Pixels, no lag, and a very nice piece of kit, brilliant for shooting moving aircraft. I have Canon wet cameras and all the lenses I have for those are compatible.

I also found it best to read user reports from the net, I got some great feedback when I was looking to upgrade to my Canon,

Good hunting

Newbie aircraft photographer
 

Just acquired a new digital camera (Panasonic FZ-5) and I am planning to give it a run out taking some aircraft photos. I am planning to go to the Yorkshire Airshow next month, but was going to go to MAN to get a bit of practice on slower moving objects beforehand!

The camera has various settings from fully auto to fully manual. I just wanted some advice on how best to take good pictures of moving aircraft, shutter speeds, aperture settings etc. I don't have a tripod, but the camera has image stabilising software which is quite effective.

Which is best to do, track the aircraft and take the picture or wait for it to come into shot?

Assume I am a total newbie, as I have only really done "point and shoot" before!

Track one if not all of the aircraft for best results!

Don't foeget that there will be a shutter lag in ANY camera - especially digital.

The rest is just luck/experience!


**DELETED PIC AS IT LOOKS CRAP SMALL**

Crikey, if I get anything near that I'll be chuffed!!

Alan - that one was pure luck!!!:} Nice one...