New Cameras...

boonut · **Posted:** Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:31 pm

Anyone purchase any new cameras for Christmas? There are quite a few out there with increasing memory. I purchased two Fuji FINEPIX F50fd digital cameras for my kids. They are 12 megapixel cameras. They do a good job in full auto. They have a number of modes and new features such as camera movement reduction and face detection. It is a pretty good little "point and shoot". It does pretty good with closeups, but not so good with flash and closeups.

Anyone else get a new one? I am interested in hearing about the Nikon D300. It is supposed to have the newer image stabilization and face detection software.

Roy · **Posted:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:57 am

boonut wrote:

Anyone purchase any new cameras for Christmas? There are quite a few out there with increasing memory. I purchased two Fuji FINEPIX F50fd digital cameras for my kids. They are 12 megapixel cameras. They do a good job in full auto. They have a number of modes and new features such as camera movement reduction and face detection. It is a pretty good little "point and shoot". It does pretty good with closeups, but not so good with flash and closeups.

Anyone else get a new one? I am interested in hearing about the Nikon D300. It is supposed to have the newer image stabilization and face detection software.

Boonut,

I Googled Nikon D300 and I came up with a W I D E range of prices for this one.

I used to be a Nikon man, but when I wanted to buy my first digital camera, the Nikons were still WAY out of my price range. So I wound up buying a SonyDSC-707 for $999.00. I would like to go back to a true SLR (Nikon preferred), but I have a feature on the Sony that I haven't been able to find on the true SLR's. I can put the lens on my camera about a 1/2 inch away from an object and take a picture. That means I can hold something in one hand and take a picture with the other hand. Most SLR's have about 18 inches or more as the min. distance from the camera lens to the object being photographed.

I know I didn't answer your question, but I just had to say it so maybe in the discussion I can get some insights from others related to my concerns.

SonyDSC-707

boonut · **Posted:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:42 am

I have an Olympus 8080 that I still like as well for the same reasons. It also takes good flash pics close up without the lens hood. I have seen quite a few of the newer ones with close-up capabilities. The Fuji does a good job and I saw someone with a Samsung that look just like the Fuji mentioned above. They were shooting about 2 inches from the subject. I just don't like the auto ISO settings for the point and shoots.

I think the Nikon can do a good job with the right flash. I helped a Dentist a few years ago get set up for photographing the inside of mouths. He used a ring type flash at the end of the lens. That worked out great.

The technology is coming together. More megapixels doesn't always translate into better image quality. The size and type of sensor is important. I do like the newer image stabilization features. Very nice. I took a number of night time pics just holding the camera with no flash in Mexico that turned out very nice. Some of that had to do with both higher ISO settings and the image stabilization. I haven't tried using the image stabilization with close ups. I imagine that would work very well.

My best pics have been with LOTS of light... slow shutter speeds and lots of depth of field. The flash on the Olympus 8080 does a really good job even with close ups. I have to shoot quite a few though to get a good one unless I use a tripod.

mantis · **Posted:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:48 pm

boonut wrote:

Anyone else get a new one? I am interested in hearing about the Nikon D300. It is supposed to have the newer image stabilization and face detection software.

The image stabilization would be nice. I don't really care about face detection... in my opinion face detection is a feature that belongs on point-and-shoots, not SLRs.

boonut · **Posted:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:59 pm

Don't knock the face detection until you try it. I used the Fuji trying to take a picture of my son up on a backhoe and his face was very small in the total area of the pic and it found his face and focused accordingly.

I think the key is letting you turn it off or on. That is the problem with some of the point and shoots... they don't always let you turn off "auto".

I do a lot of pics of kids for the school district and when you are shooting moving kids and trying to capture the faces without the luxury of having them hold still, it really comes in handy. I will probably order the D300 for the office. Their newer lenses are sweet... nice long zooms all in one lens.

We have two of the D200's and they are really nice. We replaced the standard lens with the newer ones with more zoom. Very nice. We make poster size pics of our students and hang them on most of the walls in our administration building. We are getting ready to do our own billboards throughout the community to remind us all what we are about.

bamboozal · **Posted:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:16 pm

I got myself the Sony Alpha 700 for christmas. I went for the package with a 18-200 lens (an equivalent of 27-350mm in 35mm speak). I chose it mainly because of the in-built image stabilisation feature. A additional plus point is its 12mp sensor - a hedge against technology overtaking me 2 minutes after buying the camera.

I'm very impressed with the camera thus far. The ability to shoot at ISO 6400 plus in-built image stabilisation is quite satisfying.

boonut · **Posted:** Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:01 am

Hi Adrian,

I have been looking at that one. Let me know how it works out. Put it through the ringer. Test it under low light, close-ups, hand held, with forced flash, etc..

It is rated pretty high. Most of the newer cameras have very high ISO settings... you just have to watch the noise levels.

I still want to upgrade my Olympus 8080. I can always buy the Nikon D300 at work to test... so the Sony might be a good choice for boo at home.

bamboozal · **Posted:** Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:48 am

Hi Allen,

Since the purchase just before Christmas, I've taken approximately 500+ holiday snaps, some of which have been in very demanding (light levels) situations. My impressions so far are:

1) fast and accurate autofocus
2) good in-built flash with excellent colour
3) very easy to use, in terms of dials, buttons and time to first shot
4) large LCD that's bright with all the relevant information on display
5) feels well-built
6) (as mentioned before) in-built image stabilisation is fantastic; I've been able to get usable pictures at 1/2.5s, handheld.

The one annoyance (albeit a very small one) is that when you set the camera to Auto ISO, it doesn't actually tell you which ISO the camera set itself to when you take the shot; it just reads Auto ISO.

As for noise levels, I guess for me it's about managing expectations. I don't ask of film at ISO 1600 to produce ISO 100 type pictures, so I don't expect any different with digital cameras. The fact that I can change ISO on the fly from 200 to 6400 is worth the ticket price!

If you already have a whole bunch of Nikon lenses, the Nikon D3 looks very interesting.

boonut · **Posted:** Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:44 am

I agree with the noise accommodation. I took some night time pics in Mexico and at an outdoor Christmas show and all turned out great with just "auto". All were hand held. Not sure what the ISO was. This was using the Fuji. I definitely like the high ISO and image stabilization. Good stuff. You don't have to think about it... just shoot.

bamboozal · **Posted:** Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:46 pm

Hi Allen,

There is a good write up on the D300 and D3 here (if you haven't yet found it):
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... d300.shtml

svendrix · **Posted:** Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:14 pm

And Allen, to follow up bamboozal's link, here is a favorite site of mine for researching digital cameras, seeing the specs, read a review, as well as comments from users of any specific camera.

http://dpreview.com/

Just go to "camera database" on the menu in the upper left corner, then choose the manufacturer.

Great site that I use at least once a year when new models come out and I want to salivate. It'll be a few years until I can afford it, but I expect to get my equivalent of the Nikon D300 out this year around then. Mainly because I have a Nikon N70 manual camera and too many lenses to give up on!

---Sven

boonut · **Posted:** Fri Feb 01, 2008 11:52 pm

Thanks for the input guys. Keep feeding the forum with your results, impressions, etc.. I enjoy reading about your experiences.

bamboozal · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:06 pm

Hi Allen,

quite a few interesting cameras were revealed at PMA 2008 (see http://www.dpreview.com/articles/pma2008/ ), proving the point yet again (to me at least) that it is futile to even try to keep up with technology. Sony had several new cameras on show plus a sample of the 25MP chip they will put in their flagship dslr due later this year.
Olympus put out a stunning digicam (on paper at least, see http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08012 ... p570uz.asp )
26-520 mm focal range!!!

boonut · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:42 am

Now that looks like a pretty good camera. I like the Olympus 8080 I bought a few years ago. It looks very similar to the new one.

Thanks for the heads up.

boonut · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:46 am

Just read the article again on the new Olympus and noticed the 1cm Super Macro mode. OK I AM SOLD!!!! I hope it hits before I head to see the Quail clone of Giganteus in March.

That is one of the real reasons I love the 8080... you can get really close. The price is really good.

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