Wanna Buy A Camera

[Grover]

this thread has inspired me to go and buy a new digital camera. Yesterday I did the research, read the reviews and advice and i've decided to get a Fuji F30 compact. It was a tossup between the IXUS 65 (beautiful color IMO) and the F30, but after seeing the 65's ISO400 noise I decided on the F30. So, thanks for helping me do the damage, and thanks again.

[DragonQuest]

I like the sony brand but anything from japan will do for me like panasonic, fugi ext ext. good quality just make sure you check 5 places before you buy, thai's seem to over price everything thats imported....

[aussiestyle1983]

I bought an Olympus SP510 Ultra Zoom afew weeks ago. Its a 7.1 MP and it has 10X optical zoom. You can reduce the image size and the zoom will increase to 15X optical. It takes magnificant pics in all conditions. I read many bad comments about the quality at night, but Ive taken many pics at outdoor night parties and the pics are of top quality. So if you want a small digital camera with a big zoom, check it out, you should be able to pick one up brand new for 12,000 now.

[Mai Krap]

This was just announced a few hours ago and is set to go on sale in February. With 18 times zoom it will put the lense at 500mm which is really getting out there for a smallish travel camera. As for birding without going for a Pro SLR camera this is a pretty amazing set up. It will be interesting to see the test results and some sample pictures from one. Olympus has some great new cameras, Thier new SLRs look pretty good according to what Im hearing, The Four Thirds lense mount is picking up steam and Leica has just released a new lense for the system.

Olympus Unveils 18x Optical Zoom SP-550 UZ

Olympus trumps its 12x rivals with an 18x ultra-zoom camera

The battle in the ultra-zoom digital camera market just got a bit more interesting with the announcement of Olympus' new SD-550 UZ. While competing large-zoom cameras "make do" with just 12x optical zoom, the SD-550 UZ features 18x optical zoom.

The 18x wide zoom lens provides the 35mm equivalent of 28-504mm and makes use of Dual Image Stabilization.

The camera features a 7.1MP imager and has the ability to capture pictures at a burst rate of 15 frames per second. The camera can also capture 30FPS video at 320x240 or 640x480. And as expected from consumer digital cameras these days, a large 2.5" LCD screen (230,000 pixels) is provided to framing and image playback.

Other features include a Super Macro mode, 23 scene modes, BrightCapture Technology for use in low-light situations and internal memory for storing a few images in a pinch. Unlike most consumer cameras out there, the Olympus SD-550 UZ features a proprietary xD slot for memory cards. xD cards are usually a bit more expensive than Secure Digital cards more commonly used in this sector.

On the other hand, Olympus made the smart move to allow the camera to accept four AA batteries for power. This gives users the ability to take advantage of relatively inexpensive rechargeable AA batteries or alkaline batteries in emergency situations. It sure beats having to pay for a spare proprietary battery pack.

The 12.9 ounce (without battery) Olympus SD-550 UZ will be available in February with an estimated MSRP of $500.

[Grover]

all that zoom is nice, but the SP510 reduces to 3megapixel at max zoom, and uses higher ISO to deal with the shake - its a high noise camera too. So, hopefully that newer model have overcome these problems

[astral]

These cameras are not designed to cope the the OP's objectives,

which is close up shots of birds.

[Mai Krap]

These cameras are not designed to cope the the OP's objectives,

which is close up shots of birds.

I beleive the OLY SP-550 Ultra Zoom 500mm digital for under 500 bucks would do quite nicely for a typical bird watcher. If the OP had the money and a prior knowledge of photography they would already be well aware of Pro type gear which is not what was asked for.

[aussiestyle1983]

Here are two pics from my Olympus SP510UZ taken afew weeks ago. No tripod was used, but I took the two pics just to compare no zoom with the 10X zoom. Like another poster mentioned, at 15X zoom, the image quality is reduced alot but at 10X, it is still fine.

[astral]

A great deal depends on your definition of "fine".

The full zoom photo shows the road signs, but they are unreadable.

Viewing on a screen is not a good test anyway,

try a 10 x 8 print then you will really see how much you have lost.

To be honest you cannot expect much with an image that is only 500K in size,

however that may be good enough for your needs.