New camera time

[Treerat]

All

I'm in a quandry - I've used a Fiji S7000 for the last few years as my land based camera. It takes great pictures so long as you are up close, family pictures, weddings, presentations etc. However the zoom is dire and the tele lens awful so animal photography, especially birds in the garden is out.

So it's time to upgrade. I fancy the Lumix G1 but it seems expensive, especially the extra lenses. I've also seen the cannon range and they seem very good.

Anyone have any views on either, especially the down points or other options? I don't want anything to special, just something with a good lens for wildlife pics.

Ta muchly

[Nawty]

For birds it's either a DSLR and mega expensive lenses or a superzoom, have a look here:

'Compact Super Zoom' Camera Group Test (Q2 2009) Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

A so called "bridge" camera may serve better for the longer reaches.

[novex]

the G1 is a pretty decent camera, its one of the new micro four thirds format ones (means theres interchangable lenses from multiple manufacturers) however it is the 1st lumix in this range, there are already a few more with better features (like hd video as well).
Olympus also make a few cameras in this format that have been very well reciewed and also just look damn smexy in a classic camera sort of way.

a google for "micro four thirds cameras" will give you a bit more info, basicly its a realy good option if you dont want to go full blown dslr but do want similar features and the ability to manualy compose shots and change lenses.

lenses will always be expensive unfortunately, its just something you need to accept if you want the flexibility offered by them.

[Bardo]

the G1 is a pretty decent camera, its one of the new micro four thirds format ones (means theres interchangable lenses from multiple manufacturers) however it is the 1st lumix in this range, there are already a few more with better features (like hd video as well).
Olympus also make a few cameras in this format that have been very well reciewed and also just look damn smexy in a classic camera sort of way.

a google for "micro four thirds cameras" will give you a bit more info, basicly its a realy good option if you dont want to go full blown dslr but do want similar features and the ability to manualy compose shots and change lenses.

lenses will always be expensive unfortunately, its just something you need to accept if you want the flexibility offered by them.

When it was first announced, I got really excited about the micro four thirds standard as it seemed to be exactly what underwater photographers were looking for - a camera with full manual controls and DSLR-style interchangeable lens but without the price tag and bulk. Whilst I think the early models have showed promise, there are two issues with the standard that seriously need to be addressed...

1. The cost of lenses. Whilst I appreciate the economies of scale with such things, the price these manufacturers are asking for their lenses is just ridiculous! Someone needs to seriously start driving the prices of these lenses down. When you can buy a decent wide angle lens for less than £400, I'll start taking an interest.

2. The lack of lens choice. For me, I won't even consider a camera for underwater use unless there is some form of wide angle fisheye available for it. The closest I've seen is the Panasonic 7-14mm f4.0 (14-28mm equiv) that - whilst being a very nice lens - is almost £1000, isn't quite as fast as I'd like (f2.8 minimum) and is rectilinear (like the Sigma 10-20mm) rather than fisheye. Having just picked up a Nikon 10.5mm f2.8 fisheye for £300, I think I'll stick with my full sized DSLRs...

[Tonytsdiver]

I have the Panasonic Lumix G1. It's probably designed for the less experienced user put off buying a digital SLR because of bulk. Ideal for me on long mountain walks. The camera delivers superb resolution (especially in raw files). The electronic viewfinder is not to everybody's liking but works for me. I hardly ever compose with the LCD screen these days. Limited lens choice is a problem at the moment. I bought the bundle with the 14 -45 mm and 45 - 200 mm lenses and both are good quality. It's really easy to capture some great pictures with this camera without spending hours at the PC.

Not sure how the camera performs underwater sorry.

Example below of a RAW image edited in Picasa ' I'm feeling lucky'

[ChristianG]

I'm in a quandry

Hi Andy,

Here's the four thirds website.

The king of the heap in P&S superzooms at the moment is the Olympus SP-590UZ which has a 26x lens (f2.8-f5.0 26-676mm equivalent). The good news is that that's one helluva long lens on a P&S, the bad news is, and I don't care what they say about image stabilization, you're going to need a tripod at a lot of the long end of it. Oh, it also has a 5x digital zoom but we all know that those are useless anyway, don't we.

As an alternatively, and I would personally be sorely tempted by this if I were in that market, I would look at the Olympus Pen E-P2 which is a micro 4/3rds camera on which you can swop the lenses - and there are a plethora of them available. You will also want that electronic viewfinder, it's a gem. Bonus: Ikelite are considering a housing for it for introduction this year. Ikelite, when they say "considering" in that fashion, usually actually also bring it out. I'm rather impressed by this camera and if I can use my Sigma lenses with it, which I should be able to do, there are adaptors available, I might even buy one myself to replace the Panasonic that I bought and then got rid of, there's a thread on here somewhere on that sorry scene.