Tips on what camera to get

[Patrick]

Not out to make friends are you Patrick

Gruditch

I'm certainly not out to make any enemies Gary but I can understand you being a little upset if you are starting to think you may have wasted your money on a DSLR

My intention is to offer good, friendly and helpful advice to Annie who started the thread and so, Annie, have a look at some of my pics taken with, inexpensive, lightweight, easy-to-use cameras and see if you would be happy with those results. I am not proud of them but certainly pleased with them, despite the dreadful lack of picture quality and appalling noise (if you enlarge them to poster size).

Go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26138378@N ... 809614393/

If you are not familiar with flickr just click on a thumbnail then 'on all sizes' above the pic to enlarge.

Then perhaps you can persuade Gary to show you his stunning portfolio of DSLR images (he won't show me )

Patrick

[Dave McCormick]

Well, I think Patrick, its not a case of how good DSLR cameras are or whatever, its your preference. Yes there are advantages with DSLRs such as different lenses etc...

Bridge cameras have a smaller sensor typically than a DSLR and ISO then tends to be less sensitave. They have an electronic viewfinder, rather than an optical one; electronic viewfinders don't render fine detail as well, and can be hard to focus manually sometimes. The don't have a removable lens, which greatly limits their flexibility too. They seem to bridge the gap between a compact and a DSLR, giving more functionallity than a compact, but less than a DSLR.

Best results usually require skill, I learned this with my samsung digimax l85 compact, I learned to get close to butterflies without disturning them, but with my Canon 400D and Sigma 105mm, I saw a better quality increase and more flexibility (when you get to understand the settings and learn to use properly, you can see DSLR benifits), and the range of lenses is great, don't have to get so close to creatures to shoot them.

[eccles]

Here's why I upgraded to a DSLR.

This is a resize of a full frame picture that I took today of a ringlet.

DSC03122-ff.jpg (69.33 KiB) Viewed 1416 times

After processing it, I ended up with this, which is the image that I shall use.

DSC03122.jpg (104.97 KiB) Viewed 1414 times

This is a 100% crop of the image.

DSC03122crop.jpg (88.51 KiB) Viewed 1416 times

If you check the exif data, you will find that I shot using iso200. This is the base iso for my camera. Most bridge cameras will show a lot of noise at this iso, but there is very little in the crop. There is a little flaring but this is down to my using a 20 year old lens. I shot this from around 3 feet away.

In the sightings forum I have just posted a couple of SW fritillary photos. The second of these was shot at iso 640 and a shutter speed of 1/500. The reason for this is due to my experience with this species I realised that a decent shutter speed was necessary, even though my camera has image stabilisation built in. SWFs quite literally vibrate when nectaring. As their proboscis is going in and out of the flower, their body wobbles back and forth. All the image stabilisation in the world is not going to stop this - it'll only prevent camera shake, not subject shake. The only answer is to get the shutter speed up, even though you want to keep the aperture down to get a decent depth of field. With a compact you can't push the iso to more than 200 before you get horrible noise so the shutterspeed isn't going to be enough. As a result, I never got a really sharp picture, i.e. capable of printing on an A4 page, of a SWF with a compact. If anyone here has managed it then they were lucky, or managed to find a SWF on a cool day.

Eccles.

[Annie]

I should've known when I started this topic that it would encourage some healthy debate!

Patrick - your photos on flickr are far and away above what I would expect to be able to take - I was really impressed with your results, thank you, and everybody else who posted photos and points-of-view for comparison.

Like I said, my photos will not be for competition entry or display but purely for my own personal record and to aid identification.

Eccles, the close-up of the Ringlet is truly amazing - a great illustration of the advanced properties of D-SLR over other compacts etc.

I have decided that something with image stabilisation would be a good idea for me - I am rather unsteady at the best of times (!), I understand that I can never get subject stabilisation (in an ideal world....) but I am sure it will help my photographs to be clearer.

I had a go with my mother's digital compact at the weekend, taking a photo of a rather battered Common Blue - I wondered why I couldn't see an image on the screen; was it the sunlight reflecting?; was it my eyesight?

No, I'd left the sodding lens cap on. If butterflies could laugh....

[Patrick]

Annie,

I have just returned from a (disastrous) few days on Exmoor looking for Heath Fritillary - cool wind all the time and rain for much of the time, not a sniff of the target species!

Thank you for your comments and apologies if I offended anybody, it was not intended and having had a good look around through old postings on UK Butterflies and also on Flickr, I am actually considering purchasing another DSLR (as a second string to my FZ50, you understand!).

Patrick

[Markulous]

So should I feel pleased that you had a poor trip, Patrick, because I'm a terribly upset dSLR owner? Nope! I'm sorry you had a poor few days - and I, for one, welcome the debate.

I know why I went for a dSLR from my (wonderful!) Fuji 602Z and it was probably chiefly for control. I suspect that nowadays there are compacts/bridges that will allow most things - but I'm betting it's still not everything! But then I want a system that is good for macro as well as landscape and sport, personal as well as commissioned pics

Oh, and just to prove that I'm happy to use anything that captures an image, here's a shot I took recently of Mr Squeak, a Common or Short Tailed Vole who (until recently) lived in my garden. Shot taken with Sony Ericsson 750i mobile (so only a couple of inches away!)

[Rogerdodge]

I have just returned from a (disastrous) few days on Exmoor looking for Heath Fritillary - cool wind all the time and rain for much of the time, not a sniff of the target species!

Which sites did you try?
I saw tham at Haddon on Friday and Awlescombe on Saturday.
Roger

[Patrick]

I saw tham at Haddon on Friday and Awlescombe on Saturday.

Ooh, you know how to hurt Roger! I was at Haddon on Thursday (26th) though not sure if we were in the right place. I have not been to the site before nor seen Heath Fritillary but my wife, who did the research, says we were at the grid ref on the UK Butterflies site guide (some way to the east of the summit). Unfortunately we were not totally focussed on butterflies during our stay on Exmoor as one member of our party wanted to visit barrows and standing stones etc. and, of course, we had the best of the weather while we were doing that. I have to say that sort of thing leaves me cold but each-to-their-own. Anyway, Heath Frit. will have to remain a target for future trips along with the other 8 or 9 species we have not seen in the UK.

Nice vole Markulous, amazing quality for a mobile!

Patrick

[NickB]

... Mr Squeak, a Common or Short Tailed Vole who (until recently) lived in my garden. Shot taken with Sony Ericsson 750i mobile (so only a couple of inches away!)

Cute! But rather ominously you said "until recently"...what happened!
N

[Markulous]

Cute! But rather ominously you said "until recently"...what happened!
N

LOL, Nick! Well, he's disappeared {sniff, sniff}. Although there's another one (which has been around the same length of time) who I call Mrs Squeak (tho' from their fights I concluded she was definitely in an acrimonious divorce!). But I reckon Mr Squeak has gone to the big block of cheese in the sky

[Annie]

My lovely boyfriend has lent me his Kodak P880 bridge camera for the week to see how I get on with the world of digital photography - here goes!

[Markulous]

My lovely boyfriend has lent me his Kodak P880 bridge camera for the week to see how I get on with the world of digital photography - here goes!

Now that sounds the perfect solution - try it before you buy it!

[Tony Moore]

My fourpenn'th for what it's worth. A really good compact - like Canon Ixus - with 8-10 mil pixels has the enormous advantage that you can hold it at arm's length and more easily approach most butterflies. It's also great if you are climbing up a mountain after epiphron or the like; you have a tiny camera on your belt rather than a ton and a half of equipment in a sack! The main problem is with the automatic focus - you often have to take a dozen shots to get a really sharp picture.
A.M.

[Pete Eeles]

Now that sounds the perfect solution - try it before you buy it!

I hope you're referring to the camera, and not the boyfriend?

Cheers,

- Pete

[Markulous]

I hope you're referring to the camera, and not the boyfriend?

LOL! Pretty much anything/everything, I reckon

[Shirley Roulston]

Hi Annie,

I have an Kodak Easyshare P712 its a light camera and not too expensive. I usually carry a Monopod with me. Its a camera to start with, the Canon and Nikon cameras are o.k if you've plenty of money to buy the extra lenes.

[Annie]

right, I had a terrible time with the Kodak bridge last week at Alice Holt. I found it awkward to take close-up photos and too cumbersome for me as a camera-virgin. So I tried my mum's little compace and got some fabbo pics of a male PE settled on the floor (the self-same one that walked up my right index finger. I'm making arrangements for the finger to be preserved for future generations )

I'll post the PE pics as soon as I get them off my ma.

The skipper pics I took with the Kodak bridge were truly, truly terrible

[NickB]

Sorry to hear that Annie - but it is not unusual to break-out in a cold sweat thinking you have wasted your money when you first try something new with a few more controls than a simple point-and-click! ( I speak of my first attempts with my Nikon!!) It generally takes a few outings to start to learn the rules for each particular camera before you get the results you hope to get! And because there is always room for improvement, we keep on trying!

Sounds like the compact route is the one for you at this moment in time! Happy hunting!
Nick