Advice for a new camera?

[bruleke]

Hi. First of all: I dont understand anything about cameras!

I have this Canon A570 for 2 years now. But I realized it doesnt have a good image AND the lens are too small, I believe (remember: I dont understand a thing about cameras).

I am planning to buy a new camera, but I just cant decide. All I have in mind is that "CANON" is a good brand and SONY isn't, thats all. (Don't even know if thats right).

Here's what I want:

1. Compact camera

2. With great lens (Don't want cameras with small lens like SONY DCR/Canon Powershot etc.)

3. With great zoom

4. Uses AA batteries (I hate rechargeable batteries - they dont sell 'anywhere' like supermarket, they sell only in specific stores)

5.With great MACRO function.


Here is the "what for":

1. Underwater photos (I buy the housing later...dont worry)

2. Flowers pictures (a lot)

3. Birds pictures (a lot, too)

Here's what I've seen:

Canon sx130, only. But people say the batteries doesn't last too much. Anyway, I didnt research it well because, like I said, I dont understand a THING about it.

What can you recommend to me? Post the names and I look for the pictures! Or post the pictures!

Thanks a lot!

 

[termina3]

Start here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

Your primary limiting criterion is the waterproof expectation. Start by looking for cameras that are waterproof, and then start applying the other requirements you've laid out. DPreview is a good site to help you with your search; Google also works well too.

 

[bruleke]

Start here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

Your primary limiting criterion is the waterproof expectation. Start by looking for cameras that are waterproof, and then start applying the other requirements you've laid out. DPreview is a good site to help you with your search; Google also works well too.

As to your signature, there are many people in the world who "don't" have the things you mention.

Google? What is google?
Ah, you mean, that web tool for search?
Of course I tried that. You know what? People post threads here because they have already tried google OR because they need some help from real people, not from websites. Opinions!

PS: I wrote I will buy a water housing, not that I want a waterproof camera.

 

[termina3]

Google? What is google?
Ah, you mean, that web tool for search?
Of course I tried that.

I'm glad you tried Google first. You would be surprised at the number of people who will post on the forum as their first step. Asking OPs to search Google and previous MacRumors posts is standard operating procedure.

You know what? People post threads here because they have already tried google OR because they need some help from real people, not from websites. Opinions!

DPReview provides solid process- and fact-based reviews that I trust more than an amalgamation of opinions. The search tool I linked you to may provide a useful starting point. I find it useful when trying to look for cameras by certain parameters.

PS: I wrote I will buy a water housing, not that I want a waterproof camera.

I apologize. I read too quickly. I have been keeping a (very) loose hold on advancements in compact waterproof cameras over the past two years myself. Perhaps this is part of the reason I unintentionally misread your post.

 

[Designer Dale]

Look through the underwater equipment at B&H Photo.

Cameras/Housings/Lighting

Dale

PS: Use the ' in your contractions...

 

[bruleke]

1. Underwater photos (I buy the housing later...dont worry)

Now I believe you will understand.

 

[Ruahrc]

But is it possible to buy an underwater housing for ANY camera? It was my understanding that underwater housings were pretty specific to camera model, and hence the possibility of an underwater housing not being available for a particular camera, in which case you would need to know that beforehand.

Ruahrc

 

[compuwar]

But is it possible to buy an underwater housing for ANY camera? It was my understanding that underwater housings were pretty specific to camera model, and hence the possibility of an underwater housing not being available for a particular camera, in which case you would need to know that beforehand.

Ruahrc

The answer is "it depends." Mostly it depends on how deep you want to go with the camera- as well as how controllable you need the camera to be- It's possible to get the "heavy duty plastic bag" housings such as Ewa Marine sells for just about any camera- however they tend to not be good for going very deep- most folks have issues with them below 30'.

If you leave too much air in them, they're difficult to control and submerge, if you leave too little, you can have issues with pressure pushing buttons for you.

If it's splashing in the surf, tubing or your local swimming pool, then you can get away with a baggie- if you're diving deep in the ocean, then you need to get a housing for the specific camera- at that point selecting a camera for which a housing exists becomes paramount.

Paul

 

[thederby]

Now I believe you will understand.

i started to compose suggestions based on your original post a few times, but your subsequent berating of the people that have tried to help since then lead me not to bother.

i'm not sure if it's a language gap or not, but your subsequent posts come off as quite bitter and ungrateful.

good luck on your search!

 

[jdavtz]

Here's what I want:

1. Compact camera

2. With great lens

3. With great zoom

Okay, this is going to be a main problem. We ALL want a compact camera with a great lens and a great zoom, but they don't exist.

Compact with great lens = e.g. Panasonic LX3. Zoom isn't great though. (24-60mm)

Compact with great zoom can't physically be a great lens. A long lens ("great zoom") needs to physically be big if it's going to let a lot of light get to the sensor. Compact cameras have small zoom lenses, which don't let much light get to the sensor, leading to blurry photos unless you shoot stationary objects and use a tripod.

Great lens with great zoom = physically huge, and needs a DSLR body.

Lots of compact cameras will do a great job with flowers and underwater (with appropriate housing).

Bird photos are a serious challenge, even for people spending a couple of thousand pounds on a DSLR and long fast lens. I'm not 100% sure you're going to find a compact that does even a quarter-decent job with birds.

I understand your point about AA batteries, but would buying two rechargeable batteries be an option if it increases your choice of cameras?

 

[azzarocks86]

I would suggest you look into sony's new range of nex cameras... They are in between a super compact camera and an slr... The body is really tiny and If you get the bundle with both a 16mm and an 18-55mm lens then you have some fairly good options.

The interface is simplified so and has an instruction manual built into the menu system. This means that if you want to take a nice shot of a flower with just the flower in focus and the background blurred then all you have to do is adjust a slider that says "blur background". You will need the 18-55mm lens on for this but after a bit of trial and error you should be taking fantastic photos without having to learn to much about ISO, focal length, appetures or shutter speeds...

You would probably only be able to use the 16mm lens in an underwater case but that would probably be the kind of lens that you would want anyway when taking those kinds of photos...

Dpreview gives a great run down of the NEX range if you wanted to look there... Good luck

 

[JoshBoy]

i started to compose suggestions based on your original post a few times, but your subsequent berating of the people that have tried to help since then lead me not to bother.

i'm not sure if it's a language gap or not, but your subsequent posts come off as quite bitter and ungrateful.

good luck on your search!

I to need to agree here. People are spending time offering advise, just think before you type because we can all come off bad by mistake.

The advise I have is please post your budget, this will help. My other bit of advise is if you can afford it why not look towards a DSLR, I noticed the birds comment and with a goof fast DSLR with a great zoom lens you will be surprised at the outcome.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

É tratar de evaluar todos os câmaras antes de comprar. Com câmaras pequenas como o tipo que voçê quer, todos são mais ou menos iguais (na verdade, os Sony's são uns dos melhores availaveis no momento).

Boa sorte com o pesquiso, evaluar todas as câmaras que pode antes de comprar. A câmara melhor é a câmara que voçê quer usar, Canon ou não.

 

[BeachChair]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; da-dk) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

NEX might fit the bill on some accounts. I doubt it would do birding well with the 200mm zoom. I'm guessing longer is needed.
As for underwatershots it seems to do quite well,especially because Nikonos lenses can be used on it http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1042&thread=36694496