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Compact Digital Cam with good zoom?

W

Wag

Diamond Member
I walk every day and keep kicking myself every time I see something cool and have no camera to take a picture. Today I saw a huge hawk and last year I saw two Bald Eagles.

Any suggestions for a small digital cam with good zoom that will be comfortable to carry while walking and has a decent zoom for bird pics? $200-$300.
 
A70 is your best bet, IMO. It's not shirt-pocket sized, but as long as you don't wear tight pants, you can carry it in a pants pocket. 3x zoom should be good enough to get most bird shots. 🙂
 
You can go small or good zoom, I doubt you can have both.

I had a Fuji2800 and it took great pics and had a 6x optical but it's not the smallest of cameras.

I now have a minolta Z1 and it has a 10x optical zoom, it's smaller than a real SLR but it's not small.

Here is something that might fit the bill, Fuji A205, you might get lucky and find it for $80.


Good luck,

Tom
 
Thanks.

The whole point of my walk is excersize, so snapping a photo will be secondary- just nice to have if I see a Bald Eagle again (not likely).

But a decent camera would be good. I currently have an old Finepix 1.3mpxls which isn't really good enough.
 
a70 has 3x zoom; for that price range that's about as high as it gets without aftermarket lenses, which don't come cheap. That enough zoom? FYI the a75 is out now; the upgrade to the a70. It's the one I'm most likely getting.
 
A friend of mine has the Pentax Optio S camera. It was a 3 Megapixel, 3x optical zoom camera, but the biggest selling point of it was the fact that it could fit inside a tin of Altoids mints. Now that is tiny.
 
Although not super slim, I have the Olympus C-740 which has a very nice 10x optical zoom...

Its an awesome camera (the zoom makes up for much), but beware: Nearly all small digital cameras have a delay of 1 - 2 seconds before taking the picture ... It takes practice to get any kind of action shot to come out. I - frankly - just got tired of it and ordered a digital Rebel. I have kids and they don't sit still long enough...

I'd really recommend looking for the shortest delay you can get.
 
The Olympus looks like a nice camera, but as you say, it's hard to get birds to stand still for an extended period of time.

Thanks again for all the suggestions- time to do a bit of research.
 
I guarantee you'll find photography becomes a big part, and motivation, for those walks if you have a mega zoom and image stabilization. The MP are almost irrelevant.
 
I like the Kodak 6490 - small for a camera with 10x optical zoom, 4 megapixel and comes with a dock for a good price.
Looks and feels good in your hand to boot.
 
Ah, nice!

I didn't realize Digital Cams have come so far in the lower price-range.
It seems like I just purchased my Finepix 1400 for $200.

The Cannon is $200+ more than the Olympus.
 
I just picked up a Canon S1 last week.
It's very nice.

My sister has a Canon SD100 the picture quality between the two cameras is for the most part fairly similar when you do NOT need to zoom in much. If you want the big zoom the S1 is your daddy. The IS accually does work. I was playing around taken pictures while shaking the camera slightly and the pics accually come out fairly clear. The other thing I noticed is at max zoom it is hard to keep it 100% steady so the IS is nice for those shots as well.

Anyways back the SD100 it is such a tiny little thing. I was in Vegas last week (where i bought the camera) and it was awesome how my sister could just tuck her camera in her pocket and could carry it to the bar. The S1 is to big to be carrying around drunk and dancing and stuff. So I'd had to leave it behind in the hotel room every night.

So it comes down to, do you want a compact camera you can tuck in your pocket or something you need to carry in a bag or around your neck? I sort of wish I had gone compact, but then again the features of the S1 are awesome & my pictures of those white tigers at the Mirage hotel rock my sis's SD100 because I could zoom in much better. If I was gonna go for a compact camera i'd probably go with the Canon S400 if I was gonna go bigger & bulker the S1. Just decide how you think you will typically use your camera.

The other thing is the S400 is closer to your price range where as I know I paid $499 for the S1. Ohh and while the A70/A75 are awesome (I was considering them as well) do not be fooled into thinking they are "compact" cameras.

Anyways good luck. I love the S1, but when I go drinking partying I know I am gonna wish I had bought a small pocket sized camera.

PS. sorry for long sentances, poor spelling, bad grammer, incoherent ramblings....english is my first language and I failed first year english twice before i passed (3rd times a charm).

EDIT: FIXED SOME BAD GRAMMER
 
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