How do you pick one?

[theknight571]

Here are my "needs" (can be somewhat flexible)

- general, everyday, decent pics at family functions, and other gatherings.
- small enough to carry in wife's purse, or my coat pocket
- decent pics at kids sporting events (ice hockey / football / baseball / etc)
- decent nature and outdoor (beach) pics.
- image stabilization
- easy to use (photog novice here)
- good battery life (my last camera ate batteries like a blue whale eats krill)

Doing some research I thought I might need two cameras...
1) Small, compact camera such as the Canon PS A570IS (as recommended in another thread) For "everyday" general use.
2) Superzoom, SLR-Like camera such as the Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd. For vacation, beach, sporting events, or other events where I can plan for, and bring a bigger camera.
Note) the above are examples, not necessiarly my picks.

I've also looked into some of the entry level DSLR cameras. I know most of them have an "auto" mode, for ease of use, but the array, and expense, of lenses scares me a bit.

I don't have a problem buying two cameras, since I can see the need/use for both. But I don't have an unlimited budget either.

I admit I don't fully understand all of the terminology, but reading some other sites / forums / reviews / etc. has put a little doubt in my mind about the superzooms and their use at sporting events. (i.e. they might not be "fast" enough to catch the action... or "whatever" enough to use in the arena light.

So, I figured I'd ask for input from some experienced photogs here at AT.

Anyone have experience with the superzooms, or shooting at sporting events, or am I way off base here, and there's a single camera that will do what I need it to do?

Like I said, I'm a photog novice. My only experience coming from "point and shoot" cameras.. no manual settings... select picture size, push button. So if I'm leaving out crucial information, let me know.

Thanks for your help.

 

[soydios]

pics at sporting events would require a D40(x) with an 18-200mm VR to fit your other requirements. if you can live without the low-light and quick-response performance of an SLR, a P&S will fulfill all your other criteria.

 

[RedWolf]

I don't think you have to have a dSLR for sporting events to get decent pics. You will get better pictures and more opportunities from a dslr, though. I've taken my H9 to an Indy Car race and to a professional football game. I got some very good pictures from both. They aren't dslr quality pictures but they are printable and capture the moment well. The H9 will do 2 fps and full manual so you can get good results. They'll never be published on the cover of Sports Illustrated but they are perfectly fine for remembering the event and printing out.

If your sports requirements are in well lit areas you can get good results. I would worry a bit about ice hockey as the arena may not be well lit. The Fuji S6000 would work for low light but it's a little slow in continuous shooting mode. The FZ18 or Sony H9 would work but again you'll get much better results with a dslr.

Basically with a dslr you'll get more keepers and they will be higher quality but a super zoom can give you a few very nice images.

This is one of the better photos I got from the H9 at the metrodome when the vikings played the chargers.

Text

We sat in row 19 in the middle of the end zone. This is the other side of the field so it is about 100 yards or so. That said, I am moving to a dSLR and selling the H9. I want more keepers, better IQ, and better low light performance. If you can afford a dslr that's the way to go. If not, a super zoom will do a lot of things, though it doesn't do any of them particularly well.

 

[montanafan]

Yep, getting good shots at the kids' sporting events is where you're going to have to make some choices depending on the venue and quality of photos you want. Baseball won't be a problem. It's easy to take action shots in daylight. Any decent camera with a zoom lens can be set on sports mode and get you okay shots. For best quality you'll want to be able to shoot wide open to blur the background and just setting it on sports mode won't do that, but if you just want to stop action it'll get the job done in daylight. Same thing for football if it's in daylight, but football at night and hockey in an arena are an entirely different animal. You'll need a lens with some reach and a large aperture, at least f/2.8. You'll also need to know how to adjust aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and EC for the amount of light, and white balance for the indoor shots.
Sports mode won't help you here. AF functions are important, like USM or HSM and AI Servo. And even then, you'll need to develop some skills with post-processing software to get better quality photos.

It's not that difficult to learn, but you will have to have the necessary equipment and find time to learn how to use it properly. If you're going to be shooting a lot of sports indoors or in low light outdoors, a dslr isn't absolutely necessary, but I'd recommend one for their flexibility in a variety of conditons.

 

[alfa147x]

If your doing sports I would HIGHLY recommend going with a canon better performance at higher ISO levels

 

[ElFenix]

for sports you either should use an SLR because of the response time or get very good with panning on a compact. some compacts actually have pretty bright lenses, brighter than the lenses that come with SLRs.

where compacts come up short is noise performance at higher sensitivity. SLRs have a much larger pixels on the chip, which gives them a huge advantage when there isn't much light (or when shutter speeds are fast, as they amount to the same thing to the camera). they simply gather a lot more light, so when the signal is amplified there is a much higher snr. compacts at high sensitivity has so much noise it largely overcomes the signal (and then noise reduction destroys detail even more). compacts end up looking like an impressionist painting above ISO 800.

 

[theknight571]

Thanks for the replys and the information.

My accountant (i.e. my wife ... I tried to slip it by her... lol ) has informed that a camera like the Nikon D40 (one of the ones I was looking at) is out of our budget at the moment.

I'm thinking I might be able to find an older, but still decent, used DSLR. One I could learn on, for less than the cost of a new one.

Do you think that might be a possibility? If so, any suggestions on what models I should be on the lookout for? Or are the lenses going to be the big money sink?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[montanafan]

Well, there are different ways you can go to get the sports shots. You could get a Rebel XT, that's what I use (this one comes with the kit lens):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/..._Digital_Rebel_XT.html

and then if you want to go the cheaper and easier way to get the sports shots get a lens like this one:
Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM $189.95

And a good flash like this one:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/...02_580EX_II_Flash.html

The widest aperture that lens will give you zoomed is f/5.6, but that would be okay for the daylight sports like baseball and football if it's in daylight. For night footballl and indoor hockey you could use the flash with it set on ETTL. Using a flash for sports photography has its own set of problems like red-eye, ghosting, shadows, etc., but you can get some good keepers this way especially if you get something like Adobe Photoshop 5.0 to get rid of the red-eye shots.

Now going with that lens and the flash will only save you a couple of hundred dollars over going with a lens that you could use without flash like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-70...-Cameras/dp/B0009V13XS

But the learning curve with the flash will be much lower and less time consuming.

Hope this helps some.

 

[NTB]

One thing that jumped out at me from your initial post: Keep in mind that the Fuji S-series superzooms are not actually stabilized - they cheat by jacking up the ISO setting to achieve a faster shutter speed.

Nathan

 

[RedWolf]

The Fuji S6000/6500 and 9200 have good iso performance. Probably the best of any non-slr zoom camera. They aren't fantastic for sports, though. They are limited in there continuous shooting modes.

If you can squeeze a dslr out that would be best. The olympus e-510 is a good choice. It has very good continuous shooting (slightly better than the Canon XTI or D40x at 3.3fps) and in body image stabilization (nikon and canon do IS in the lens which makes the lenses more expensive). It is fairly inexpensive (under $700 for the 2 lens kit). Finally, decent long reach lenses are fairly cheap for it. The Olympus 70-300 lens is under $400. Now the 14-42/42-150mm lenses don't sound like much but they are pretty good range. Olympus' cameras double the focal length (while Nikon/Canon multiply by 1.5). So the 150mm lens is actually a 300mm lens. The 70-300 lens is going to get you 600mm of zoom. You could also buy a sigma 55-200 f4-f5.6 for $130 that will get you 400mm.

If you are really strapped for cash, the Nikon D40 and a 70-300 lens would be a good choice. The d40 runs about $500 and the lens is about $130 (not image stabilized). The rebel XT would run about the same.