Camera Recommendations - Decison Made | GTAMotorcycle.com

Camera Recommendations - Decison Made

nakkers

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Not sure what happened to my original post? Didn’t get a PM from a mod to advise I did something inappropriate.

In any event, I did get to see many of the replies and input.

Full disclosure, we are a simple household. And I know a proper camera with a lens or two would be best, I usually am the guy that finds that lens cover when my wife can’t find it. A pocket camera would be ideal but, it’s limited in use. Most times, our phones can manage what a pocket camera would do.

So, I looked for a decent compact camera that had a usable focal zoom (30x) and could upload pics via wifi to her tablet.

Settled on a Canon SX510 HS.

It lacks a view finder and requires using the 3” LCD screen. Haven’t tested in direct sun light but, I’m told it does a decent job.

Bought it used for $150 and included SD card and spare battery. And didn’t have any signs of being kicked around the glove box of a mini van like my wife would.

It’s got obvious limitations but, it’s better than our cell phones for the type of photos we take and if she gets to a point where it’s not up to snuff with birds and the like, we will look at something a little more up scale with the appropriate body and lens that would bring the results she is looking for.

Thank you to everyone for your advice. It’s much more valued than what I find from google and the like. It can also get a little overwhelming with the amount of information to navigate through.

Cheers!


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not much of a camera guy
but if one day I wanted a decent one
Canon be the first brand I'd look at....cheers
 
Interesting, the original thread had lots of good information in it and I don't know where it went either. I wonder what went so wrong in a camera thread that the whole thing got nuked.
 
Congrats. Not the direction I interpreted you wanted. It's basically a point and shoot. Which is good for the "do most things" camera. I have a SX130is for this role. But for more serious stuff I use a DSLR. My bias as an ex-pro.
 
Congrats. Not the direction I interpreted you wanted. It's basically a point and shoot. Which is good for the "do most things" camera. I have a SX130is for this role. But for more serious stuff I use a DSLR. My bias as an ex-pro.

I think I’d prefer to go more into a DSLR and have a couple of lenses to manage the various shots we can take.

But I looked at how we treat the equipment we had and how’s it’s been used and decided to go the cheaper route. At least for the time being.




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It's been a while since I tried a compact super zoom, but I've never found the image quality to be usable at the far end of the zoom.

Personally, I find my iPhone camera to be so good these days that I don't touch my other cameras. On a recent vacation, I didn't take my Sony RX100 out of the case.

If you want high zoom, I would suggest a few generation old dslr with a good zoom lens. Something like my Canon 40D plus 70-200 F4L lens is probably worth around $600 these days.
 
If you want high zoom, I would suggest a few generation old dslr with a good zoom lens. Something like my Canon 40D plus 70-200 F4L lens is probably worth around $600 these days.

40D can be found for a few hundred. 70-200 is still worth decent coin ($500+ for non-IS, double for IS). Good glass doesn't depreciate much and in some cases (24-70 comes to mind) can even appreciate with time.
 
40D can be found for a few hundred. 70-200 is still worth decent coin ($500+ for non-IS, double for IS). Good glass doesn't depreciate much and in some cases (24-70 comes to mind) can even appreciate with time.

I tried selling the above two plus a 50m F1.8 and 590EX ii flash for a packaged $900 over a year ago, didn't get any serious buyers, decided to keep it. There's almost no market for older camera bodies and accessories which makes for great buying opportunities. Lenses pricing stays pretty stagnant.
 
I tried selling the above two plus a 50m F1.8 and 590EX ii flash for a packaged $900 over a year ago, didn't get any serious buyers, decided to keep it. There's almost no market for older camera bodies and accessories which makes for great buying opportunities. Lenses pricing stays pretty stagnant.

That was a good price. I planned on selling my good glass to free up money, but can't part with it. As 4/3 progresses, I would be happy to replace it with similar IQ and sensitivity that is many pounds less (technology isn't there yet).

If you want to sell the 50, I need one for an xmas present.

PS Lens surgery sucks, I would rather work on a bike any day than deal with hundreds of tiny parts in a lens. I gave a 17-85 as a present and it had intermittent aperture issues so I am trying to fix it but need new parts which delays the project another month.
 
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There is no place clean enough in my house to ever open a lens to repair. It would be a soft focus lens forever after.

I'm looking for a point and shoot, waterproof down to 30-40ft. Optical zoom would be good, Olympus makes one thats considered good and Nikon has the coolpics, silly but I hate the name coolpics.

any thoughts?
 
There is no place clean enough in my house to ever open a lens to repair. It would be a soft focus lens forever after.

I'm looking for a point and shoot, waterproof down to 30-40ft. Optical zoom would be good, Olympus makes one thats considered good and Nikon has the coolpics, silly but I hate the name coolpics.

any thoughts?

We have Lumix travel cameras (probably TS3 and TS5?). They have been on many adventures and I have been to ~20' with them but I don't know about diving with them. The seal on the main door is just a double lip seal, sure it gets compressed as you go down, but it isn't confidence inspiring at depth. The pictures are acceptable (probably not better than a modern cell phone), it has 5x optical zoom and GPS. My wife managed to crack the plastic cover over the screen on the TS5. Camera and screen still work fine dry, I haven't gotten that one wet since it happened. I mainly consider them rain/splash proof and snorkelling cameras. For going to depth, I would probably look for a used camera in a proper housing (ideally with strobes if you want decent pics). I consider the TS cameras more documentation cameras than fine art cameras.

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I'll look at a Lumix, I won't take it diving, I just want one that can be on a sailboat and snorkle, it will see 20-30ft snorkeling. I'd hate to spend $300+ to find out water proof meant water resistant.
 
I'll look at a Lumix, I won't take it diving, I just want one that can be on a sailboat and snorkle, it will see 20-30ft snorkeling. I'd hate to spend $300+ to find out water proof meant water resistant.

I've got one of those tough point and shoot Lumix things...it's awesome. It won't die. The only complaint I have is that it chews up batteries but that's mainly because I have the gps chip on for geotagging. Great little camera.

On the micro 4/3 front I got another lens delivered today which is a 30mm macro. Cost me all of $100 and it's a neat little thing. Also got a fisheye lens for $100 too and that's great. Many of these lenses are amazing value. I remember one decent canon full size lens would cost me about 5 times the price and weigh 5 times as much.
 
after years of dragging 2-3 bodies and lens and flash systems around planet I was whittling down the bag .

now i'm looking at micro 4/3 ........ thanks for that rabbit hole.
 
after years of dragging 2-3 bodies and lens and flash systems around planet I was whittling down the bag .

now i'm looking at micro 4/3 ........ thanks for that rabbit hole.

Look at B&H in the US. They ship to Canada free and will prepay all duties etc so there's no surprises and most of the time your saving a packet even with conversion (you can show CDN$ as prices on the website)
 
after years of dragging 2-3 bodies and lens and flash systems around planet I was whittling down the bag .

now i'm looking at micro 4/3 ........ thanks for that rabbit hole.

Love my 4/3....easily one of the best purchases I ever made. Olympus EPL-1. Once funds get up again I may look into upgrading to a newer one, but for now it's working great.
 

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