Time for more help :)

This forum helped me back in 2009 in purchasing a Pentax Lumix. loved it. but it is getting a bit old and time for a new one.

We are heading to Alaska on a cruise next month so looking for something that has a super fast shutter speed and great zoom for whale watching and such. I am pretty much a beginner so looking for a camera that is fairly easy to use. price range can be $200-$500ish.

I do have the dpreview website but don't even know where to start. :o

thank you in advance!

Well this will really depend on the "type" of photos you'd like to take. If you are looking for general snapshots of your trip a P&S superzoom would be fine for you. On the other hand if you want what you see on postcards and magazines you will have to use similar style equipment. You could get away with a used entry-mid level dslr body and a travel style lens, as a compromise from carrying "Pro" grade equipment around.

An example of this would be used equipment from a reputable site, I use KEH.com

You could get used:

-Nikon d3200 ($268 in ex+ condition) and

-Nikon 18-200 ($289 ex+ conditon)

or third party lens

-Tamron 18-270 ($168-$218 depending on the condition you want)

The above body works well in low light, as well as giving you plenty of room to crop, and the lens' I showed you all have some sort of vibration reduction.

The 18-2xx lens is a compromise but will have adequate image quality without weighing a ton or being an issue carrying, I used the 18-200 nikon on my last cruise almost extensively. I was able to take night shots w/o a tripod using high iso and relying on the VR.

I would be happy to help or discuss anything you'd like, or show examples.

Greg

I also just noticed you are not far from me, not to sound creepy.

I do not have the d3200 body but have some others from Nikon you could try. Older entry level up to a full pro body and some in between. If you'd want to meet to try or go over anything.

I also just noticed you are not far from me, not to sound creepy.

I do not have the d3200 body but have some others from Nikon you could try. Older entry level up to a full pro body and some in between. If you'd want to meet to try or go over anything.

too funny. I was just going to mention we are fellow Marylanders

but I think that I am probably too much of a beginner for those cameras and can probably only handle a regular point and shoot with the fast speed and great zoom. any suggestions for that?

too funny. I was just going to mention we are fellow Marylanders

 

but I think that I am probably too much of a beginner for those cameras and can probably only handle a regular point and shoot with the fast speed and great zoom. any suggestions for that?

Well I am not familiar with the newer point and shoots, the only one I have is a NIkon aw110 that I use while snorkeling...

As far as complicated the entry level dslr are faster and have MUCH better image quality then the point and shoot segment. They also turn on via a switch and are just about instantly ready to go. They have automatic settings, just turn the wheel to what you want and click away....Here is the top view of the d3200 with the auto settings

Alot of P&S I believe you have to dive through menus to change things, I can assure you it is very easy with the dslr (even easier) and to zoom you physically twist the lens. No waiting for the camera to zoom in our out and they auto focus almost instantly.

Please feel free to pick my brain.....you can shoot me a private message on here or anyway you'd like (FB etc)

Greg

looking for something like that but without the interchangeable lenses. don't you have to focus yourself with those lenses?

looking for something like that but without the interchangeable lenses. don't you have to focus yourself with those lenses?

No, interchangeable lenses are still autofocus.

But I agree, if you aren't interested in changing lenses, you shouldn't get an interchangeable lens camera.

They do offer greater potential, but potential that you wouldn't get close to using unless you embraced the whole system, learning beyond the basics, etc.

For a user like you, this is one of the few models I would actually recommend. You can get is used from a reputable seller, for just a little above your price range:

http://www.adorama.com/US%20%20%20%20719562.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwwZmsBRDOh7C6rKO8zkcSJABCusnb73JKtO71_zHLVu8NSFADwJcgjKg0l16eCaeLfkwCkBoCqw3w_wcB

The problem with most P&S cameras, is most have very tiny sensors, giving very poor image quality. This particular model has a nice balance of a fairly long lens, with a slightly bigger sensor. A good compromise between bulk, zoom range, and image quality.

any thoughts on this one?

Canon PowerShot SX530 HS.

any thoughts on this one?

Canon PowerShot SX530 HS.

I believe I recommended the Panasonic FZ1000 to you? Which is admittedly slightly above your price range.

Let's take a look at an image quality comparison between the SX530HS and FZ1000, courtesy of imaging-resource. They don't actually have samples from the SX530HS, but they have samples from the SX510HS, so I'll go with that one..

FZ1000 vs SX510HS. These images are crops of studio shots. So it's close close examination of details:

First, this is what you'd see if you looked closely at the 2 cameras, taken in perfect bright sun light conditions:

The SX510:

SX510hSLI0100.jpg by Adam Brown, on Flickr

Not too bad.

Now the FZ1000:

FZ1000hSLI00125NR5D.jpg by Adam Brown, on Flickr

Noticeably better, but the Canon SX510 held its own ok.

Now, imagine the light going down. Need to zoom in on those whales through heavy overcast.. so need a high shutter speed in low light condition.. Pushing a more challenging situation:

Here is the FZ1000 first, this time:

FZ1000hSLI03200NR5D.jpg by Adam Brown, on Flickr

The image is a little degraded compared to the bright sunlight example, but still not too shabby. Now let's see how the SX510hs does in that situation:

SX510hSLI3200.jpg by Adam Brown, on Flickr

YIKES.

Now in fairness, you said the SX530HS. The 530HS does have higher resolution than the 510, so you will get a bit more detail.

You can play with this comparison tool:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/image-comparison?attr18=daylight&attr13_0=canon_sx530hs&attr13_1=panasonic_dmcfz1000&attr13_2=sony_dscrx100&attr13_3=canon_sx280hs&attr15_0=jpeg&attr15_1=jpeg&attr15_2=jpeg&attr15_3=jpeg&attr16_0=3200&attr16_1=3200&attr16_2=3200&attr16_3=3200&normalization=full&widget=1&x=-0.7321064477690984&y=0.6496240601503759

I pre-loaded it with the SX530, the SX280, the Sony RX100 and the Panasonic FZ1000. Try plugging in different ISOs and looking at different parts of the studio comparison. You will see that at ISO 100, all cameras perform somewhat similarly, but when ISO increases (which happens when you need high shutter speed and/or challenging light), you will see the SX models fall way behind.

I believe I recommended the Panasonic FZ1000 to you? Which is admittedly slightly above your price range.

 

 

You can play with this comparison tool:

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/image-comparison?attr18=daylight&attr13_0=canon_sx530hs&attr13_1=panasonic_dmcfz1000&attr13_2=sony_dscrx100&attr13_3=canon_sx280hs&attr15_0=jpeg&attr15_1=jpeg&attr15_2=jpeg&attr15_3=jpeg&attr16_0=3200&attr16_1=3200&attr16_2=3200&attr16_3=3200&normalization=full&widget=1&x=-0.7321064477690984&y=0.6496240601503759

 

I pre-loaded it with the SX530, the SX280, the Sony RX100 and the Panasonic FZ1000. Try plugging in different ISOs and looking at different parts of the studio comparison. You will see that at ISO 100, all cameras perform somewhat similarly, but when ISO increases (which happens when you need high shutter speed and/or challenging light), you will see the SX models fall way behind.

thank you! will be checking this out today im not so camera literate so I didn't know the relation to the shutter speed and the ISO

thank you! will be checking this out today im not so camera literate so I didn't know the relation to the shutter speed and the ISO

I'll try to put it in plain English...

Cameras need to gather light to make a proper exposure. A camera and lens is just really a light collection device.

There are three internal ways a camera collects light:

1. Shutter speed. A camera can keep the shutter open, letting in more light. All cameras can basically do this equally. But you can only slow down the shutter speed so much. Make it too slow, and you get motion blur, camera shake, etc. to capture action, you must use faster shutter speed to freeze the action. With long telephoto, you need faster shutter speed to combat camera shake. So you can't always just reduce the shutter speed.

2. Aperture -- literally, the size of the hole in the lens that lets in light. Internally, cameras open and close the lens aperture. But cheaper cameras and smaller sensors have a smaller maximum aperture size. Thus, when opening the aperture up its widest : the rx10 lets in twice as much light as the fz1000. Th fz1000 lets in twice as much light as a camera like the sx530. A really fast prime lens can let in about 8x-16x more light than the sx cameras!

If you can let in more light, you can use faster shutter speed and lower ISO.

3. ISO-- this is a measure of the sensor's sensitivity. You can boost the sensitivity, making it more sensitive to light. Problem is, when you boost the sensitivity, the image quality goes down. You get grainy noisy images. Smaller sensors have much less wiggle room than larger sensors. So a camera like the sx-series may give you high quality images up to an ISO setting of 400-800, with image degradation as you go higher. I use a full frame sensor -- with high image quality up to about ISO 6400, and good images up to 25,600. A camera like the fz1000 may give high image quality up to around 1600, with good images up to 6400.

In conclusion -- if you have bright sunlight, then you can use high shutter speeds and low ISO and get good images from any camera. But as soon as the light starts to get even a bit challenging, a better camera's advantages become critical.

Where a camera like the fz1000 might give a high quality image, a camera like the sx, may have to boost the ISO to an unacceptable level, may need to reduce the shutter speed leading to blur, etc.

This forum helped me back in 2009 in purchasing a Pentax Lumix. loved it. but it is getting a bit old and time for a new one.

We are heading to Alaska on a cruise next month so looking for something that has a super fast shutter speed and great zoom for whale watching and such. I am pretty much a beginner so looking for a camera that is fairly easy to use. price range can be $200-$500ish.

I do have the dpreview website but don't even know where to start. :o

 

thank you in advance!

A superzoom is for you, take a look at the latest review here: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7192763593/2015-superzoom-camera-roundup

thanks havoc315 and chipmaster! lots of info. my head is swimming but i'll chose one soon. running out of time before my cruise!! LOL