Best Digital Camera

Moonraker68

Well-Known Member
I'm planning to buy a camera to take with me when I'm stalking and shooting. Any recommendations for a robust and reasonably simple camera with a good zoom lens would be appreciated. The budget is ideally around £100 to £150.
 
You can get compact cameras now with 20x or more optical zoom that fit your pocket whatever you go for go for optical zoom not digital zoom

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You don't need the best. When I was shopping for my first compact digital camera, I asked Art Carter, of Sporting Classics Magazine, what he liked. He said he had tried several, and the Nikon Coolpix did not fail him in damp, cold, frost, and really cold weather, as others did. I bought one and have used it all the time for work and outdoors, from the Carribean to Anchorage, Alaska.

That was a long time ago, and cameras have improved, but that is what I still look for in an outdoor camera:
* works in bad weather
* easy in and out of my pockets
* simple controls, and ideally some I can work with gloves on
* can operate it with one hand, either hand.
* batteries I can buy in any store, and rechargeable ones, too
* SD card
* Good optical zoom ( usually a bigger lense )
* good photos in bad light
 
I have a bunch of cameras, from simple point and click to top end digital Micro 4/3 and SLR's. To be honest the photos I have found worked best are the ones I've grabbed from videos I've shot. They're not perfect, but they're good enough:

Roe_Bucks_3_Jun1_zps01bbe45b.jpg


Roe_Buck_3_Jun1_zpsee4108fd.jpg


Roe_Buck_4_Jun1_zps6e117766.jpg


These were all taken with a Sony Handycam, model HDR-CX190E, which you can pick up secondhand on eBay for under £100, or under £50 if you're lucky. It's as small as most point-and-shoot cameras, has good optical zoom, and fits easily in a pocket or bum-bag. One technical feature in the camera I would strongly recommend is some form of image stabilisation, particularly if you're going to be taking hand-held shots with the zoom at anywhere near its maximum.

Otherwise I've found that successfully taking photos of deer is no different to stalking deer with a rifle - ideally you want to get as close to the subject as possible and have as steady a rest as possible.
 
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If you prefer a more sophisticated camera, this was taken with a Panasonic GF-1 micro 4/3 camera:

Pheasant_zpsh2diasxz.png


Again not great - there's nowhere near the definition and detail of the feathers that I'd like - but it was taken hand-held with a 600mm lens this afternoon at a distance of about 150m and cropped, so acceptable.

The camera cost me the princely sum of £29 plus P+P on eBay. The lens was new, but I have picked up serviceable lenses for under £100 as well.]]

When it comes to photographic equipment you pay your money and take your choice.
 
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I have never had a digital camera but on the advice of a work colleague they suggested a Panasonic Lumix. I looked at them before Xmas in Jessops and the TZ60 was very impressive 30x optical zoom and a standard viewfinder, I was mighty impressed by the demo in store. Before x mas they were £300 but i purchased one in January with a cash back deal which worked out at £240, cheaper than JL and Currys.

It is excellent but I have not had time to use it and need a lesson or two. it is compact, easy to use,Leica lens and simple to carry on a neck lanyard. I think money well spent.

I suggest a trip to Jessops or similar and have a try and the Lumix range is the place to start.

D
 
Thank you, will have a look at both the Nikon coolpix and the Panasonic lumix ranges....and search eBay as well.
 
I looked at this a while back but still haven't taken the plunge yet! The best I could find was a Panasonic Lumix FZ200. Not the best zoom (x24) but has a very wide lens and is very good at low light. I think that is an important feature for when most of us want to take photos? Cost about £300 new though.
MS
 
I have never had a digital camera but on the advice of a work colleague they suggested a Panasonic Lumix. I looked at them before Xmas in Jessops and the TZ60 was very impressive 30x optical zoom and a standard viewfinder, I was mighty impressed by the demo in store. Before x mas they were £300 but i purchased one in January with a cash back deal which worked out at £240, cheaper than JL and Currys.

A resounding +1 for the Lumix range. I've got the TZ40 and it's a cracking little compact that has received rave reviews. I was so impressed with it that I bought another for my son to take away with him traveling - it also has wireless connectivity to smartphones, laptops, etc. It takes up very little space in the pocket when turned off with the lens retracted and has superb optical performance/zoom. I'm even using it in preference to my digital SLR when digiscoping with the Swaro STM80HD telescope, where it gives some insane focal length.
 
Any of the Canon Nikon sony or fuji "bridge cameras" control and settings of an slr, compact portable simplicity of a point and shoot. this will get you the most bang for you buck

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The fuji's are very efficient, a personal favourite.

Scooby
 
Two years ago, I bought a "bridge camera", the compact sort of SLR look, a Nikon 310.
It has image stabiilzation in photo and video modes. The optical zoom is terrific, and when you add the digital zoom to it, you can hold steady on a cabin a mlle away and see the texture of the screen wire on the porch.

My next camera will be one of the muscular compacts with a large lense, still a pocket camera, but a bit larger than the square ones which are like a cigarette package.

If you are looking at a full-blown digital camera, be aware than some of them are engineered to use the lenses from their 35mm ancestors. Most people don't know this, and you can buy a nice 35mm SLR with super lenses very cheap, and then snap them onto the body of the digital camera.
 
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