Digital SLR or not?

[Mike2002]

Any opinions on the new Sony and Canon 12X zoom cameras? They are 5.1 mega pix and look like SLR camera but in reality are not. The street price is around $500.

How would these compare to the lower cost $800 digital SLR?

Any recommendations?

Thanks,

Mike2002

[Scream And Fly]

Mike, that depends on your skill level as well as your requirements for a camera.

A point and shoot camera like the ones you mentioned are generally easier to use, and will produce great images "out of the camera" in many cases. They offer some level of manual control as well.

An SLR camera will focus much, much faster and more accurately than any point and shoot. It will offer full manual control over every aspect of image capture, as well as lens options. An SLR will also produce much higher quality images, especially at high ISO settings.

But that's the real issue - do you want to spend money on lenses? Are you willing to learn at least some aspects of photography? If not, the point and shoot might be better.

Also, SLR cameras are much larger, and require a greater degree of care.

Greg

[pyro]

Sony has yet to figure out how to produce a pro-consumer camera that doesn't give you salt-and-pepper flecks at higher ISO settings and/or shooting in low light. Good features, but lots 'o' noise.

[Scream And Fly]

Chad,

That's not a problem unique to Sony - and there is a solution. All point and shoot cameras suffer from an inability to shoot at high ISO settings. That's because they all use tiny CCD imagers that do not 'gain up' well. When you increase the ISO settings, you're running more voltage through the imager to increase sensitively to light. The increased voltage produces more heat, which is what causes most of the 'noise' you see in images.

SLR cameras are able to shoot at much higher ISO levels because they employ much larger imagers. While a point and shoot camera might max out at 400 ISO with a very noisy image, a good SLR can shoot at ISO 3200 and still make use if the resulting image.

Greg

[Mike2002]

The cameras I was referring to were the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 and the Canon Powershot S2 IS. There was an article on them in the August 2005 Popular Photography magazine. They also mentioned the noise issue and that by ISO 400 the noise was unacceptable. What does this noise issue mean as I don't know anything about cameras. I did like the extra 12X zoom and for $149 more you could buy a 1.7X telephoto converter which meant you got a 25mm to 734mm optical range. What does all this mean .. just a better zoom???

What SLR camera could match this zoom with good quality but not double the price?

Give me some suggestions on cameras/zoom lens and where to get the best prices.

Use of camera would be normal photo's but I am wanting to take some long range photo's of boats (What camera was used to capture the 140mph STV blowover that was on this web site (back in Florida in the spring)?) like that photo of the STV blowover, and also some wildlife photo's as I may go to Alaska next year and want some photo's of the big bears---you know you don't want to get too close to them. Also photo's of car races, my son's baseball games, etc.

Thanks,

Mike2002

[ragtopvet]

The nikon d-70 is a excellent camera with the zoom lense that comes with it, u can get it for around $1100 on internet.Nikon just came out with the d-50 although i dont know much about it,but its several hundred cheaper.I don't think anybody makes a digital slr that the back screen can be used for a view-finder,its just used for playback of pics.

[Scream And Fly]

No SLR camera will allow the use of an LCD as a viewfinder. This is because there is a mirror in front of the lens that refracts light to the viewfinder. When then shutter release is pressed, the mirror flips up, with the shutter right behind it. The whole idea of the SLR is the ability to look through the lens, which is a much more accurate means of sighting your subject.

The D50 is a slightly stripped down version of the D70 and D70s. Same image quality though.

Greg