[obol] Subject: new birding camera/Pine Siskins

[Brandon Green]

This is what drives me nuts about the super-zoom manufacturers.  Many of them use very high-quality lenses that let in tons of light and have very little barrel distortion/vignetting, but they continue to use tiny, crappy sensors that are worthless above ISO 200.  Even with these really nice lenses and all of the optical zoom in the world, photo quality is still limited in anything less than optimal lighting and you're hosed if your bird of interest isn't standing relatively still.  And to make things worse, they're now cramming 8 and 10 megapixels onto these sensors (since the general public thinks that more pixels is always better).  Because of this, the photo quality is going DOWN now in some cases, compared to the 6-7 megapixel models from a year or two ago.

Back to birds, there were two PINE SISKINS feeding on sunflower chips with a group of ~15 AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES in my yard this morning.

Brandon
Eugene

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Subject: new birding camera
From: "peterpatricelli" <peterpatricelli AT comcast.net>

Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 16:15:00 -0800

I can only echo the already perceptive concerns expressed by others. It can't 
be effectively hand-held and shot at zoom without a tripod, and 3 MP limits the 
extra cropping one could do for even more magnification which is already 
available in other cameras. They don't mention the equivalent f stop. I have an 
image stabilized superzoom that stays at F2.8 right to the 12X. That is a HUGE 
difference. The difference in price for a Nikon 300mm f2.8 and a 300mm f4 is 
$3000!!! 


I would wait for some reviews and hands-on experience.

Peter Patricelli
www.flyfishingfotograpgy.com _______________________________________________
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