if you go this route, make sure the zoom in question is OPTICAL and not
DIGITAL... trust me, it will make all the difference when you are near or
at the edge of the zoom range...

as for the grainy, canon is among the best in this regard... when shooting
in low-light situations, you need to move the ISO/ASA rating to as high as
you can to get the picture without actually "asking" the camera for grain.
depending on the camera, this can be as low as 800 or as high as 6400... of
course, it also requires practice to know when to make the change, and what
values will work... my canon 5d with 100/400L can sometimes get away with
"sun has just gone down" photos that are wonderful at 1600, displaying
almost no grain, where other cameras/lens combinations may not be able to
get the same shot at 800 thirty minutes earlier (when there is more
light)...

your mileage WILL vary. sometimes, grain will just be part of the photo,
and it's not going to matter who you are or what camera you own...
personally, if it's a matter of getting the photo with grain and NOT getting
the photo, i'll put up with the grain...

my suggestion would be three-fold: (1) do your research early, asking tons
of questions of people with the same/similar cameras what they like, don't
like, (2) visit www.dpreview.com and see what the expert (phil) says about
cameras you are thinking of buying, and (3) venture to kenmore camera, or
any other large-scale photo store in the area (anacortes telescope?) and
rent a particular camera for the weekend, discover its capabilities before
you buy...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
mercer slough
-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Mark
Wensnahan
Sent: Thursday, 2006 September 07 06:49
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] digital camera binoculars


Kara,

Depending on your budget, you might consider going with an ultra-zoom
camera instead of camera binoculars. The 12x ultra-zooms give you
essentially the same magnification as 8x binoculars. They generally have
"auto" settings that make them easy to use if you just need to snap pictures
but they also have features that can be truly useful for birding. I own the
Canon S2 IS (cost $320). In addition to zoomed pictures it (1) has image
stabilization which means the zoomed pictures don't suffer from blurring in
most cases, (2) takes high quality video to capture bird behavior, (3)
records sound to capture bird songs and record field notes, and (4) can take
pictures in rapid succession to capture rapidly moving subjects like
hummingbirds. The only real downside is that pictures can often come out
very grainy in low light conditions but from what I have heard this is true
of pretty much any digital camera.

Take care, Mark

At 9/6/2006, Kara Whittaker wrote:

Dear Tweeters,

I'm in the market for a pair of digital camera binoculars, and wondered
if anyone could recommend a particular brand or model? Which features do
you think are most important for someone with little photography but
considerable birding experience? Thanks in advance for your guidance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kara A. Whittaker, PhD candidate
Division of Ecosystem Science
College of Forest Resources
University of Washington
Box 352100
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: (206)399-0047
karaayn at u.washington.edu
http://courses.washington.edu/vseminar/main.htm
http://www.kayakalki.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Tweeters at u.washington.edu
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Mark Wensnahan
Ballard/Seattle
reganw at rockisland.com

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