Subject: [Tweeters] Photo Equipment
Date: Jun 29 09:10:33 2009
From: Hugh Jennings - h2ouzel at comcast.net


There has recently been a number of responses to a question about what photo equiment to use for taking photos of birds. All the responses have been about digiscoping with a spotting scope or buying an expensive DSLR setup with large lenses. One alternative that hasn't been mentioned is a Super Zoom digital camera. I earlier did digiscoping with a Nikon Coolpix 4600 and got some fairly good photos using a home made adapter. However, when I was going on a trip to Zambia last year, I did not want to carry my scope with me.

So I investigated the super zoom digital cameras, i.e., those with optical zooms of 18x or higher. A couple of friends had the Panasonic FZ-18 cameras which they like very much and it produced quite good photos, even at 18x zoom while handheld. There are other super zooms also, but after looking at reviews on the web I bought the FZ-18 and I haven't been disappointed. It is an 8 megapixel camera which gets 18x optical zoom, if you go to 5 megapixels you can get 23x and at 3 megapixels you get 28.7x optical zoom. It also has a 4x digital zoom which I seldom use. I only use the 8 mp setting if I take a photo I might want to print. I usually use 5mp setting and take a lot of photos at the 23x zoom and then successfully crop them further in the camera. Of course, you could even get sharper results if you mounted the camera on a tripod. However, the camera has a very effective jitter compensation setting. This camera weighs less than one pound and will fit in my jacket pocket even with the sun shade attached. I got my camera for about $350 last August. Panasonic has since come out with a 10 megapixel version, FZ-28. After seeing what my camera could do, a friend was convinced to buy one. He got one at a Costco in CA for less than $300.

The following web site has a detailed review from last year on the FZ-18. I also have many photos available I could send if anyone wants to see some of the results. Most of my bird photos are taken with extended zoom.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/topics/camera-logs/panasonic-fz18/

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
h2ouzel AT comcast.net