What to purchase for sports and scenery

[ziglypuff]

I have been taking photos at multiple events with my old Sony Mavica for years. I now feel the need to branch out and take some action shots along with nature/family photos.

I have been looking at many of the higher end camera's but they all seem to give perks for this or that.

I need something that has a great zoom, one that is user friendly, easy to transfer photos, and most of all, one that will allow me to enlarge photos with out distortion.

I don't know where to start for digital, any suggestions?

[snappingturtle]

Hi,

Maybe you might like to invest in a digital SLR. They are not cheap though. The cheapest one up to this date is the Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel. I have this camera. It is $899 for the body and $999 with a lens included. The other SLRs can range from $1,500-$3000 and up.

Digital SLRs are far more expensive than regular compact point & shoot. But once you have one, you are an unstoppable photographer. You can judge the zoom by purchasing the right lens. All digital SLRs give you full manual control such as shutter speed (ideal for action)

For more information, try http://www.dpreview.com A great site that reviews almost every digital camera in the market. If you don't feel like to purchase an SLR, you can look for the "advanced" regular digital cameras. Each camera is portyrayed in detail such as the cost, the zoom, ISO, maximum shutter speed etc.


Hugh

[bobtrips]

"need something that has a great zoom, "

Lots of fixed-lens digitals with nice long reach. If you want a bit more wide angle then look at the Minolta A1, Sony F828 and the others that start at 28 mm. If you want maximum reach then check the Panasonic FZ10, Oly C7xx series for 10x to 12x reach. Image stabilization is really nice to have with these longer lenses.

"one that is user friendly,"

They are all fairly user friendly. You can start by shooting in the 'automatic' mode and move on to manual settings as you gain more experience.

"easy to transfer photos,"

The easiest way to transfer photos is to get a card reader. You can leave it plugged into your computer. Just slip in the card and copy the files over as you would copy from a floppy or CD.


"most of all, one that will allow me to enlarge photos with out distortion"

Larger prints require more pixels for good quality. If you want to print high quality 8"x10" prints get a 4-5 meg camera. With some subjects (ones where fine detail is not important) you will be able to print much larger.

[gillettecraig]

There is a current crop of "long zoom" cameras at about 3 megs. You should be able to get 8x10s from them w/o too much trouble. You can also step up to higher end cameras with somewhat shorter zooms but more resolution or other enhanced features. You'll want to try to prioritize your desires because there are often compromises in the cameras so some will do better in certain situations than others. A camera like the Fuji S602 does quite well for sports due to it's faster reactions and burst options. Yet it doesn't do extremely low light as well as some of the others. Nor does it have a remote or cable release which can be handy for tripod work. Cameras like the Canon G series have a shorter zoom but fast lens and very flexible finder options. The Sony DSC-F717 has a lot of fans.

You should closely peruse the reviews and forums on some of the digital camera related forums because you'll can usually tell which cameras have loyal followings and which are less enthusiastically received. Also they will give some insight into the best applications or least handy aspects as well.

I'd agree that most are user friendly and you can move your way into more complicated usages without too much trouble. And definitely a card reader reduces the hassles of downloading, camera compatibility, etc.