Camera advice please.

[bonzobanana]

I had a 3MP camera in Australia. In the outback, I was running out of room on the SD card so lowered the quality down to I think 144P. They were grainy photos but my mum still has one of me on her mantle piece, shot at 144p and blown up to A4 size. It's still an acceptable image!

We are so spoilt for cameras, people paying huge sums to just get marginal improvements in quality and performance its a bit like cycling. I saw an article in the past about African TV channels using more basic equipment to keep costs down and the person writing the article said the drop in quality was marginal to his eyes and un-noticeable for others. Many go for the best product rather than the product that fits the purpose at the minimum cost.

 

[Jameshow]

It depends on how far away the birds are;

View attachment 745975

What are they?🤔🤣

 

[Time Waster]

I think the OP mentioned £500-700 budget in about the 5th post down I think. That is a decent budget. When I last looked you could buy £300-400 cameras from expensive Currys that are decent enough.

My Dad is really into photography and has the money so has bought into Nikon over a number of years. I would never suggest that is for everyone and not the OP. IMHO you could get a travel zoom which is a compact camera with a good, long zoom lens. Panasonic Lumix was the best at making these. Sony do some decent mirrorless cameras at reasonable-ish prices I believe, certainly in the £500-700 bracket or less for a starter kit from them.

Fuji always did some very big zoom range bridge cameras. As big as smallish DSLR cameras and bigger than mirrorless / 3/4 cameras. However the longer zooms are not easy to hold in the hand and eliminate camera shake without a tripod or other support with a timer / remote shutter release. Fuji also do some good mirrorless and compact cameras that are high end in their class. Or at least last time I looked into cameras.

Secondhand is good or bad. Some used retailers and dealers quote shutter release figures when they sell good cameras off. It is a bit like cars in that higher mileage or in cameras more shutter releases can mean the car or camera is not as good, not always though. If you get a cheap but decent used camera then it matters less as you just replace but in the meantime you have gained experience of what you want by understanding what that first camera lacked. If you follow.

IIRC there are very good camera shops, independents that got a bit big, who deal in new and used. I think there was a good one called Wessex cameras but I could be mistaken. Google it and check out their stock as they will give used quality and a few comments on them too. I think they also service and give a short warranty too but could be mistaken on which retailer did that.

 

[icowden]

We are so spoilt for cameras, people paying huge sums to just get marginal improvements in quality and performance its a bit like cycling.

True although I did see a few articles suggesting that the market for low cost consumer compact cameras is more or less dead thanks to the smartphone.

 

[vickster]

I bought one of these for safari, took fab pics. Recommended on here iirc. Doubled in price since I got it from cex but might find elsewhere used like Wex photo
https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail...MPACT-CAMERAS&superCatName=ELECTRONICS&title=

They have certainly gone up, I paid £210 for my TZ100 in March 2022!

 

[lazybloke]

Images from a 6 yr old Panasonic GX9 are amazingly clear,

We are so spoilt for cameras, people paying huge sums to just get marginal improvements in quality and performance its a bit like cycling. I saw an article in the past about African TV channels using more basic equipment to keep costs down and the person writing the article said the drop in quality was marginal to his eyes and un-noticeable for others. Many go for the best product rather than the product that fits the purpose at the minimum cost.

Phones do a perfectly good job for snaps, and if you go mid-range or better the phone will have excellent capabilities of image stabilisation, post-processig enhancements, low light handling, and more. They're pretty good at video too.
But the difference to a dedicated camera is far from marginal; there are applications where a phone is not the best choice. Wildlife photography probably being a good example.

I bet Gordon Buchanan wished he had a long range zoom to film this polar bear!

 

[Kingfisher101]

True although I did see a few articles suggesting that the market for low cost consumer compact cameras is more or less dead thanks to the smartphone.

There's been a massive resurgence apparently. The manufacturers cant keep up with demand and they are flying off the shelves, some you even have to put your name down for. People still want them.

 

[vickster]

There's been a massive resurgence apparently. The manufacturers cant keep up with demand and they are flying off the shelves, some you even have to put your name down for. People still want them.

I got one as I didn't really want to take a ~£1k phone on Safari with me! I will make a similar decision when I go to Costa Rica next year. Do I take my iphone 15 pro max or my spare 11 pro max which is less precious if damaged/stolen as well as the camera

 

[Time Waster]

It seems from the Currys site that vlogging cameras are the thing now too. Filming in 4k video with HD stereo sound being the big thing now. There is a £300 something Canon there with a1" sensor size. I seem to recall once that was the size of Canon and Nikon DSLR sensors!!

 

[Electric_Andy]

wow, things have certainly changed. I simple kids camera is now north of £100. I think I'll hold onto mine and buy used if ever I need another!

 

[icowden]

I got one as I didn't really want to take a ~£1k phone on Safari with me! I will make a similar decision when I go to Costa Rica next year. Do I take my iphone 15 pro max or my spare 11 pro max which is less precious if damaged/stolen as well as the camera

Personally I'd make sure the iphone15 was backed up and covered on the travel insurance then take it. If it gets damaged or stolen you've got the best part of what you need for the iphone16 or whatever when you get back

 

[wiggydiggy]

Personally I'd make sure the iphone15 was backed up and covered on the travel insurance then take it. If it gets damaged or stolen you've got the best part of what you need for the iphone16 or whatever when you get back

If you're discreetly(ish) suggesting someone should report their phone as lost, but its not and they keep it I don't think that would work especially with an iphone. Ive read apple will block/brick any phone that is reported in that way precisely to prevent insurance fraud.

 

[Reynard]

I'm a DSLR person, but have a Canon IXUS 60 that I bought S/H for £14 in CEX for when I don't want to lug a brick around.

Can't really advise on a camera as given that I'm currently happy with what I've got, I've not been in that market for a while. But on the subject of shooting B&W, as has been mentioned, don't bother looking for a camera that does it, as any decent image processing software will do the conversion for you.

But a tip here from someone who shot B&W film back in the day. Black & white film is red-sensitive, so when looking at image processing software, make sure that it has the ability to split out the different channels and discard the blue and green during the conversion process. Otherwise, you just end up with a colour photo that has been desaturated as opposed to a true B&W image that has the feel of being shot with film.

Photoshop does it, as does Paint Shop Pro.

 

[rualexander]

A colour photo that has been desaturated or converted to greyscale is still a black and white photo.
I use Snapseed as my editing software on my phone and my tablet, it's excellent.
On the PC I have an old version of Photoshop and also had Capture One Fujifilm version before they closed it down. Have tried a few others but still use Snapseed most of the time.

Example of colour converted to B&W using some of Snapseed's different options.

 

[bonzobanana]

True although I did see a few articles suggesting that the market for low cost consumer compact cameras is more or less dead thanks to the smartphone.

I think there is a market for decent compact cameras but much smaller but too small to generate manufacturers really except for the very low quality Chinese designed cameras which are digital zoom only with very basic controls. I think this is why there is a resurgence in interest in the higher quality Japanese compact cameras that delivered far superior results to the Chinese cameras of today despite being made 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago etc. I mean some of the cheap Chinese designed cameras claim stuff like 48 megapixels but are in fact only 8 megapixels and upscale the image which is a complete waste of processing power and battery. Some have a fixed aperture and can only vary shutter speed and internal ISO. The Japanese compact cameras of the past have better optics, multiple apertures, optical zoom and an honest specification.

Also not everyone has a premium smartphone with a decent camera and even for those premium smartphones there are a huge number of compromises in their cameras anyway to fit in such a compact size. Tiny little sensors often smaller than modern expensive compact cameras, bridge cameras and of course DSLR cameras.