Digital camera's

[ZULU1]

Hole in Wall

[DieselFan]

Hey Demon

MANY cameras lear the buffer slowly and have small buffers. This becomes annoying when you take subsequent pics you will have to wait for the buffer to first clear. A faster memory card can sort this out but most often it's the camera and not the card. To be sure that the card is not a bottle neck go for something like a SANDISK ULTRA III @ 10Meg per sec in will take easy 16megapixel pics every second.

You can check
www.imaging-resource.com
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

Firstly decide on whether you want a prosumer or SLR...The cameras in the prosumer which have fastest pic 2 pic speed are the Panasonics. Additionally the whole panasonic long zoom range has image stabilization.


For me priorities were

1. FAST boot up time, when you switch it one you don't want to miss a shot!
2. If I take a pic I want to take another without lag - don't lose the shot!
3. Good zoom and lens

The Panasonic FZ30 has a 12 zoom BUT what sets it apart is that the zoom is already extended so boot up time is less than 1 sec - like an slr, but you can do movies and have a 35mm-420mm LEICA lens.

Oh and another thing, try importing SA is WAY too expensive, my gear at two camera shops was over R20 000, I spent 6600 with customs which is almost 2k less than the camera itself! Stuff the warranty if it packs up buy another!

Good luck!

[ForensicFlyer]

Guys and girls,

After taking more than 500,000 photogrpahs with various cameras over the years (of accident scenes, of course), I think I have a good feel for this stuff...

We first used a Sony Mavica with a stiffy drive - crap.

Then we used two Fujifilm 2800 zooms and two Fujifilm A201's.

These things were AWESOME. They worked in rain, in mist, in cold and hot. Got dropped and picked back up and carried on working through thousands of shots.

My last one I dropped at a scene so hard that the lens assembly popped out and rolled along the road-surface. No - this is NOT a DSLR, so the lens CANNOT (normally) come away. I literally SHOVED the lens barrel back in (klunk!) and guess what - it carried on working at about 10 more accident scenes!

Don;t ask how and why I dropped it! It's bad enough that it happened to ME after I threatened my investigators and promised to do horrible things to them if EVER they dropped a camera and broke it!

Eventually it decided that I had done enough to it and that there was enough abuse, so it went ot the big development house in the skies...

Then I got myself the Sony Mavica MVC-CD1000!

This is the BEST camera I've ever seen. NONE of the modern DSLR type camera's can take better pictures. It's got a Karl Zeiss Lens, and does EXCELLENT MACRO work. It writes DIRECTLY to Mini Disc, so I can just keep taking pics and keep them all. The cost is about R5 per mini Disk.

It's only a 2.1 MP camera, but don't be fooled! I have looked at SO MANY camera's to replace this one (taken over 10,000 shots already) and I am now concerned about what will happen if it dropped or broke, so I HAVE to get something with a warrantly and available parts, due to the nature of our work.

You can read more about this camera at

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonycd1000/

Oh - and I want to sell it now. R7.5K with proper SONY flash and about 60 mini disks. Anyone wanna have the BEST 2.1 MP camera still around?

Now, since I am in the market, looked at EVERYTHING I COULD about newer models, etc., I have decided on FOUR camera's as a toss-up.

I'm still making up my mind.

DSLR's are cool, but you keep having to fiddle with lenses, and dust COULD get in there...

So here are my final four choices, in order of personal preference (not price). Now, I've read every snippet of info I could find for ANY of them, and here are MY pro's and con's for each, as well as links to more info:

1. Sony DSLR A100

More at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra100/

Excellent due to Image Stabalizer and Quality. Also a VERY new technology, so it has ALL the bells and whistles.

Problem is, at higher ISO settings (over 800), it's quality is not nearly as good as that of the Canon EAS 400, but it costs less.

2. Sony DSC R1 (Discontinued but still ALWESOME)

More at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscr1/

Excellent due to no lens removal/replacement hassles and EXCELLENT quality, as well as the Karl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T lens!

But - discontinued and only still "lying around" here and there!

3. Canon Eos 400D Digital Rebel XTi

More at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos400d/

Fantastic quality, but no image stabilizer. Also more expensive than the Sony. Its higher ISO's are actually good, though. This is one I would LOVE to own, in SPITE of everything.

4. Fujifilm Finepix 9600 (No full review available)

More at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/F ... xs9100.asp

A real work-horse in the Prosumer category.

This baby stands back for nothing. Excellent quality.

I know they're STRONG camera's, since I know the brand VERY well.

Also the cheapest out of all of them, although it REALLY competes in quality and features.

Also has a neat swivel LCD for those tricky shots.

I recommended this as a standard for new Forensic Investigators - so it's also a good all-rounder or very high quality for "weekend photographers."

Hope this helps...

Stan.

[Rudix]

Just a few notes from a semi (50% income/time) professional photographer....

Then I got myself the Sony Mavica MVC-CD1000!

This is the BEST camera I've ever seen. NONE of the modern DSLR type camera's can take better pictures. It's got a Karl Zeiss Lens, and does EXCELLENT MACRO work. It writes DIRECTLY to Mini Disc, so I can just keep taking pics and keep them all. The cost is about R5 per mini Disk.

Yes, it is a great camera in its class BUT, without sounding like a snob or something... It is obvious that you have never used a good DSLR/lens combo if you think this ! Almost all Canon/Nikon DSLR's, even ones a few years old will simply floor this Sony in image quality and speed (focus/shutter lag). This is mostly due to the sensor size having an effect on the signal/noise ratio and "tonality"

There are other things as well like focus speed, frame rate and shutter lag that makes the DSLR a MUST for action work.....

Next time you are "in the big smoke" I invite you to have a look at some of the equipment I use and the results they produce !

DSLR's are cool, but you keep having to fiddle with lenses, and dust COULD get in there...

True, but not a major problem and cameras like the Canon 400D has a solution to this.

3. Canon Eos 400D Digital Rebel XTi

More at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos400d/

Fantastic quality, but no image stabilizer. Also more expensive than the Sony. Its higher ISO's are actually good, though. This is one I would LOVE to own, in SPITE of everything.

The build in stabilizer offered on some cameras are great but are rather limited in scope compared ti in lens stabilization, this is because you need to optimize the stabilization for each lens. These body based stabilisers work best with wide angle lenses but are rather un-effective with longer tele lenses.

I think the 400D is great value for money and its sensor is in a class of its own.

I am making these points as someone who have tried/used most digital models on the market and currently own quite a collection of what I see as "best of breed"

For me only one thing matters, and that is IMAGE QUALITY (and the speed to catch it) !!
You can have a look at my current equipment list here:

http://rudix.servepics.com/equipment.htm

The reason for the collection is that I tend to use the best for each job, and no camera is the best at all things.

For airshow work I normally use a Canon 1Dmk2N with a EF 100-400L IS (easy to carry) for flight shots and a Canon 5D or 1DSmk2 with a 24-105L IS lens for ground shots, if I can't get close the EF 600 f4 IS with an up to 2x multiplier and a mono pod works well. The Nikon D2X/D200 combo willl also work here but the noise is higher and the 1Dmk2N focus/tracking is clearly superior (Those 2 x CPU's and 45 focussing points pay here) to the D2X (Sorry Nikon fans !)

For inflight work I use a Nikon D200 with the SUPERB 18-200 stabilized lens or a 20D/5D with the 24-105L IS (Or the SUPERB EF 70-200 f2.8 L IS if there is space) lens. For in-flight work a stabilizer is a BIG plus.


Just my opinion :D
Happy shooting,
Rudi