Digital camera's

[Bacchus]

Will never make a mistake with the canon.

[afskies scribe]

- Used the Canon EOS 400D SLR up at Numbi takes GR8 shots and you can attach powerful zoom lenses when you're on the grnd and not doing the bar-balancing act in KWK...

[Tumbleweed]

" have decided the wife needs a few digital camera for Christmas, as her GPS, fishfinder, plotter etc from previous Xmas's and birthdays are still in good working order."


That's heartless, selfish, chauvanistic and just plain inconsiderate.


By her the latest weedeater and steam iron combination, she'll be so pleased, she'll just ask you what you need.

Stay away from the Ricoh like I have, likes to eject batteries mid- flight.

[afskies scribe]

...otherwise I am not fussy...

Howzat Demonic One

[RV4ker (RIP)]

I have got a 350D (400D replaces it). They are awesome, but are too big and need effectively 2 hands for operations... Not an option for the trike...

Compact Canon is always good, but panasonic, sony have some nice budget buys. I bought a cheap and nasty Vivitar and it has outlasted all the big name brands. Shop around...

[DarkHelmet]

Howzat Demonic One

YES - the Demon showing off the DH's Stywe-fisant Bic Goblet photography device! Cannot beat that ANYWHERE! 800 Megapixel first shot camera.

The problem with that is that you need 6 hands, a trike can only carry 4. Although it is the cheapest and highest res camera by far the shot is not always gauranteed and the likelyhood of capturing the event is slim. Slim is an overstatement - NADA, NIL, NOTHING, coz the cigarette box is empty!

If there were still some fags in the pack it might have worked - but what do you think the end result would look like? Faggy?

[afskies scribe]

Naaa, Darkie, only if you were taking shots of Nic O'Teen & Alkie Hol with the ciggieboxcam

[DarkHelmet]

The real magic of the Stuyvesant Box cam is the hairy arm you see in the foreground, wthout the hairy arm the camera is truly useless! I would not recommend this camera to any budding photographer - unless they have a hairy arm closeby!

[loansharkblv]

Panasonic DMC-FZ7

That what I have Barry, fantastic camera and a give away at the price - Just got the new Cokin adaptor - 30 odd times optical zoom now... Mmm

[CloudBase]

In my opinion the Canon S3is is the absolute best value for money consumer digicam right now. It is packed with features, have 6mp resolution and a whopping 12x optical zoom. That's about 32 - 430 mm zoom. I also features an absolute MUST for photography from a trike or gyro; An image stabilizer (IS) to ensure your shots are sharp, regardless of the lighting conditions and focal length. Canon's color rendition is perfect, and the camera is relatively light.

An SLR does not really work very well in the small space of a gyro or trike unless you are going out to do a photo shoot, as it's too bulky. I've used my Canon 5D a couple of times - it takes great pictures, but it's a bit bulky to take on a trip. If you do get a SLR, get a hard case to protect the camera and lenses properly.

The Canon S3is costs around R 5000 locally (I saw a special at Makro a while ago) or $ 300.00 from online stores like bhphotovideo.com.

Most of my gallery shots on the SAGPA website were taken with a Olympus 3mp camera, but once again the IS feature make otherwise useless images, real nice shots.

Steve's digicams (http://www.steves-digicams.com/) also have some nice reviews and comparisons on various digicams.

[Boondock Saint]

Also try and get something with a big flash we purchased a canon Power Shot A700 great camera all the bell and whistles but small flash we use it for the casino functions and conferencing photos anything less than 4 meters at night great further than that darkness the cameras with the pop up flashes are great. 1gig memory card will do the job, rechargeable batteries and large camera bag with pouches

[ZULU1]

I have been using the Fuji 9500, SLR features but half of the weight and it has a XD card and a CF card, good battery life and 9 megapixels. Very light and easy to use in the air.

Ciao ZULU1

[Low Level]

I have a Panasonic FZ-5 (5 Meg) - predecessor of the FZ-7 (6 Meg ) , my third Panasonic camera . Absolute brilliant camera. I have used it on my motorbike while riding, and taken pics of the bike at high speed.



Pro's of the camera for me :

Very fast focus time

12 X optical zoom, with extra 4 X digital zoom - gives effective 48 X zoom. The picture quality with the digital zoom is not microlighters calender quality, but still good enough to enjoy.

Image stabiliser

Pop-up flash with brightness adjustment - no more overlit close flash photos or badly lit far pics.

Quite a large lens - brilliant for taking pictures in bad light - far pics where flash is useless.

Size and ease of use - one handed pics with zoom, settings and megaburst buttons at fingerpoint.

Very easy menus - helpful for the older generation

Good battery life

SD card - very common card and currently available up to 2 Gb - my 1Gb card already takes 900 pics on full quality - enough for a weekend away.



P.S. Soon to be used in the sky - watch this space :D

[DieselFan]

Have a Panasonic FZ30 - IMHO Too big for a pilot to hold perfect for pax. The FZ5 etc are WAY better. Don't be caught in the megapixel sales talk. Some 8meg willl not be yield good pics even for small A4 prints! All 5 Meg cameras are NOT the SAME. Panasonics do have more noise than most but Neat Image or Noise Ninja helps. The Panas do have a VERY good lens though, Leica 12x and shutter speeds more than good enough. But after 17h00 expect noise even at low ISO's. The 640x480 @ 30 FPS movie modes on the panas do rock and are only limited by the size of the memory card.

Most other cameras only do 30 second clips.

[ZULU1]

Just a point, from the point of aerial shots, I use a maximum of 256 mb per card as although far better in recent years, the write time is a tad faster.

When you buy a decent camera then it doesnt stop there, you need a decent Computer and editing software. I use a Mac with iphoto and Photoshop.

See an idea of fast shooting..taken at 9 megapixel 500th sec.

Ciao Zulu1