DigiCam for Nature photography for $300 USD tops

[chupicabra30]

Okay so I had a Canon A610 and while it was great I realized I need more, so I am going to sell it and try for something else. The main problem is that the color was off and the optical zoom was less then needed which is something I didnt realize I needed till now. Its strengths though were quick focusing and a really excellent macro mode.

Now when I say the color is off, I mean that the camera does not capture the color that I see with my eye. My old Nikon 2500 coolpix does however but is very low megapixel and not so fast on the focus system and also does not have much manual control.

I will be taking pictures of birds, mushrooms, insects, flowers primarily. Im not looking for professional quality nessacerily although it would be nice, but I need acurate color, sharp focus pictures for indentification purposes.

It would be good if the camera could use SD memory as that is what the old canon a610 used and I have a gig card.

Thanks in advance for any help on this!

[bkrownd]

If you can expand your limit up to $400 you could consider
some of the 12x "superzoom" cameras. I went into the store
with a $300 limit in mind, but immediately changed my mind
when I discovered the superzooms and realized how much better
they'd be for taking pictures of birds and distant landscape
features than the low-zoom pocket cameras.

[flippedgazelle]

I agree with BK; it sounds like you really need a superzoom, and if you opt for one you definitely need some type of image stabilization to go with it. $300 is a mighty small budget compared with your expectations.

I'm surprised about the color accuracy issues with your Canon A610 - the Canon P&S cameras are noted for their color accuracy, quite possibly the best in their class, other than the occasional blown highlight. My A620 has been aces in that regard.

You may be able to find a Canon S2 under $300; I've seen the Sony H2 for around $320 or so.

[chupicabra30]

flippedgazelle wrote:

I agree with BK; it sounds like you really need a superzoom, and if you opt for one you definitely need some type of image stabilization to go with it. $300 is a mighty small budget compared with your expectations.

I'm surprised about the color accuracy issues with your Canon A610 - the Canon P&S cameras are noted for their color accuracy, quite possibly the best in their class, other than the occasional blown highlight. My A620 has been aces in that regard.

You may be able to find a Canon S2 under $300; I've seen the Sony H2 for around $320 or so.

Well maybe its just the A610 because my old Nikon takes pictures with colors that accurately represent what I am seeing. I have tried fiddling with the settings, but nothing seems to help and its greatly frustrating me because see one of my hobbies is raising and selling live captively grown live aquarium corals and I need accurate colors in order to give my customer and idea of what he or she is actually getting. I will look into the superzooms.



Thanks very much.

[Boily]

I own a kodak p850 and I like it :-)

[slipe]

Butterfly has the Panasonic FZ7 for $292 with $10 shipping. That is a stabilized 12X superzoom and reasonably compact. They have the Panasonic TZ1 for $272 if you want something very small in a 10X stabilized zoom. It doesn't have an eyelevel viewfinder though.

Butterfly is reliable.

[kenbalbari]

As an aside, I wonder if you have decent tripod? The best kind of image stabilization is a good tripod. And yet it seems alot of beginners are willing to pay $100 extra for a Camera with IS, but aren't willing to invest $100 in a good tripod.

And for the type of pictures you're taking, it seems essential. Though it's not goin to help with color, it might help quite a bit with focus and sharpness. And, if you are shooting off a tripod alot, you should maybe eliminate models with plastic tripod mounts from consideration. I don't really know that those plastic mounts won't hold up, but I can' say I trust them.

[chupicabra30]

Well I ended up with a Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 which has a 12x optical zoom, has macro feature, 5.1 megapixel,image stabilization.

Unfortunately I could not go with any of the suggestions above because the camera store where I purchased the original canon from did not carry any of the brands and models you recommended and I had to exchange the original canon I bought no money back unfortunately.

Anyway I will let you know how it goes. So far it seems like a great piece of work!

The price was not bad it was marked down from $499 to $339. Only drawback is that I had to buy a different type of memory. :/

[Sintares]

An excellent camera.

When you have another $100, get the tcon, the vcl-dh1758, takes you to 734mm.

Also read the H1 whitepaper, http://www.aakatz.com/h1whitepaper/

[chupicabra30]

Oh cool thanks for the suggestion will do!