Bridge camera recommendation

dean messenger

dean messenger

Messages
1,669
Name
Dean
Edit My Images
No
Currently the OH has a canon 1000D with Twin kit lenses ( 18-55 and 55-250 EFS lenses )

All works fine and both lenses are nice and clean. the only issue with the camera is there is a tiny bit of scuffing around the play/playback button due it getting stuck at some point and having to use a very fine blade to go around the edges of the button to unstick it.

anyway the OH has decided she doesnt want to carry around a camera and multiple lenses and she wants to photograph wildlife and budget just doesnt allow to buy any more kit and certainly not a 500mm lens.

She had a bridge camera before and liked the compact size and ease of use ( makes no sense to me as most bridge cameras and dslrs now have pretty much the same primary functions with full auto, AP, SP and manual controls anyway ) but she just refuses to leanr the basic elements of things like ISO and F-stop.

SO on to my question... the only way to budget for this is to sell the above canon and 2 lenses .
hopefully this will then give us around £180 in the pot ( just going by what ive seen second hand on ebay ) to get a bridge camera.

the one ive seen thats in budget with a huge zoom that seems ok is the Fuji sl1000.

im not really up on bridge cameras so dont know whats out there and whats any good ( if anything at that price) would happily consider secondhand.

really only 4 key requirements.. a zoom thats 600 or above ( think thas 24x ) , shoots RAW, is no less than 16MP and has viewfinder
secondary would be takes lithium batteries

hence the fuji which seems to fit the bill in those respects.

Of course all this relies on selling the canon first of course and how much i can get for it.
 
Last edited:
When I broke my elbow a couple of months ago and couldn't use my DSLR because of the weight, I popped down to Park Cameras and asked a similar
question, I wanted something that might give me good results etc.
He said the only one close to a DSLR was the Sony at way too much for a temporary and recommended the Panasonic Lumix FZ200 which I bought
It has a 600m optical zoom a 2.8 aperture throughout.
TBH although it does produce some good results I hate it, it's just not a DSLR which I am used too :(
One thing that surprised was the almost instant response when you press the shutter, last time I used a bridge camera there was a
quite noticeable delay
 
i have looked at the lumix fz2200 but its about £100 over budget and only 12.1mp.. seems im pretty stuck with the Fuji unless something else comes up.. just a case of selling the canon first though im loathe to list it on ebay... may just put it up for sale here instead first
 
i think she should learn the basics, couple of youtube video's and its not hard, but i fear i might be looking for a bridge camera for my dad, as he has a bad back :(
also not sure why u need 16mp, 12mp is ok, might help it have less noise too
dont know if they still do them, but panasonic did make good screw on teleconverters for their old models
 
I bought a bridge cam years ago, and then went and looked up the basics of manual controls, and took it from there. It was confuzzling at first, I had only ever used auto-modes on cameras, but once you get the 'triangle' down, it all starts to make sense.

Still learning years later though ... :D
 
the Oh has had the canon around 2 years but just doesnt really want to learn ( i think she just does the photography to keep me happy more than anything) but when she does take shots , she does like shooting wildlife ( and wants that elusive kingfisher shot) and complains that her 55-250 is to small and wants one of those "big lenses" she sees people with.. ( dont we all! ). Prior to the canon she loved her little fuji bridge hence why she wants to go back to one. something she can literally put in her handbag without worrying about lenses and the like.
Of course the downside is sensor size, but if i mention that she just gets that glazed baffled look!
 
I have to say that at full zoom on something like a kingfisher sized object, unless it is actually quite full in the frame it's not that
good if you need to crop the picture :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top