New Camera Advice

cirasj

cirasj

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Name
Joe
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I would like advice on picking out a camera that my wife and son will be purchasing for me for Christmas. I have a p&s camera with limited settings (Kodak C613), I have a better p&s camera that have some manual settings (Kodak DX6490). I am looking to upgrade to either a DSLR or an other p&s. I am an amateur photographer not looking to sell pictures in the future.

Here are my requirement:

This camera should have features on it that will allow me to take pictures of the moon and long exposure pictures. The slowest shutter speed I have now is only 16 sec and the smallest aperture setting is f/8. I would like an infinity zoom and/or the biggest optical zoom I can get. To take moon pictures now I need to go into the digital zoom range which makes my pictures grainy and hard to edit. I would like to keep the cost of the camera to be around US$500 (plus or minus a few hundred dollars). These requirements may be obtainable with a p&s but not certain that it is obtainable with a stock lens on a DSLR.

Any advice on the start of my research will be appreciated. I have narrowed my DSLR to Canon and Nikon models but am up for suggestions for p&s cameras.

One more item: Why purchase a DSLR when p&s cameras can do just about everything the more expensive cameras can do.

Thank you.
 
A DSLR has a much bigger sensor so any pictures taken can be printed at a really large size,plus a lot of people that buy DSLR's want a lot more control over the outcome of the picture.
If you will not be printing above A3 ,or wanting to crop really small a bridge camera (more advanced point and shoot) will be you're best option.

Especially with the zoom ratio you want.
have a look at a few of these options from Olympus.

http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/olympus-sp800-uz-camera.htm

And the canon powershot series are cracking camera's ,but might be to dear for you.

http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/canon-powershot-g11-camera.htm
 
At your price point, both Nikon and Canon offer very good DSLRs than can be fitted with long telephoto lenses for moon shots that will fill the frame.
If you're serious about getting into astro-photography then Nikon offer the better packages, but at considerable cost.

I wouldn't bother with any other manufaturer (other than Canon) for that reason - the extended 'system' isn't offered by others...

While the cameras will both come with medium-zoom 'kit' lenses at that price, the long lenses you'd need for decent moon-shots will be several hundred dollars more.
I used a 400mm lens borrowed from work to do a few shots and that lens cost about £6,000 or $9,000.
A reasonably good 'budget' zoom covering that range should cost about $1,500-$2,000.
 
Good to ask before you purchase, what with the extremes of moon, long exposure and general photo use. There are books and websites for different aspects of astro work. When you say long exposure, even that is a minefield of choices - widefield, planetary, double-star, nebula, etc, etc. As well as the camera (with bulb setting for higher exposure times), you'll also most certainly need a good tripod to mount the camera.
Moon shots are also tricky and you'll need a high zoom to get a good size to it because its surprisingly small once in view (300mm minimum, but the higher the better). I think you will need to concentrate on a single aspect otherwise you'll very quickly go over budget, and also little point in us suggesting UK sites or prices and it seems you are in the US, where prices differ considerably!

Texy
 
I took a moon shot with my Kodak DX6490 http://365project.org/cirasj/365/2010-07-27 at these settings, f/8, 1/125, ISO 100 with the zoom in the digital range. For my long exposure pictures, these will be day (waterfalls, beaches) and night (stars, light trails) photo. I know for the day shots, I will need some type of filter but I can purchase the filters after the camera.

Thank you for the advice so far.
 
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