[long] Re: [clug] OT: digital cameras

[Edward C. Lang]

Hi,

Alex Satrapa said:
> On 11 Jun 2004, at 10:39, Pietro Abate wrote:
>
>> I want to buy a DC and after browsing the web and reading review I
>> decided to get a panasonic dmc FZ-10 (it's a 4MP with a 12x optical).
>
> I have to wonder about the utility of anything higher than 6x optical
> zoom. At 4x optical zoom, the shaking of your hands makes impossible to
> take a sharp, focussed photo without the assistance of a tripod.

Firstly, it's not really the level of zoom - it's the focal length. One
commonly accepted rule of thumb is that the shutter speed should be
1/focal length, which in this case would be 1/420 for at the telephoto
end. Apparently the FZ-10's IS wins you several stops - a number of
reviews say 1/40, f/2.8 at 420mm is possible...

Secondly, I'd be more worried about the chromatic abberation / purple
fringing, vingetting (light falloff in the corners), and sharpness in the
corners. It seems the Leica lens on the FZ-10 doesn't suffer much
vingetting, but the CA and slight lack of sharpness are a bit more
obvious, because it's such a large zoom lens. (Panasonic are definitely
doing some cool stuff with Leica right now.)

Thirdly, the included lens hood has a 72mm thread, and filters for that
aren't exactly cheap. (I paid $50 for a 77mm UV filter a few weeks ago.)
Some of the other cameras have 58/52mm threads on their lenshoods.

Pietro, have you firmly decided that you want the larger zoom range over
higher image resolution? I mean, I don't want to put doubt into your mind
at this late stage, I'm just curious.

> Don't forget a tripod! You want to get yourself into group photos too!
> I have two tripods - one mini tripod (bendy-legged thing) which is
> great for taking landscape shots while out walking. The other is a
> full-size foldup with collapsible legs. It's useless now, because the
> little locking plate that holds the camera has gone missing. My next
> tripod will not have removable vital parts (ie: camera-holding screw
> built in) :)
>

I've also lost the quick release plate for a cheapie tripod I bought a
year or so ago, but it doesn't mean I won't be buying a tripod / head
without a QR plate ever again. I'll just be more careful.

>                                               I have three CF cards for
> my Nikon - One is SANDisk (16MB), one is PQI (128MB), one is Apacer
> (64MB). The Apacer is brilliant - I can fill the card with photos twice
> as fast as the other two CF cards. The PQI is terrible - not only is it
> slow, but after a few quick (subjective term) photos, it starts either
> corrupting my pictures (random pixel changes) or locking up, meaning I
> have to power-cycle the camera to get back into action. The SANDisk CF
> is the 16MB one that came with the camera, so not even worth talking
> about (10-15 frames at full resolution, minimum compression), I use it
> for storing SSH keys and the like. Based on my experience, go for
> SANDisk or Apacer. Based on reports I've heard, Transcend make decent
> quality flash products too.
>

I've also got a Pretec (?) 512MB CF card that I'll fill several times a
night, and I've never suffered any corruption. It's not as fast as the
Sandisk CF cards I've got, but then again, it's not always wise to be
entirely too trigger happy.

Regards,

Edward.

-- 

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