The Photographers Q&A

[smee]

I think that might be the best explanation i've ever read, thanks.

[vxc]

Quick Q,

I bought a 8gb Sandisk (i think ) mem card but not one of the performance types

I sometimes get some pretty heavy delay after taking a few fast pics, or night shots, (camera wont let me do anything)

is this because it still doing a write cycle to the card?

If so what do i need to be buying.....

[smee]

You need a fast card to allow you to use top frames per second, you will notice more of a delay after a burst of raw images. The long delay from a long shutter shot is because of all of the information. A faster card may help slightly but I don't suspect too much for that particular problem. If your camera has long exposure (>30secs) noise reduction mode turned on you could turn it off and use a raw application to control noise yourself in post production. Typically I find that write speeds post long exposure shots tend to take almost as long to write to card as they do to take the shot and that is using extreme IV cards, I lost a 60minute exposure once becuase the battery died as it was writing.

[duggiesmith]

Bit of a thread resurrection.
I'm looking for a decent bridge camera to replace my Panasonic lumix tz7.
Done a bit research and I reckon the Canon SX50 ticks the right boxes. It's mainly going to be used for landscape and wildlife pics (and a few Lotus), so a decent zoom is important.
Anyone got any experience of this or tips for other models I should be looking at?

[smee]

Hi Duggie, no replies? Sorry for the delay. Did you get a camera in the end?
For that kind of money I would be looking at a G15
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Power-Sho ... =canon+g16
It doesn't have the range of the mega zoom on the bridge but the lens quality should be higher and the sensor is larger so reduced image noise in comparison. I suppose it depends how serious your wildlife photography is as this won't have the range. Should be better for landscape and more pocketable than a bridge.
I think Jen on here uses the g16 and her shots so far with it have been very good.
If you need mega zoom though then it's hard to look past a bridge and I'm sure the canon will serve you well.

[jen]

Hmm, I thought I replied to this but it doesn't seems to be here...

I just basically said the same as Andrew, if big zoom is an absolute necessary, a bridge would prob be best, but have a look at the Panasonics as well as there was one I looked at that seemed pretty good. It had a Leica lens on it. I can't remember the model though.

I have a G16, and I love it. I think Iv taken some great images on it, and I think it was the best camera for me. It's small so fits in my bag and pockets, it has a great sensor so really clear images, it's fast at starting up, and really easy to use. Iv even bought filters for it, and you can buy a 2x zoom adapter to take the zoom up to 280mm equivalent.

I bought mine online from Digitalrev as it was cheapest from them and included free delivery. Ordered it on the Sunday night and it was at my house by Wed lunchtime, and it came all the way from Hong Kong! I thought it was a British company and had I known it was coming from there I probs would have ordered from elsewhere and ended up with the G15, as the 16 was a bit dearer. The wifi is a nice addition though, so I'm glad I did it.

Here are a few images (there are more on FB and my Flikr page):

[duggiesmith]

Thanks guys.
Jen, your pics are great. I thought you had gone for a DSLR.
Did you get stung for vat by buying from an overseas company? I was looking online at these guys: http://www.eglobaldigitalstore.co.uk/ca ... amera.html All indications are that they're based in the uk, but as I hadn't heard of them, I did a bit of digging. Turns out they're in Hong Kong and there's plenty of complaints from people saying the courier's charged them vat which added about another £60 on to the price (no mention of this in their "free delivery").

The picture quality of the g16 is very impressive, but the zoom lens is more important to me, so I think I'll stick with the sx50 (I might not win any prizes, but I might just get in the SE calendar).

[jen]

Thanks!

No extra charges with Digitalrev. If you google the company for reviews, they are great. The only thing was the charger cable didn't have a UK plug, but I had a spare lying around the house so no big deal. They sent me a tracking number to track the delivery (through DHL) which was only when I found out it was coming from HK!

[jen]

This is the bridge camera I looked at before deciding to go with the G16:

Panasonic Lumix FZ200

Panasonic Site

You should def try out a few in the shops though, as you might find you prefer the feel of another one. I was looking at another one and when I tried it I didn't like the way I had to hold it, so ended up looking at the FZ200 and the G16, and it wasn't until I tried holding them both that I decided which one I wanted.

[duggiesmith]

Good point Jen.
John Lewis stock both the Canon and the Panasonic, so I'll probably pop in there to try them out.

[duggiesmith]

After having a bit of play with a couple of cameras, I settled on the Canon SX50. The Panasonic FZ200 was pretty impressive too and possibly had a slightly better lens, but it was the zoom on the Canon that sold it.
This pic was taken straight out the box, no playing around with settings and no tripod.


I just need to spend the next few nights trying to understand all the settings - could be a steep learning curve.

[jen]

Well done! Good choice! Check out adobe as they were doing a deal on Photoshop and Lightroom for £8 odd a month. A great deal! Not sure of they are still doing it though, but worth checking out?

[Fluoxetine]

Did you get stung for vat by buying from an overseas company? I was looking online at these guys: http://www.eglobaldigitalstore.co.uk/ca ... amera.html All indications are that they're based in the uk, but as I hadn't heard of them, I did a bit of digging. Turns out they're in Hong Kong and there's plenty of complaints from people saying the courier's charged them vat which added about another £60 on to the price (no mention of this in their "free delivery").

Bit late to the party, but I used eglobaldigital last year to buy my Canon 7D - They delivered one to my door for £604.99, which is still £335 cheaper than the cheapest one on camerapricebuster.co.uk.

At the time they said if you got hit for VAT / import tax, they'd refund the costs to you...But they changed their T&C's last December to state:

"The import duties and taxes levied on the invoiced order, as well as courier’s custom handling fee and any indirectly related tax and duties arise from custom policies are responsibility of the buyer/recipient, eglobaldigitalstore.co.uk has no control over these import duties or taxes. Any additional charges for custom clearance must be borne by you."

Think HMRC had cottoned on to the many packages from them labelled as "Camera parts - Value $20"