Compact super-zoom cameras

There's a new generation of little cameras out there, and I took the plunge. I've been looking for a powerful zoom, but I didn't want to lug a big camera around. Then I noticed that several camera makers have come out with some extraordinarily small cameras with big zooms. I went to a couple of areas stores and looked at several of them, including the Canon SX260 and the Panasonic Lumix ZS20. They were both impressive looking, but I eventually went to Costco where I purchased the Sony HX10V for $260. It looks like a run-of-the-mill compact camera until you turn it on and use the 16x optical zoom. I don't quite understand how the engineers figured out how to get the 2" of zoom lens to protrude from a 1" camera body. It's quite an impressive work of engineering. How well does the zoom work? I've tested it out at the Forest Park Grand Basin. The first photo is looking toward the St. Louis Art Museum without any zoom. The second photo, shot while standing in the same spot, is with full zoom. Click on the photos for more detail (these are lo-res versions of the images--the camera max is 18.2 mega-pixels). This is going to be fun for shooting wildlife and many other types of shots where you don't want to distract the subjects. And the camera easily fits in a pocket, and it's loaded with many features above and beyond its magical zoom lens.

No Zoom

Full Zoom

Sony touts this camera's ability to take low light shots with good reason. This final image was a hand held shot of my street taken at midnight. I'm really impressed that the camera took a sharp photo in this very low light. I took this shot on full automatic--the camera recognized this to be a low light shot and automatically compensated.

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Pics or it didn’t happen!

Image by Rohan Kar, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons I was mulling around the Lincoln Park Zoo today with a friend when a man stepped on me. He was filming a Siberian tiger with a high-end digital video camera, which he held on an expensive mounting. He was fidgeting with all of the camera's features, backing up to get the perfect shot, and he stepped all over my feet. The foot-stomping didn't bother me so much as the man's intent focus on something other than his present surroundings. A beautiful creature stood before him, but his attention was directed at the camera and the filming of the tiger more than it was the tiger itself. Not much later, something similar occurred in the Tropical Birds House. As I was watching the bleeding-heart pigeons, a man, family in tow, came around the corner with a massive video camera. He also had it placed on an expensive mount. Obliviously, he nudged forward until his lens nearly leaned on the display's glass. He fiddled and fidgeted. He zoomed on the critters for a moment, and left. "Do you think he'll ever watch that footage?" my friend asked. "No," I guessed. Without much thought I noted, "It isn't about the footage. He probably just bought that camera, and is filming because he wants to play with it." "So the actual footage is useless," he observed in return. I intuited that the man's camera was a new purchase because I've done the exact same thing with a fresh 'toy'.

Continue ReadingPics or it didn’t happen!

Sticker Shock

Back in the 1980's I learned that digital electronics always rapidly descend in price. Pretty much, if you bought a computer, disc player, or digital camera a month ago then the price would already be noticeably lower. But I recently was told (by Erich as he took the pictures here) that the camera he (and I) love to carry has increased in price since we bought them. I didn't believe him, so I looked it up at Pricegrabber.com and at Amazon. Amazon seems to show the real prices that the (lower) PriceGrabber links jump to. The exact camera that I bought for $160 from Amazon 7 months ago is now a whopping $358! Un-be-(expletive)-lievable. You may remember Erich and I raving about this little gem since he first bought his over a year ago. I shopped independently and at length to select the same camera. One odd feature of it is that it is available in a range of colors. I bought mine in Gold because it was the cheapest at the time, by $5. Now however, the price is about $180 in blue or brown, up to $358 in ... Gold! Apparently, this camera is now a hot item. Possibly one reason besides those we've mentioned on this site is that hackers have been at work. One can download uncertified "patches" to make this camera do even more amazing things. See Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera at LifeHacker.com I feel that this is but another sign of our living in Interesting Times.

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A photo of another one of my cousins

As I worked tonight, this little beetle landed on my pad of paper. Hello, Cousin! You fit so easily between the lines of my pad of paper. You make my pen strokes look quick thick!

beetle-on-pad-of-paper

[For this shot, I was using a Canon SD1100IS (which only costs about $150 now), using the digital macro feature. This bug let me park my camera lens less than an inch away for this photo.]

Continue ReadingA photo of another one of my cousins