Zoom Pro
What's the best long-zoom (10X&up) digital camera for a semi-pro wannabe? Need good pics in lo light & action
I have an Olympus C-755 now and like it except for it's hard to take good pics in low-light situations without a tripod which I can't carry around when I travel. So I want to upgrade. SLRs look good but they don't have a built-in long zoom. I don't want to have to carry a seperate lens. I also like cameras that use regular AA batteries. Saw a Sony Alpha and liked it except for the zoom isn't big enough, but I like the focus on it, good for good pics in low light, even from far away. Any knowledgable people have any advice? Thanks (Anyone know about the Canon S2 Is or S3 IS? Good for low light?)
Compact cameras all have around 3x zoom. You want more than that, so whatever you get, it won't fit in your pocket.
The Canon S3 is probably a good choice: it's the best of the megazooms. It has 12x zoom, image stabilization, etc and it's received great reviews:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3is/page14.asp
One thing the S3 lacks however, is good high ISO performance. From the review: "ISO 800 mode is too noisy to be really useful". But frankly, this is a problem with ALL megazoom cameras. The only point & shoot cameras that have good high ISO image quality are a couple of 3x zooms by Fuji. The Fuji F30, F31, etc. are good in low light.
Another thing point & shoot cameras don't do well, is action photography. They all have electronic viewfinders - that puts you 1/10th second behind the action to begin with, relatively slow auto focus (particularly in low light), and relatively long shutter lag. When you add those 3 things together, you'll see a world of difference vs. the performance of a digital SLR.
You mentioned the Sony Alpha. This camera IS a digital SLR. It's not my favourite though. Instead, I'd have a look at the Pentax K100D - it's small, relatively inexpensive, and it has built-in image stabilization. Or the Nikon D40 / D50 or Canon Rebel XT. Canon and Nikon don't put image stabilization in the body, but into selected (high end) lenses. Canon and Nikon do have an insanely good upgrade path however, and these entry level bodies give you instant access to their full line of lenses.
These entry level dSLR cameras are bigger and more expensive than the S3, but for that you get better low light performance, better responsiveness, more creative control, and (with a decent lens) better image quality.
You can still keep things relatively compact by getting any of those bodies with an all-in-one lens, something like an 18-135mm or 18-200mm zoom. These zooms don't provide the best quality, but they're no worse than the lenses on 10x zoom point & shoots.
Even with a fast 2GB memory card, these basic dSLR setups will cost less than $900.
That site I provided has in-depth reviews for all of the models I mentioned.
Photozoom Software Photo Zoom Pro 2.0
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