So you want to shoot birds.

[MN Shutterbug]

No need to spend thousands of $$$ on a DSLR and good quality long zoom lens these days. I've been there I have many nice photos from my camera and 100-400 lens. However, After shooting almost every bird and critter in these parts, my enthusiasm was waning. I sold my long lenses as I just wasn't hardly using them any more. I spend a lot of time in my back yard with my dog and occasionally a bird would show up that would have been fun to capture, but still not worth spending over $1000 to get another good lens. A week ago I decided to try a super zoom bridge camera. I have no idea what the bridge means but it's got most of the same setting as my DSLR's do. I can manually adjust everything, change the focus point, shoot in burst mode, adjust the flash output and so forth. Now, when I take the dog for a walk or go on a hike, I take the camera with me. Five pounds of equipment lugged around for an hour just took the fun out of the hikes. I can put this camera around my neck and hardly notice it's there. Basically, it's just going to get a lot more use than my big gun got. I also enjoy photography once again.What's really nice about this camera is it cost my just $250 including camera bag and memory card.

In these examples all the photos were shot handheld. The female House Finch was shot at ISO 400, 125th sec. at 1200mm. The Dove was ISO 800, 1/400 sec., f5.6 at 590mm in dark overcast conditions, the buck, which isn't the greatest quality due to the late time of day and sun below the horizon, was also shot at ISO 800 and 1200mm. The indoor shot was at an auto setting.

I'm not saying that the camera would totally replace the high end equipment as you may miss a shot occasionally due to writing to the card a bit slower and the zoom lever not being as quick to operate, but for the difference in price, I don't believe you can go wrong. I have yet to mess with the macro mode or panoramic mode or HDR or the follow focus but there are tons of features than can keep a person quite busy.

I would never have got this buck photo, my largest to date, with my old setup because I wouldn't have had it with me on the hike. The dove photo is also my nicest dove shot due to the environment, another shot I wouldn't have had with my old equipment because I wouldn't take that out to my back yard every time. This camera is just so much more portable.Unless you are a pixel peeper, I doubt you'll find anything negative on the quality of these bird shots.

Just saying that if you just want some nice bird photos for I.D. or for sharing, no need to break the bank.

[eyeguy 54]

good info. My last one was a powershot sx30IS. fun camera. 840mm at 30 zoom.

[traveler]

funny how equipment needs/wants come and go. After years without a dslr, I finally bought one this past year, although my wife has the Canon SX30is! While I like the Canon, I was not happy with it's low light capabilities.

Now I find myself wanting to buy into more zoom for the dslr...

[eyeguy 54]

that was my issue with the IS also.

[MN Shutterbug]

Even though I loved my Canon 100-400L lens, it didn't really perform all that well in low light either. On a dark day it would do a bit of searching before locking in. The 400/5.6 may have done better in those conditions but I chose the 100-400 for it's versatility. I do have to say that my bridge camera is pretty much on par in low light situations. As far as the camera is concerned, my Canon 50D did very well at ISO 3200 with practically no noise present due to it's in camera noise reduction. I haven't tested this camera out at that high of an ISO yet. It's been satisfactory at ISO 800. My last similar camera, which my wife has been using for about 6 or 7 years, didn't do well at anything over ISO 200. They have come a long ways. The IS must have really improved also as I can handhold this camera up to 1200mm at a shutter speed as low as 125/sec.

[eyeguy 54]

what is the camera you got for 250? SX 50 ?

[MN Shutterbug]

Panasonic DMC-FZ70. It's not the greatest at ISO 3200 but I didn't really expect it to compare favorably with the Canon 50D. Then again, the only time I went over ISO 800 with the dslr was for a basketball game and I don't plan on shooting sports with this camera.