Camera Help

[laseranimal]

Could some of the more camera savy maggots point me in the direction of a good digital camera for skiing action shots? I have a kodak easyshare point and shoot camera that has the slowest shutter known to mankind but is really easy to upload pictures and its easy to carry but its now on its second trip back to kodak because parts keep breaking

I also have a Cannon AE-1 that I love because its super durable(god i love metal housings ) and I really can get great shots out of it but I don't have the money to keep buying and devloping film and I don't have a quality scanner to upload the pictures.

Basicly what I want is a camera thats going to combine the pros of both of these cameras and not cost me an arm and a leg. I realize that there are going to be tradeoffs but can anyone give me a place to start? I used to shoot sports at HS/College level and I'd like to get back into photography on a more regular basis

[laseranimal]

pmub

[truth]

Waht is the price range your looking at? It amkes a huge difference as to what I would reccomend.

edit - the alkyhall is effecting me typin skills...Arrrh!

[Eldo]

If you're going from a 35mm SLR to a consumer level digital camera be prepared for major limitations when it comes to sports shooting. That includes shutter lag, slow autofocus, limited FPS, lack of continous and predictive autofocus, etc.

I have switched to digital for almost everything I shoot and have managed to adapt. But when I have an assignment that I need to pick up my SLRs, I am immediately reminded how much faster and more competent they are for action photography.

The real problem is I don't want to deal with the hassles of film anymore. So what I really need is a pro level digi SLR that has both performance and the convenience of being digital.

BTW, this topic comes up all the time. Do a search in this or the PM forum on digital cameras and you can find some good info. And be sure to check out www.dpreview.com.

[The AD]

Go to the dpreview site mentioned in the last reply and check out the review for Canon's new Digital Rebel. Still not cheap, but certainly moving in the right direction. Sort of like the film Rebel, it's missing many of the features of more expensive SLRs, but the plus side is you can use all the Canon EF lenses.

[Schralper]

The biggest problem I've found w/digi cams for action photo's is the burst rate, frames per second, is SLOW! I ended up gettin a F5 for that reason, 8 fps. Then when Nikon gets the rate up on their digi's I'll get one since the lenses interchange. Now some of the high end ones are getting there, if ya call 3 fps adequate. Plus no long exposures, forget anything over 30 sec.w/ digi. To much "noise".
How much film are you shooting?
Say 100 rolls, 3600 slides. $4.50/roll + $8 developing= $12 roll= $1300 and you have the slides. Scanner on ebay= $400. Total= $1700 or about the cost of a hi end cam body. Might wanna check out the Fuji finepix digi cam, it accepts Nikon lenses. Nuthin less than 4 mega pixels, if ya wanna print'em.

[Mcwop]

Here are two options:
Panasonic DMC FZ1S
Awesome lense and 12X optical zoom nice price

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/sc/204853...amera+on-1.gif

and

Minolta Dimage Xt
Really Small - fits in ski jacket pocket for quick pics
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/sc/212487...amera+on-1.gif


Monolta Xt Review

Panasonic Lumix Review

Bothe these cameras are pretty fast. With that said when taking action shots on digital try and use the burst mode.

Another fast Shooter, but more $$, is the Leica Digilux 1

I just bought the Minolta Xt, and it is a nice camera. Small enough for pants pocket, and pretty quick. Startup to snapping first picture is 2 seconds. When already on, shutter lag is less than second. Continuous Shooting Speed is 1.3 frames per second.

Here is my first set of sample pics with the Minolta Xt

On the Panasonic don't let the 2mpx feature fool you. It takes incrdible pictures.

Here is a site where you can view pictures by camera type to help see quality.

[Eldo]

Originally posted by Schralper
The biggest problem I've found w/digi cams for action photo's is the burst rate, frames per second, is SLOW! I ended up gettin a F5 for that reason, 8 fps. Then when Nikon gets the rate up on their digi's I'll get one since the lenses interchange.

Then here's the Nikon digi cam that you need.

http://www.nikonusa.com/template.jsp...roductNr=25208

MSRP (in Canada) is $4,850 body only.

[Crinkle]

I just learned this the other day from a camera sales person. There are no "affordable" fast shooters (shot to shot speed)
The best way to improve your shot to shot speed is to buy a faster memory card. At least that was what i was told. I am sure that if you spend the money on the camera it will help too. Just take video then you dont miss anything.

[The AD]

Another thing to remember about any camera, film or digital, is it's only as good as its lens. If those 5 million pixels are distorted you still have a shitty picture. I noticed Kodak has digital cameras with Schneider lenses and Panasonic has some with Leica lenses. These are both lens manufacturers with exceptional reputations for quality.

Another thing to consider is the max aperture (f-stop) of the lens. A lower number is better. Any camera with an optical zoom will have a worse max aperture when the lens is zoomed. Sometimes the f-stop can get pretty horrible. This will cause blur in your photos because a longer exposure is needed. This is compunded by the fact that blur increases with focal length anyway. The standard rule of thumb is you need an exposure about equal to the reciprocal of the focal length to get a decent photo (e.g., with a 50mm lens, you need to shoot 1/50 sec exposure or shorter). I'm not positive this rule applies exactly to digitals.

Sorry this got a little technical

[The AD]

I thought of one more thing. See in the photo of the Panasonic how the flash flips up away from the camera?
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/sc/204853...amera+on-1.gif

Maybe everyone already knows this, but redeye in flash photos is caused by the light reflecting off the back of the eye to the camera lens. The way to avoid this is to mount the flash away from the lens so the reflection doesn't come straight back at the camera. Redeye reduction systems just fire off some flashes before the exposure that constrict the pupil, thus reducing the effect, but don't eliminate it. The only way to eliminate redeye is moving the flash away from the lens. Obviously this is tough to do with a very compact camera.

If you plan to take a lot of flash photos look for a design that has a flash that flips up like this.