Capt. Kaos Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 I am looking for a decent camera that will allow me to take decent pictures from my seats... My problem, I dont have an arm and leg to buy a really good one. Any Suggestions from the more camera knowledgable folks....... Before you suggest, buying better seats is not an option either This is what I'm getting now with full zoom! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Kaos Posted September 15, 2008 Author Share Posted September 15, 2008 Ok, not much help with the 1st part, how about this.... Am I gimping myself by only looking for digital? Can I get good pictures with a ol' film camera? I can always get them put on disc for printing at home and putting on photobucket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 What is your price limit. I would go with a digital slr. They have some that are fairly cheap. Then you can add on a lens for better shots from up high. I have always loved my Nikons. I have a D80 but D40s arnt that expensive and you can always find one on ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.A.C.O.L.B. Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Costco has some decent SLR's for good prices. I'd check them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 1) I've bought three digital cameras recently, and I'm happy with all of them. Every one of them, I checked out on Digital Cameras HQ before I bought. I found the information on there to be really valuable. I saw information there that I wouldn't have even thought about asking about. 2) All of the cameras I bought were a few years ago. I doubt that any of the cameras I bought are being made, now. No doubt they've all been replaced. 3) I'd assume that a good zoom would be something you want. That also means you'll want some stabilization.) (Since you'll be taking pictures of moving things, you'll want a fast camera, too. As in "a fast shutter speed, even while zoomed".) 4) All the cameras I've bought have been Sony. I'm not saying "buy a Sony". My pleasure may simply be more due to the "Larry is used to using Sony" effect. What I'm saying is "I know more about Sony than other brands." ----- The cameras I got have all been discontinued and replaced with newer models. Of the ones I own, the one I think you'd be happiest with would be this one. (Mine is very similar. Mine has 8x optical zoom, and a type of stabilization that seems to be a lesser type.) (A more full-featured version is this one, where the zoom is 15x vs. 10x, the sensor is 9MP vs 8, and several other features.) I like their large LCDs, and they fit my hand well. I've taken what I consider very good pictures with mine. ----- All that said, going SLR might be something to consider in your case. I suspect that most purchasers will never change lenses on their SLR, but you might be an exception. The SLR's interchangable lenses would give you the option of getting a large (to capture more light, allowing faster shutter speed) long (built for distance shooting) lens for use at the game, and a more "normal" lens for around-the-house (or at the tailgate) use. It would be a more expensive option (especially since you're now looking at a more expensive camera, and two lenses). But it might fit your mission better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28rdsknsfn28 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Definatley go with the digital even if it means putting off the purchase to save the money. You will save what you spent in not having to buy film and can take a lot more pictures. Invest in a good sized disk, they are pretty cheap any more, I got a 1 GB for around 45$, and a card reader. You can read straight from the camera but you have to use the battery to do so. Think about the type of battery you need. Some have rechargable and others use regular old AA or AAA. The regular batteries are nice because you don't have to worry about recharging but keep plenty on had as they go fast especially if you are reviewing the pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 To be honest most digital camera's are pretty damn good now. The thing you are paying for is the lens. I'd get the camera with the combination of the biggest optical zoom and lowest F/stop I could find thats in my price range. The f/stop is aperture, you'll see it on lenses notated as F/2.8, f/4,f/5.6 etc. The lower the better, but be aware when you see F/2.8-5.6 it is giving you the aperture over the length of the zoom. So when zoomed in all the way it slows the lens down to a 5.6, not good. If you not in a hurry hit me up at the cards tailgate and we'll talk cameras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandaceM23 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 If you are looking for something with zoom, you are better off going with a Digital SLR and getting a lens combo. I know that my place of business almost always has a Nikon Digital SLR with a two lens kit on promo. Film = non existent anymore. Don't waste your time or money. Plus if you are not familiar with how to operate an SLR, you really don't want to go the film route. You'd have to teach yourself how to use the camera .... And why teach yourself to use a film SLR when you can look into a digital SLR. There you have the best of both worlds - you can teach yourself how to use all of the functions of the camera or you can cheat and use the automatic mode where the camera does everything for you. You will see that there are a number of manufacturers out there .... Sony, Nikon, Fuji, Canon. Personally, I tend to lean more towards Nikon products. Nikon makes very user friendly cameras and I've never had any issues with any of my Nikon cameras (film SLR's, film point and shoots, digital point and shoots and now I have a Nikon DSLR). I HATE Sony products ... and that's just a matter of personal opinion. If you buy a Sony camera, you can only buy a Sony memory card, you can only buy a Sony adapter for your computer ... it gets very old and very expensive pretty fast. As for digital camera media (your film), you use a memory card. Most camera manufacturers use SD cards and the price of memory is dropping. We just had a price drop last week. You can walk out of a store with a 4GB memory card (which with an average camera will hold approximately 1000-12000 pictures) for around $24.99. The price for a 4GB card was around $40 earlier this summer .... I'd recommend a 70-300mm lens .... That should do the trick. Granted you won't be able to zoom in on faces and see beads of sweat, but it should be a bit more reliable than your current digital camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Kaos Posted September 15, 2008 Author Share Posted September 15, 2008 Thanks for the input, guess I'll be saving up and just have to deal with the not so great pics for the rest of the season. Oh well, least I'm there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandaceM23 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Capt, You can get a decent DSLR for around $500. Or if you can save up the cash around holiday season, look for Black Friday deals on cameras. Retailers are VERY competitive around that time and I believe that this Black Friday will be SUPER competitive thanks to the economy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Capt, You can get a decent DSLR for around $500. Or if you can save up the cash around holiday season, look for Black Friday deals on cameras. Retailers are VERY competitive around that time and I believe that this Black Friday will be SUPER competitive thanks to the economy. If you do go DSLR remember it's all about the lenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Check out the Rebel XTI, it's got a 1.6 magnification built in...so whatever lens you end up getting, it's actually a bit longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Update: I just noticed that the camera that I own, that I'd be recommending to you, is still made. (Or at least, is still listed on that review site I provided.) The camera I actually own is this one. I observe that it's now only got a B- grading on that site. Although I also observe, from looking at the reviews, that one reviewer gave it a bad grade because he upgraded from a lesser version of the identical camera, and it wasn't as big an upgrade from the previous one as he expected. And another gave it a bad grade because in his opinion, an SLR would have been better. (In short, two people gave it a bad grade because it wasn't something that it doesn't claim to be.) I bought the camera specifically for use in one place: Family vacation to Sea World in Orlando. My 4-year-old Nephew was feeding dolphins. To take a picture, I had to be on the other side of the dolphin tank (say, 100 yds away, and above him.) I expected (and got) bright sunlight, and glare off of the water. I used the H-5 camera, and a polarizing filter (to hopefully cut down on glare). The camera was hand-held, while standing, and the camera was not at the limit of it's zoom. The camera was set to use the full-auto settings. These pictures are exactly as the camera took them, except that photobucket reduces the resolution from the camera's 3072 x 2074 to 1024 x 768. (Meaning they've eliminated 88% of the "pixels" that the original contains.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuraitengai Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Check out the Rebel XTI, it's got a 1.6 magnification built in...so whatever lens you end up getting, it's actually a bit longer. actually, id check out anything other than the rebel series. all the digital rebels are garbage. i have known several professional photogs that had a rebel as a backup and it just exploded/fried on them. one in the middle of a shoot. all the other cannons are good, just expensive. another friend who is a professional got a nikon d40 last year and she loves it. only about 500 for the base and the 18-55mm lens. then add on the 55-200mm lens and youd be set. but after a quick check online, you can get a d40 with the 18-55 for under 400. but most likely it will be in the 400s. you can get the body with both lenses for about 600. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 I love my EOS Rebel XT, and the cameras have come down in price a bit since the XTi hit the market. From your seats, a 75 / 300 Tele zoom would do well. Here's the link to my game pics from last season. There all shot from the ssidelines, but you can judge the quality of the equipment from the, http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/Extremeskins-102/?start=20 Tarhog, PCS, and myself all use the Rebel XT, and TK has the XTi. I'm using an EF 75 /300 lense, which is as basic as they come. Not sure about the other guys. I know TK has the high end image stabilizing lense. My st up went for right around 700$ a little over a year ago. If you really look around, you should be able to find the camera body without lense to save money, and then buy the zoom. You can always pick up a standard lense in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Kaos Posted September 15, 2008 Author Share Posted September 15, 2008 I love my EOS Rebel XT, and the cameras have come down in price a bit since the XTi hit the market. From your seats, a 75 / 300 Tele zoom would do well. Here's the link to my game pics from last season. There all shot from the ssidelines, but you can judge the quality of the equipment from the,http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/Extremeskins-102/?start=20 Tarhog, PCS, and myself all use the Rebel XT, and TK has the XTi. I'm using an EF 75 /300 lense, which is as basic as they come. Not sure about the other guys. I know TK has the high end image stabilizing lense. My st up went for right around 700$ a little over a year ago. If you really look around, you should be able to find the camera body without lense to save money, and then buy the zoom. You can always pick up a standard lense in the future. Pete, how about I keep my crappy digital and you get me down there to take some pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Obviously the problem is the photographer. Give me your tickets, and I'll send you a CD of every picture I take. Won't cost you a dime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Hopefully PCS will chime in. He has a GREAT lens for the canon he uses, and can give you some first hand experiences with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Pete, how about I keep my crappy digital and you get me down there to take some pics Ya, I wish I could get down there again myself...... I did fond this, whic might be in your price range http://www.fotoconnection.com/p11462-canon-eos-350d-digital-rebel-xt-dslr-camera-body-silver.html They have a line of rebels, and there's one package with a 28 /200 tele / zoom lense for a good price, 479.oo. The nice part is you can pretty much get away with it for general shooting, and the 200 should get you close enough from your seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 ... Hello? Thanks Bob. See if I can help. For the Canon folks, Right now, the Rebel XT is falling dramatically in price. This because of the realease of the Rebel XS,(Not to be confused with the XSI). If I had to choose between the two right now, clearly the XS is the way to go, though it does go for a decent price. It's a great "I'm new to the SLR world" camera. Won't bore you with the details, but it's a great little camera. One of the best features is it's self cleaning system. With SLR's, that's important. It's lightweight and the lenses they make for many other Canon cameras work with this one. Now there's the catch. Lenses. Remember, for the most part when it comes to lenses, you get what you pay for. Go cheap, you're not going to get the best of quality out of your pics. Now if this is just for fun, trying to have some cool pics as memories then I would recommend some medium of the road lenses price wise. Telephoto zooms are good for this type of thing. Fixed zooms will give the best quality, but the adjustable zoom lenses are still very good and they give you a lot more versatility in your picture taking. Where you seem to be at at the games, I'd recommend a max zoom of 250-300. Something in the range of a 70-250 or 300 lens. Any more and you'll run into some expensive stuff no matter what brand you buy. Also, and this is key with low light and/or when taking pics of the games. You'll be moving. This means IS. Image stabilization. Stabilization is basically a series of gyros and other optical stuff in the lens that help correct for camera shake. Which happens with hand held picture taking. This is especially important when using the bigger zooms. And that runs more money as well. Again, you can probably fine some intermediate priced lenses for them like the Sigma's. Okay. Now you're going holy ****! You can save your money and get one of those kits that were mentioned earlier. Nikon does indeed have some very good ones as well. My stepmom is an award winning amateur photographer and uses Nikon. I've used hers and it's a sweet camera. However, these can still be pricey. Decide what you really want out of your camera and go from there. There are some very good point and clicks out there right now that are mimiking the SLR's in some ways. Big zooms, image stabilization, ect. The new craze being the "superzooms". Small point and clicks that have long zooms. Now they have smaller sensors so they won't pick up as much detail,(among other limitations) but you can still get some very nice pics with them. One of the new ones out is the Fuji S8100fd. And it is getting some pretty good reviews. Runs about $399.00 on the average. Has a 12 X zoom to it which means something in the range of 480 mm. Now going from a wide zoom to that max zoom tends to slow things up,(it takes time for the lens to extend), but apparently Fuji has done an outstanding job of fixing this so it's actually pretty quick to respond for a point and click. Speaking of which, it also has a fairly quick focus reaction time to it. It's also a pretty small camera. Perfect for the games. ( I'm looking into this one as well as the Panasonic and Nikon versions). Word of advice, especially if you go the SLR way down the road. Be very careful when buying online. There are some very good prices out there for these cameras and you can save hundreds of dollars. However, many of these cameras are "gray market" cameras. Cameras that seem the same but their components and such are only compatible in the countries where they are made. They are usually not under warranty and ineligible for repair. Some are, but you need to make sure by going to the manufacturer's site. They usually have gray market info. :whew: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 I love my EOS Rebel XT, and the cameras have come down in price a bit since the XTi hit the market. From your seats, a 75 / 300 Tele zoom would do well. Here's the link to my game pics from last season. There all shot from the ssidelines, but you can judge the quality of the equipment from the,http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/Extremeskins-102/?start=20 Tarhog, PCS, and myself all use the Rebel XT, and TK has the XTi. I'm using an EF 75 /300 lense, which is as basic as they come. Not sure about the other guys. I know TK has the high end image stabilizing lense. My st up went for right around 700$ a little over a year ago. If you really look around, you should be able to find the camera body without lense to save money, and then buy the zoom. You can always pick up a standard lense in the future. The XTi has also dropped in price due to the XSi coming out. I was at Circuit City earlier looking for Batch Photo which I saw earlier online. Figured I could use a back up install disk instead of just a download & install. Anyways, I took a look at the XSi & for another $150 bucks, I'd go with it. Mainly because 1) it's a 12 mega pixel & 2) it's got built in manual IS. Speaking of IS, Pete I haven't bought that lens yet. It's still $700 & I know that if I fork that much out for it, the next week or two they'll have a price drop.:doh: I'm still using the standard lens that comes with the XTi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Damn PCS has become damn edumacated on this camera stuff! :applause: One note on image stabilization. There are usually 2 reasons you get motion blur. Number one is the shutter speed is to slow for the motion you are trying to capture. Number two is that you are at maximum zoom and the lens picks up your hand shake and blurs the image, especially in low light conditions.. Image stabilization is great for correcting situation #2, but not much good for correcting situation #1. Some examples of #1 are car racing, football, basketball. The best thing to do to get sharp picks is get your shutter speed as fast as possible. To do this you get the fastest lens you can afford. Some examples of #2 are nature photography, archatectual photography, wedding pics, stuff like that. For those image stabilization is often a good choice. For the Rockefellers of the world you get a really fast lens with image stabilization, to expensive for me though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Word of advice, especially if you go the SLR way down the road. Be very careful when buying online. There are some very good prices out there for these cameras and you can save hundreds of dollars. However, many of these cameras are "gray market" cameras. Cameras that seem the same but their components and such are only compatible in the countries where they are made. They are usually not under warranty and ineligible for repair. Some are, but you need to make sure by going to the manufacturer's site. They usually have gray market info. Anyone looking for a killer deal on a SLR, heed the above advice. Seriously. Peace of mind is worth more then the $200-300 you think you're saving only to get duped by grey market garbage. I know last year when both Pete & I were looking at SLR's we both stumbled across grey market cameras. I remember Pete getting a good deal from a reputable dealer online with a package deal. I ended up getting mine a few days after Canon had a nationwide price drop. They've since had another price drop on the XTi. Oh, & definitely get a card reader. Seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 See Pete. It was $700. Now it's on sale for $629 at Best Buy. Canon - 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens Also on sale, $747.00 Canon - 70-200mm f/4L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 See Pete. It was $700.Now it's on sale for $629 at Best Buy. Canon - 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens Also on sale, $747.00 Canon - 70-200mm f/4L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens In that neighborhood of price you should take a look a this lens also. Sigma 70-200F/2.8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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