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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: deermaster1 on January 01, 2009, 01:07:00 AM

Title: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: deermaster1 on January 01, 2009, 01:07:00 AM
just wondering what kinda digi camera everybody was carrying in the field with ya.  my kodak c340 finally gave up the ghost, and i am looking for a small 6-10 mp.  i dont really have any need for an sli, and cant spend the money on one.  id appreciate it if you'd ley me know what you are using, and about how much is cost.  im looking to spend 250-300 tops.  thanks
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: non-typical on January 01, 2009, 08:03:00 AM
Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ5. Light, ultra zoom, built in stabalizer. Takes fantastic pictures. Not 6-10 mp which is overkill.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Killdeer on January 01, 2009, 08:18:00 AM
Just bought one for my husband, Mockingbird. This gave me the opportunity to shop and compare features, and I ended up picking out a Canon Powershot SX 110 IS.

Clark isn't really into photography, so the camera is fairly simple to use. As he gets more proficient with it, however, there are features on it that he can explore and use to expand his capabilities.

I carry a G9, which is kinda pricey but a good camera. Clark's will do just about everything mine will, but costs less and runs on AA batteries. Don't forget a case!

Killdeer   :campfire:
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: John Nail on January 01, 2009, 08:28:00 AM
what kind of batery life do you get with the Canon and Panasonic? I have a Fuji Finepix that EATS batteries. I wouldn't buy another one because of that.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: John3 on January 01, 2009, 08:31:00 AM
A few years ago I bought a Kodak EasyShare C643 without really knowing what I was getting as it was my first digital.  All I knew was that a high megapixal count was important. Needless to say I lucked out. A perfect camera with more features than I will ever use. Night/day settings, zoom, shoots video, 6.1 pixal count, ect, ect.. All that for just under $200.00..
Well made camera. It has been on many "adventures" to wild places from 100 degrees in SD to below zero in Kansas and always worked perfect.  
Shop a bit, you don't have to spend $800.00 to get a "good" camera.

John III
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: John3 on January 01, 2009, 08:34:00 AM
I forgot to add... Spend the $20 to get set up with rechargable AA's and the charger.. I bought the 4pk of the best quality batteries. One pair is in the camera the other in the case. A few hours in the charger and all are good to go.

John III
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Flinttim on January 01, 2009, 08:40:00 AM
John , my wife wanted a digi cam for Christmas. I decided to get her one I could "borrow" now and again. I bought a Fuji Finepix j10  8.2 mpx. Small and easy to use.BUT it came with a battery pack and charger. She used it Xmas morning (about 30 pics) and took it to the wedding Saturday and burned thru at least another 40 pics before the battery pack ran out.All indoors so the flash was used a lot. I can't swear to it w/o measuring but the battery pack is about the size and looks like 3 AAA batteries. Check your owner's manual, maybe you can get a pack and charger for your's.

 Technology is always a crap shoot. I bought a Sony digi cam when they first came out. 2 something MPX, big as an old 35 mm slr and cost around 400 bucks. Now you can get one that fits in your shirt pocket and has 10 MPX for a hundred dollars. Truthfully, I ain't so sure you should spend big bucks for one. Pay around $100 or less and use 'em. They'll be old news in a year or two anyway.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: BradLantz on January 01, 2009, 08:44:00 AM
Canon PowerShot S2 ... only 5 meg but powerful optical zoom allows me to take some nice photo's .... with 10 megapixel cameras available and SLR's for just a couple a hundred I should updgrade ...
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Killdeer on January 01, 2009, 08:54:00 AM
John,
My Canon G9 gets good battery life in mild weather. I may go through one a week when I am hunting. I bought a power inverter for the truck, but haven't needed to recharge in the field. I have a couple of spares and keep them charged up. My husband's runs on AAs, and I got him some rechargeables and a charger. He hasn't used it enough to run the batteries down yet.   :rolleyes:  

Killdeer
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: non-typical on January 01, 2009, 09:00:00 AM
The Panasonic is easy on batteries. I use rechargeable ones. If I have doubts about how much life is left on one I switch out before heading out the door. The nice thing about the Panasonic is it uses the same SD chips as my game cameras so I buy in bulk without a lot of hassle.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: myshootinstinks on January 01, 2009, 09:06:00 AM
I can tell you what NOT to carry, the inexpensive disposable film cameras.  I had one in my day pack for taking hunt pics.  Shot a nice little buck w/ my 'curve bow last Sept.  Not a single pic developed.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: mwmwmb on January 01, 2009, 09:11:00 AM
i carry an kodak easyshare i forget the model. but have used several models in the field. they are good I like the battery pack better than
batteries.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Chris Surtees on January 01, 2009, 09:12:00 AM
I also carry a G9, which is a little more expensive but takes great pics and has good battery life. With the new G10 out you may find one on the auction for a good price. This is a great camera and I highly recommend it.

Also the some to look at are the SX110 IS, SD990 IS, and SD790 IS.

Check out the Canon USA website. You can compare features between the cameras you may be interested in.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: metsastaja on January 01, 2009, 09:45:00 AM
I use a Nikon coolpix with a 7inch Jobby wrap around tripod. The jobby allows me to attach camera to my stands or a branch. I keep the camera mounted by my left knee while on stand. This allows me to swivel zoom etc with very little movement.

Camera takes great pictures and ok videos.

Check B&H photo New York for online pricing. They are a very large professional camera outlet and frequently have the lowest prices and great service
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: dino on January 01, 2009, 09:52:00 AM
I carry a casio exilim ex-s600 which is a very compact 6 meg pixel camera.  You can shoot videos on it as well.  With a back up rechargeable battery I am good for 2 or 3 weeks without recharging taking 100s of pics.  I used to carry a larger canon that take awesome pics too, but becuase of its size it was a pain to carry and a hassle to take it out of my pack.  With a smaller pocket camera I could carry it in my pocket and tend to take many more pics while hunting if my camera is light and accessible. dino
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: J-KID on January 01, 2009, 09:56:00 AM
Canon SD1000.  7.1 MP, a variety of shooting modes, excellent video, rechargeable battery (I got an extra off auction site), very small.  I keep it in a small waterproof Otter case in my pack.  Can be purchased for $149.00 if you look around.  I've had 4 Canon's (my daughters seem to acquire them) and my next one will be the G10.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: wingnut on January 01, 2009, 09:56:00 AM
Forgot my camera this year on our elk hunt and picked up a canon Power shot A470 at Cabelas.  It was $100 and is perfect for the pack.  It's a 7.1 meg camera with 3.4x optical zoom and takes very good pics.  Also it runs on AA batteries which is nice in camp.


Mike
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: larry on January 01, 2009, 09:58:00 AM
knowing nothing about cameras but wanting one, my wife got me a casio exilim ex-z9 for Christmas, it's very small, but has a real good size back screen, it does more stuff than I'll ever figure out, but it takes a real nice pic and does take videos, but I haven't got that far yet.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: John Nail on January 01, 2009, 10:14:00 AM
My Fuji A210 will run down fresh Alkaline AA batteries in 2 weeks just sitting there TURNED OFF.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: JL on January 01, 2009, 10:44:00 AM
I can only wish I had a G9....y'all are livin good!

I have been shooting digital ever since it really started and have bought/sold more cameras then I can remember. I currently own a Nikon DSLR and several point and shoot cameras.

For a point and shoot compact, it's hard to beat Canon for features and picture quality. I look for one that use's AA batteries. You can get AA's anywhere but if your cameras uses a proprietary cell and it looses it's charge, you have to recharge it before you can use the camera. The rechargable AA's are a very good choise and look at hybrid rechargeables. They have a much longer shelf life and retain their charge much longer then standard NiMH batteries. It's a good idea to load lithium batteries in your camera if you are going to be in a cold climate. They are the least affected by the cold and are strong batteries. Look for a strong optical zoom rating vs digital zoom. Digital zooms do all kinds of optical voodoo to picture quality. I personally never use the digital zoom feature on cameras. Again, some digital zooms are very good but there are cameras that have very good optical zooms. My Canon S3 IS (image stabilizer) has a 12X optical zoom and shoots great video to boot! The S3 is a great little camera (hint...)

Good thing about buying a used camera, a lot of folks are alway "upgrading" their equipment so there are deals to be had. I recently scored a Canon A540 with a 1 Gig card (great little camera) off fleabay for $39/delivered! Buy a decent size memory card (2 Gig SD card can be had for $10 or so, sometimes less) and always shoot at the highest resolution your camera offers. You can always reduce the size of the pic with any standard picture software (for emailing, posting pic's on the net,ect). You never know when your gonna capture that once in a lifetime shot and if your shooting in low resolution, well...

The world of digital cameras is always quickly evolving and new camera models seem to hit the market daily. I won't cost you much to land a good camera these days, they are everywhere. Some better then others (The Canon G series is a excellent line...) but you have to have the camera with you when you need it. Otherwise it's useless. Get a case to protect your camera from dust/rain/ect and always, always use that little wrist strap that comes with it. They are only good till the first drop (I know this from personal experience...). Lots of great choise's out there. I suggest doing a bit of research on what features you want in a camera first and go from there. $250-300 will get you a clean/used DSLR off fleabay these days.

Good luck in your search!

JL
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Jason R. Wesbrock on January 01, 2009, 12:00:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by myshootinstinks:
I can tell you what NOT to carry, the inexpensive disposable film cameras.  I had one in my day pack for taking hunt pics.  Shot a nice little buck w/ my 'curve bow last Sept.  Not a single pic developed.
A good frine of mine made that mistake in 2004. After three years of moose hunting, he finally killed his first bull and all he had was a disposale film carema. None of the field photos came out. After that he invested in a good digital camera.

Last year he killed a huge bull in Ontario that barely missed B&C. The photos came out great, and he now has a lasting visual memory of that day he can relive for many years to come.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Jason R. Wesbrock on January 01, 2009, 12:32:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by deermaster1:
just wondering what kinda digi camera everybody was carrying in the field with ya.  my kodak c340 finally gave up the ghost, and i am looking for a small 6-10 mp.  i dont really have any need for an sli, and cant spend the money on one.  id appreciate it if you'd ley me know what you are using, and about how much is cost.  im looking to spend 250-300 tops.  thanks
If cost is the only thing keeping you from an SLR, take a look at the first generation Canon Digital Rebels on various internet auction sites. You can get one for about $200, and they'll take publication quality photos. I still use mine once in a while, even though I spend more time with my 20D.

As far as point and shoot digital cameras; I picked up a Canon PowerShot SX100IS last year because I wanted something small that I could put in my pocket. It's 8.0mp, has a 10x optical zoom and image stabilizer. The manual controls are exceptional and it runs on two AA batteries.

The photo quality is great. Just to give you an idea, these are from a Cubs game my family and I went to last August. All photos were taken from the back row of the right field bleachers, off hand without a rest or tripod. None of these were cropped or enhanced. They're exactly as they came off the memory card.

My daughter, Rachel, watching the game. This gives you an idea how far from the action we were sitting. It's 368' down the right field power alley.

   (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/wesbrock/Cubs/PictureorVideo138.jpg)

Home plate: at least 130-140 yards away. The image stabilizer and a fast shutter speed using manual controls work great.

  (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/wesbrock/Cubs/PictureorVideo160.jpg)

Looking inside the press box, which is in the upper level behind home plate (probably 160-200 yards away). This one really maxed out the Optical and digital zoom.

  (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/wesbrock/Cubs/PictureorVideo101.jpg)
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: waknstak IL on January 01, 2009, 12:37:00 PM
Go Cubs!!! Sorry Jason got me excited.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: BowHuntingFool on January 01, 2009, 12:42:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by non-typical:
Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ5. Light, ultra zoom, built in stabalizer. Takes fantastic pictures. Not 6-10 mp which is overkill.
Me too, great Camera!!!! I bought it for my African hunt and just love it! I didn't know how much I love taking pictures until I got a good Camera, The Panasonic is a keeper!
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: griz#1 on January 01, 2009, 12:44:00 PM
kodak easy share c913 from wal-mart 9.2 mega pixels for under a 100 bucks.
Title: Re: OT- what kind of camera do you carry?
Post by: Bjorn on January 01, 2009, 01:25:00 PM
Nikon P5100-does everything I need from a camera.
Fairly compact with a big screen made for old eyes.