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Thinking of a fun camera for family snapshots, don't want to carry 25 lb. of camera gear, consider one of the ultrazoom cameras. I had more good family snapshots from my Olympus 2100 than any other camera I have owned. I'm going to replace it with one of the several long zoom cameras we now have to choose from. Let me say that I would not even consider any long zoom without image stabilization. The 2100 had a Canon lens on this Olympus camera with image stabilization and that alone counted for more good snapshots.
I found that long zoom was more than handy - you could shoot head and shoulders across a room - and therefore more naturally and less obrusively - great for the grand kids - of course I could use my Canon 1Ds2 and pick up a 100 - 400 zoom, but I wouldn't want to carry it for long, and as for unobtrusive, forget it.
Many people hate electronic view finders. I personally didn't have any big issues with it. My next camera was a Sony 707, with a 5X zoom - great lens but I did miss the 10X and def. missed the image stabilization. Sure loved that tilting back though - wish my Canon had one - great for low shots - see ice and stream - it was painless to shoot despite being six images stitched with the 707 - I sell a 24 X24 inch print from that camera - quite successfully.
Anyway, the one thing that these cameras don't do well is sports - the 707 couldn't do it at all - I found with the 2100 that if I anticipated the shot, I could get quite good at picking off single shots - but forget sequences - the viewfinder either blanks out or stays on the first image meaning you can't even track the object - get it right or don't get it at all.
None of the current crop of ultrazooms is perfect - corners not sharp enough or too much purple fringing or useless ei. 400.
Arguably you could put one of the Tamron or other make 28-300 zooms on a Canon 350D but you wouldn't have the image stabilization. OF course you could crank up ei. to 800 but then these lenses tend to be f5.6 at the long end with absolutely no depth of field so overall still not an ideal solution.
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2 comments:
Much agreed, these cameras have a lot going for them. I just picked up a Minolta A2, and while the lens doesn't go as long as some of the new models, it does go to 28mm at the wide end which is useful. And the anti-shake is indispensable. I don't like looking at the EVF much, even though the A2 is supposedly the best one going, but I do really like the live histogram. This is my first serious digital camera and it seems will serve me well as an introduction :)
George,
The C-2100uz works well in drive mode, and allows for fast action capture. I use it to pick off cute facial expressions on my three month old.
Your images are great, thanks for sharing.
Perry
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