What kind of camera?

[Brian011]

I'm thinking about buying a new camera and am just wondering what everyone thinks is the best point and shoot camera and how much did you spend on it. Which ones have the best zoom for far away pics?

[frenchbar]

I use this camera ..works pretty good ..paid 330.00 a couple yrs ago 18x zoom .

[frenchbar]

the new sp 590 olympus has the 26x zoom ..i beleive dana uses one ..takes nice pics .

[KB90]

Be careful when looking at zoom as a deciding factor. The only good zoom is optical zoom. Avoid digital zoom. (lots of cameras have both digital and optical, which is fine just make sure you get a high power optical zoom aswell)

You may be able to take pictures of subjects further away with digital but the quality will suffer drastically.

[dana]

I am shooting the biggest optical zoom currently on the market at 26X with the Olympus SP 590. Got it for well under 300 US when the CAN Dollar was pretty dang near par. Online CAN prices had it in the $500 ballpark at the time. I also picked up a 1.7X teleconverter for it. On a tripod it is pretty amazing. No need to take pics through the spotter any more.
I would expect the other major brands will try to put out new models this year that will compete with Olympus. It's been quite the race for the biggest optical zoom the last few years with Olympus leading the pack and the others trying the catch up. I wouldn't be surprised if Olympus goes even bigger this year.

[dana]

To furthur Kyle's remarks concerning digital zoom, it actually is pointless to use the digital zoom on any camera. You can do all that during the post editing process on your computer. A big optical zoom with high MPs is the way to go though. No need to give up quality at the editing phase.

[Bowzone_Mikey]

Ive got a Kodak 650z ...I got it a few years ago and it takes pretty good pics ....

My wife just got a Cannon Rebel SLR ... they are pretty much point and shoot now as well with auto focus and auto stabilization ... with the ability to swap lenses ... I will be buying me a a large lense to go scouting with

[BromBones]

I borrowed one of those Olympus cameras with the 26x zoom for a short while. It takes very nice pics & I'd like to pick one up in the future.

My personal camera is a Sony Cybershot DSC-W150. 8 MP, 5x optical zoom and 10x digital. Great little compact camera that is very simple to use. I don't need a bulky camera for backpacking, so this one fits the bill. A lot of the wildlife I photograph is already dead, so big zoom isn't really necessary

[dana]

Here's an example of what these bigger zoom point and shoots can do. This was take with an Olympus SP550 with 18X optical zoom.



Here is max zoom at 18X.


Here is the same photo post editing with cropping.

[BlacktailStalker]

I currently use a Sony DSC-H7 and an Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 (water/shock proof)