Best Bridge Camera?

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TYPHOON3
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Joined: Wed 19 May 2010, 4:38 pm

Best Bridge Camera?

Post by TYPHOON3 »

Looking to get myself a decent camera but I don't want to keep buying lenses.Jessops and Currys are reccomending the Nikon P900 because of the zoom.Do any of you guys agree and if not which camera do you reccomend?Thanks in advance for any advice.My budget is upto £500.

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by Brevet Cable »

From personal experience & ownership :
Panasonic Lumix FZ330 -- Has an f2.8 lens ( as opposed to the more usual f3.5--f6.5 most have ); 24x optical zoom ( 25-600mm equiv. ); 12mp sensor; ISO 6400 & a decent IS system. Costs around £450 new.
Viewfinder is very usable ( unlike some ) if you don't want to use the rear screen; Fast accurate focussing in most conditions; Good quality video ( if that's your thing ) under most conditions.
The only things I feel it falls down are : In very low light conditions, the video quality rapidly becomes extremely poor ( they brought out a firmware update to address this, but it's still poor ); If taking photos in low-light conditions, or if you just want a slow shutter speed, the minimum is 1 second; Also, the various shooting options & the setup menu are a lot less user-friendly than some other cameras.

Canon SX60HS -- The more common f3.4--f6.3 lens; 65x optical zoom ( 21-1365mm equiv. ); 16.1mp sensor; ISO 3200 as standard ( you have a 'night' mode which allows you to then select up to ISO 6400 ) & what I concider to be a better IS than the FZ330. Costs around £350 new.
Again, a very usable viewfinder; Fast accurate focussing in most condidtions; Good quality video.

Plenty of others out there, but I ain't tried them.

Just to add....
A lot of reviews quote the P900 as having a 4000mm equiv. zoom. The problem with that is it's the quote for the digital as opposed to optical zoom -- the optical zoom is quoted as 83x giving a 24-2000 equiv.
If you don't already know, a digital zoom isn't a real zoom....all it does is crops & blows-up the central part of the image & means the quality is reduced.

All 3 of the cameras use the same physical-size sensor ( 1/2.3" )
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Slinger65
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Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by Slinger65 »

I've used several bridge cameras since switching from film to digital, mainly Panasonic. Current incumbent is the FZ1000, which has less zoom range than the previous FZ200 that I used, but compensates by having a 20MP sensor and better image quality due to the larger sensor (so you can crop images to compensate for the reduced zoom length). ISO 400 and below, there's barely any noise at all, ISO800 / 1600 are usable, beyond that then understandably quality degrades. Video quality is up to 4K, and using RAW mode gives the ability to play with images in post-processing to squeeze out extra detail in highlights / shadows etc.

It's a great all rounder - here's a selection of wildlife / airshow / landscape / macro / night shots to give you an idea of its capabilities...

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

The photo of Suilven is with a polarising filter and also used a closeup filter on the wasp beetle (even at F8 the depth of field is pretty limited though).

Best of luck with whatever you choose.

Cheers,
Slinger65

Panasonic Lumix FZ1000

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by Brevet Cable »

Doesn't exactly fit into the OP's "up to £500" budget, though ( not new, anyway )
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TYPHOON3
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Joined: Wed 19 May 2010, 4:38 pm

Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by TYPHOON3 »

Thanks Brevet and Slinger for the advice so far.It might be worth paying the extra £79 if I can get images like those.The price doesn't really matter that much,it's just a case of do I want to pay that much for a camera.

andy759
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Joined: Fri 14 Oct 2016, 5:40 pm

Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by andy759 »

taken with my mates FZ1000

Image_1020324 by andy 759, on Flickr

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effects
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Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by effects »

my lad bought a P900,
Image

i have a Sony hx400v
Image
Image
Nikon P900 (Sony DSC-HX400V, Sony DSC-HX300 and DSC-H2 retired)

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by Brevet Cable »

The overwhelming majority of bridge cameras are capable of taking high quality photos ( and video, if that's your thing ) these days, as a quick browse of the internet will prove.
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bobcollege
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Re: Best Bridge Camera?

Post by bobcollege »

Brevet Cable wrote:From personal experience & ownership :...............

Canon SX60HS -- The more common f3.4--f6.3 lens; 65x optical zoom ( 21-1365mm equiv. ); 16.1mp sensor; ISO 3200 as standard ( you have a 'night' mode which allows you to then select up to ISO 6400 ) & what I concider to be a better IS than the FZ330. Costs around £350 new.
Again, a very usable viewfinder; Fast accurate focussing in most condidtions; Good quality video.


Apologies for reviving an old thread.

I am travelling up to the mach loop with a mate in April, I'm sorted with my gear but my mate wants to buy a camera for this purpose. I suggested the SX60 HS but I cannot find any shots where people have used the SX60 at an airshow.

Do you have any samples or does anyone else?

Neil

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