John, I would recommend the HS20. Mines is the first model, the HS10 and I am really happy with its performance. When I use the full zoom, as long as there is enough light through the lens, I can sometimes get away with not having to use a tripod. I dont have image stabilization on my model but I think the HS20 does. I do use Photoshop to enhance some of my photos but to be honest, the quality is normally good enough not to.
The December pic is my favorite. Thankyou for sharing your year with us, and thank you for the lovely photos over the last twelve months. The rainbow pics were great.
Merry Christmas to you all and here's hoping for a fantastic camoing year for us all to come.
CHEERS!!!!
------------- *** A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on***
hi john..and jimcall. . good news for me. my son said he will buy a decent camera. of the type that you are both talking about. now... i have never used that sort before. so can you recommend what will be the best for me to start out on. i dont need anything too costly. son said he will pay up to £300. and i pay the rest if needed. your help in this i will appreciate.
Superpup, have a wee look on the jessops web site for Bridge cameras Link Here. There are a few really good cameras there.
If you are just starting out with digital photography, I think a bridge camera gives good value for money without having to go to the expense of a full blown dslr.
Look and see which cameras offer the features you want. For example it may be important to you to have a large zoom lens, standard AA type rechargable batteries rather than a dedicated camera battery. You might want to film video in HD or perhaps you need large prints so an array size of around 16 megapixels might be important.
Fuji, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic are all fantastic cameras with great lenses (most important!) and they all have models with large zoom lenses.
Hope some of that makes sense! Enjoy browsing.
edit - oh and all of them have fully automatic operation (good for begining) and all have full manual control for when you get more adventurous!
hi jim. thanks for that. maybe i should have said i am know nothing. .i really just want a simple straight forward camera. (one for nugget like me. ). i big zoom lens is what i will go for after i get used to the camera. i an not too bothered about video. as i have a vid cam. but can you suggest what would be best for me. to start out on. costs at a later date next year is not a problem if i learn enough. so. can you suggest what in your opinion would be the best for me to start out on. bearing in mind i am numb from the neck up. well. not that numb. but near enough.. an easy to use. dipstick proof camera for me
Have a look at some of the compact digitals - they are all point and shoot but limited manual override so you might outgrow them quickly. Still good quality tho but the zoom capability will be very much less. Its difficult to recommend a particular make because they are all good. Again just depends what features they offer which you consider important to have!
Fantastic photos as ever, Jim! Have to say December is my favourite, with August a very close second (I've got a couple like of Tobermory Bay) - it's so atmospheric. December pipped it only coz that's the view I get when heading home via Corran.
I was given a Fuji Finepix S3300 with 26 zoom for my birthday - I wanted a bridge camera rather than full DSLR - would go back to my Pentax bodies and lenses if I could be bothered changing lenses but don't have time nowadays, especially with wildlife photography like the sea eagles, though still use film when I want something really special. I've not had a chance to experiment with the new camera yet so waiting to see how I get on. Thank you for sharing these with us and a wonderful Christmas and New Year to you, too.
The thing about digital cameras is that they give you so much freedom to experiment and mess about with photography that you quite often get drawn further into the hobby. I hardly ever used a film camera, even when I was on holiday. As an example I visited Athens in 2003 and only took about 30 photographs in a week. When I returned in 2005 I took nearly 400, even with a poor quality digital camera.
Now I have a superzoom camera and take hundreds every time I go away for a week or two. Not all of them turn out, but the beauty of it is that I can pick the dozen or so best ones, and only print those.