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| *SoulEyes Photography>>>Professional Photographer |
Digital camera for "outdoorsy" people? |
My HP digital camera recently died and I am in the market for a new camera. My boyfriend an I aren鈥檛 professional photographers so we don鈥檛 need something too nice, but we are looking for some specific things. We are very active and outdoorsy so we鈥檙e interested in a camera that can take video and won鈥檛 shatter like an eggshell when hiking. I鈥檓 also looking for something that has different functions depending on the environment. Our photos in the snow tend to look awful, and we had some problems with lighting on sand also. I鈥檝e also heard that some companies offer underwater kits for their digital camera. I鈥檝e done some checking online, and tried some in the stores, but photos in Wal-Mart and photos on top of a mountain or in dense underbrush are two totally different things. I hoped that experience from real people using cameras in the real world would be a little more useful. I appreciate any feedback. Thanks! Hey there! I currently work at a Ritz camera store - mostly in the lab but I help on the sales floor as well. My favorite rugged point and shoot camera is a Canon SD600 - it has a pretty tough casing (although ANY digital bounced around enough WILL have issues) and isn't terribly expensive for a 6 mp. Good photo quality and reliable brand, it also has some specific settings for the issues you were talking about, like bright snow and sand. The trouble is, you have to put it into that mode by going through the menu - although auto should do 99% better than your HP. I think Canon sells a waterproof housing unit for it as well, but we don't carry things like that in our store so I'm not positive. If you want to get really gutsy, you could spend the $700 to get a DSLR (the bigger kind you can change lenses on) - the photo quality will be greatly improved with any of these and then you will have the option to buy filters to help with bright situations (Nuetral density and polarizer). I'm a big fan of Nikons, like the D50, which is inexpensive and easy to use. I would go to a camera store other than the usual big chains. I agree with the first answer, but would say that unless you are careful you will get the problems you mention with snow and sand exposures with any camera, if you solely rely on the 'program' mode for calculating exposure, This is because the camera is set up to assume a scene is the same as a 'grey card' (don't worry about what that is) and will underexpose were the scene is very bright - snow or sand being obvious examples. Therefore, you need a camera which enables you to adjust the exposures incrementally - x1/2, x1, x1 1/2 etc. I would suggest you try a 'bridge camera' - not a compact as that may not have the degree of control you may need, and not a DSLR as that might bring problems with dust on the sensor if you change lenses outside. All the leading manufacturers - Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, etc. - make such, but I'm not sure which come with the possibility of adding an underwater housing - so, again, go to a specialist store. I think places like Walmart should stick to food retailing, but that's a hobbyhorse of mine. I have used Olympus digital cameras for years, like them, and have had "good luck" with all of them. Although this website might be confusing because there is a lot of information, but it is well organized, so why not try it out: http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_came... Look at the Canon "A" or preferably the "S" series of point and shoot cameras. They all have "underwater" housing available. I'm sure your snow or white sand turns out color grey. In this case, you need to make some "compensation" adjustments when this happens. Take the photo with a +3 compensation so white turns out "white" and not grey. Remember the camera automatically "meters" the photo and chooses a middle tone. The problem with this is that the white turns out light grey and black may turn out dark grey. Go for the "S" series of Canon. When buying a digital camera the best place to do research is actually Flickr because they show you all the pictures and usage per camera. Look here: http://www.techroam.com/need-to-buy-a-di... |
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