720mm hand held shot......

[Guest Salvatore]

Only got a bridge camera as simply can not afford a Dslr at this moment in time....

Thought I'd share some of my basic cameras endearing qualities.

#1 shot is tree where heron chicks had their nest......

#2 shot is hand held and from exactly the same spot.

Let you guys be the judge.

[colinb]

not sure what we are judging here? Bridge cameras are fine (I have owned a couple myself) but to be honest they do have their limitations.

[Guest Salvatore]

to be honest they do have their limitations

Fair point but so do Dslrs

Not the equipment that is but their pilots

I see name dropping on here often but I'm not seduced by the claim the picture was taken with such a such a thing but judge the picture I see before me.

Surprisingly often poor considering the expense of the equipment used.

All I was pointing out here is that fun can be had on a budget :)

[fuzzyedges]

Although expense will give you more features and possably better optics its not the be all of photography

As far as images are concerned expertise will win hands down

A compact in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing will 98% of the time beat someone who wears expensive photographic jewelry

A bridge is more than able to produce stunning images although they arnt all that cheap these days

I congratulate you on the sharpness of the hand held image I would have all on to see them at that distance let alone focus

[Guest Salvatore]

I don't want anyone thinking I'm anti Dslr......far from it.

I'd give almost anything to be able to play with some better equipment but.....

It's not going to happen so I have to make the most of what I have......

Knowledge :)

[Guest]

that zoomed shot is very clear for hand held. I struggle with the supper zoom on my compact as its hard to hold still

[Black Pearl]

Bridge cameras are fantastic photographic tools. I'll bet many DSLR users would love a 24x zoom with a constant f2.8 max aperture....actually most would like the F2.8 bit on any zoom let alone one that cranks up to 600mm. There will be many who would give bits of their body away for a 1200mm lens that costs £400......and......one that will focus to zero - photograph of your finger print on the front element....no problem sir.

The only thing that limits a bridge camera is the very reason they exist - small sensors. Fuji have shoved a 4x crop sensor from their X range in one but in general they're tiny. That said as technology improves, sensors get better and noise levels are more carefully controlled the bridge range will become more and more viable as the only camera you might need.

[colinb]

I'm still not sure what we are discussing but whilst you say this was hand held I'm assuming your bridge has some sort of anti vibration system?

The picture below I shot using a Fuji bridge with a 14x zoom on full zoom whilst on a tripod back in 2005 and as it was manufactured before any form of vibration was used using a zoom at this length hand held would pretty much be a waste of time as the shutter speed would simply not be fast enough compared to a dslr.

Moving forward 7 years and today's cameras enable you to take these kind of shots which is good, but it would have been nice to see the exif info so we could see (and using your terms) if it was the equipment or the pilot.

[Leon]

hmmmm, interesting ...the HS20 has equivalent to 720mm if I recall?....my fz45 has 24x (600m) zoom, you have seen some of my results with the kingfishers ect, a few weeks ago I saw a guy with a d7000 fumbling around with 3 400mm lens with 2x optical converter, he said he had never got more than a bluur of a kingfisher, again maybe down to the user, but till I have a lotto win I'll just keep upgrading to the next bridge, FZ200 hopefully next year :)

[Phil]

I have to agree that for the distance the 2nd shot is excellent but, according to the EXIF the 1st shot was taken at a focal length of 4.2mm. That is bloody wide so the perspective we're looking at here is not how it would have looked to the naked eye. A shot at 50mm would have given us a more natural comparison.

[Black Pearl]

It's 4.2mm only because its a bridge camera with a small sensor. It equates to 24mm in 35mm terms.

[Phil]

It's 4.2mm only because its a bridge camera with a small sensor. It equates to 24mm in 35mm terms.

I must stop getting involved :)

[Guest Salvatore]

No trick photography guys.....that's really not my cup of tea.

What you see in the first shot is almost as close as actually being there.

I may have taken a slightly wider angle simply to force a few extra trees into the scene so people would get a better idea as to the forest setting and the clearing the nest was in.

The cameras inbuilt image stabilization has to be one of the best I've come across in a bridge camera and often saves time setting up a tripod.

Yes it's no Dslr beater but the point of the exercise was (as I've stated previously) simply to show how budget photography can be fun.