CountryFile

[Kymba]

Does anyone else watch this on a Sunday Morning?
I have become totally addicted to this programme, I find it fascinating and really informative.
This morning they had Chris Packham on showing you how to get the perfect Wildlife Photo by getting the Light and setting right, also apparently if taking a photo of a Insect or small lizard/slowworm etc you focus on its eye and get down to its level rather then looking down on it..
I learn something fascinating and new every week

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kymba

Does anyone else watch this on a Sunday Morning?
I have become totally addicted to this programme, I find it fascinating and really informative.
This morning they had Chris Packham on showing you how to get the perfect Wildlife Photo by getting the Light and setting right, also apparently if taking a photo of a Insect or small lizard/slowworm etc you focus on its eye and get down to its level rather then looking down on it..
I learn something fascinating and new every week

I used to watch it but i dont have the time these days , I work one in two weekends and if i'm not working , I'm generally either out photographing or hard at work on the computer - or on wab of course

talking of wildlife photography there used to be a series on satelite called "wildlife photographer" featuring andy rouse - this was how he met his partner tracey rich who is principally a film maker and producer. They dont make it anymore but periodically there are reruns on discovery - also I think you can buy the dvds

and talking of wildlife tv - tonight 9pm on bbc 2 - deer diaries with simon king (basically the best deer footage from last years autumn watch) followed by a ten minuite short with gordon strachan photographing sea eagles on the ilse of mull

[Kymba]

The Autumn watch deer Rut was brilliant to watch. i will be watching it again tonight
Just sat here laughing at Jo Brand on CountryFile taking photo's of various Wildlife. She is so funny at times.. the swans she was terrified of and she took a photo of some deers jumping up at a tree. Only to find she didn't have her digital camera turned on!!!!
I need to get a camera as mine is useless.. Chris packham reckons you can get digital ones with a built in maccro. which is meant to give you better photo's. Is this right??

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kymba

The Autumn watch deer Rut was brilliant to watch. i will be watching it again tonight
Just sat here laughing at Jo Brand on CountryFile taking photo's of various Wildlife. She is so funny at times.. the swans she was terrified of and she took a photo of some deers jumping up at a tree. Only to find she didn't have her digital camera turned on!!!!
I need to get a camera as mine is useless.. Chris packham reckons you can get digital ones with a built in maccro. which is meant to give you better photo's. Is this right??

hes refering to what are known as bridge cameras such as the fuji S7500 and the Panasonic MZ50 etc these normally go for around 300 or so notes and will have decent macro capabilities - if you look at the photos by matt xyz and gill catton (among others) in our galleries you will see the sort of thing these cameras are capable of.

The panasonic MZ series is the one most often recomended on here - but specifically for macro I tend to tink that the fuji S series has the edge, although the MZ series are probably the better alround cameras

If you got really into it you would want a DSLR which start at arround 400 notes but you are then looking at another 300 or so for a dedicated macro lens as well.

For occasional use you can also get smaller digi compacts with reasonable macro - my fuji F10 which is my walking arround camera will go down to 5cm in macro mode - this has now been replaced by the F11 and is available for arround 200 notes.

[Kymba]

EEks!!!!!! Didn't realise they were so Dear!!!!
Gonna have to save up for months to afford them prices
Any cheaper good cameras for a Novice????

[nightshade]

I love Country File,always good content and an excellent
Weather Forecast

[eeyore]

the panasonic MZ7 is a good bit of kit - it goes for arround 180 notes.

you can get digital camera much cheaper but they may be a false economy as they will not last as well or do everything you want to do and if you spend say 70 notes on one one year then the same again next year , then the same again ..... then in a couple of years you could have had a decent camera for the same price.

two avenues that may be worth exploring however are

a) digital depot often have good deals on factory reconditioned kit which is often considerably cheaper than new

and

b) it is possible to get good deals on second hand stuff either from dealers or from ebay - for instance I recently paid £80 for a canon G4 - this is a very well specified bridge camera which was state of the art about 3 years ago - it only has four megapixels but this is perfectly adequate for most applications and is a better deal than a cheap but new make.

In terms of dealers it is worth checking out mifsuds, SRS, T4 camera, Camtech etc get a copy of amateur photographer , a weekly magazine which has oodles of adverts in the back

second hand compacts have minimal value so you might be able to get a good deal - and if you want someone to give you a second opinion on the worth of a specific one , or even to come along to the buy feel free to give me a shout.