Supose I couldn't afford a DSLR.

[warehouseman56]

Hi,
I am new to photography, I tend to use my mobile phone. I realise that I need a decent camera now, I have the oportunity to get some decent wildlife snaps.
A week ago I came across an adder, she didn't back away much, just coiled at the base of a tree and watched me. So I grabbed my moby, set the zoom to max and shook like a leaf.
I am not going to show you the results. There will be a forum set up exclusively to allow you to express your contempt for the newbie.
I am looking for something around £300 are there any decent compacts out there?
Colin

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by warehouseman56

Hi,
I am new to photography, I tend to use my mobile phone. I realise that I need a decent camera now, I have the oportunity to get some decent wildlife snaps.
A week ago I came across an adder, she didn't back away much, just coiled at the base of a tree and watched me. So I grabbed my moby, set the zoom to max and shook like a leaf.
I am not going to show you the results. There will be a forum set up exclusively to allow you to express your contempt for the newbie.
I am looking for something around £300 are there any decent compacts out there?
Colin

You'd be just as well to go for the likes of an FZ50 by Panasonic. I know my FZ30 is a lovely camera with handsome results at both macro end and 420 mil

[svenrufus]

I've got an Olympus Camedia Ultrazoom C750 which is a few years old now, but I know someone with a more recent version from the Ultrazoom family. I am very impressed with it. Don't know what the latest resolution they offer is, but mine, about 4 years ago was 6Mpx for about £300 (hard to know exactly as I bought it in Gibraltar). The zoom has 10x optical and the macro and super macro functions are fantastic, a great toy for a playful amateur. I haven't posted any good stuff I have on the galleries, but can't speak highly enough of what I got. If you want to see some of my results, PM me and I will send some stuff for your perusal.
Happy Shopping!
Cheers
Sven

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by warehouseman56

Hi,
I am new to photography, I tend to use my mobile phone. I realise that I need a decent camera now, I have the oportunity to get some decent wildlife snaps.
A week ago I came across an adder, she didn't back away much, just coiled at the base of a tree and watched me. So I grabbed my moby, set the zoom to max and shook like a leaf.
I am not going to show you the results. There will be a forum set up exclusively to allow you to express your contempt for the newbie.
I am looking for something around £300 are there any decent compacts out there?
Colin

Hiya Colin. Yep Boddie is right-Panasonic FZ30 or FZ50. I have the FZ50 now and still learning a lot but I'm getting some images that I'm pleased with.

[balkantrek]

After months of deliberating and reading a whole score of reviews and recommendations I finally purchased my new compact digital camera last month. I work as a mountain and nature guide in Bulgaria and wanted to find something below £300 for taking general landscape and nature shots...anything that I come across during the day including flowers, butterflies, beetles, spiders, reptiles and amphibians, and perhaps from time to time the odd mammal or bird if I am lucky.

Anyway, I finally chose the Canon Powershot S3 IS. It seemed to fit the bill...compact, ultra zoom, excellent macro, image stabilization, and below £300...I actually got mine for under £250 by searching online websites...which left me some spare cash from my budget to buy a couple of large memory cards.

So I have just finsihed guiding my latest walking and wildlife group in Bulgaria's Rodopi Mountains, during which I used the camera for the first time. And my verdict....excellent! I came back with an lovely collection of photos, both landscapes and wildlife...including some great shots of orchids, lizards, salamanders, butterflies and spiders.

Of course, this was just a start, the camera is packed with features and possibilities, and I have only just begun to use it...but it certainly seems to be a great camera for anyone who wants a well-priced, good quality compact digital camera for all round nature and landscape photography.

[warehouseman56]

Wow!
Thaks to you all. Boddie and Wild Woman did you really get those pics from your FZ50? That would be superb for me (checked out your galleries) and Boddie's pics of Snake Pass made me wanna cry, I lived there, on Mam Tor and Kinder Scout a lifetime ago. Brought it all back.
Thanks fellas, for the positive advice.
Colin

[eccles]

A big problem with many superzooms is that the macro facility is only available at the short end of the zoom. This means that you have to get ridiculously close to get any sort of magnification of the subject. Does anyone know how to get 2" away from a butterfly before it flies away, and without casting a shadow? And you'd better have good light as well as the onboard flash won't work at that distance either. I used to have a Fuji S602Z which had a supermacro mode like this, but at least it had a tolerable single macro that gave ok magnification for medium sized butterflies from about 4" away, and you could still use partial zoom within the macro mode.
I replaced my camera with a Canon S3, and what a let down. Single macro could be bettered just by focussing close at full telephoto, and using supermacro needed an awful lot of luck to be able to get 1" away!
But.. the Canon's closest focus at full telephoto is about 3 feet, and a large butterfly will almost fill the frame which is perfect if you want to include a bit of the habitat. And it ain't bad either for shooting dragonflies out on that reed, three feet from the water's edge. So how to get macro? I got the Canon 500D close up lens plus the adapter to fix it to the camera. Shooting almost 1:1 35mm equivalent from 12" away? Flash no problem either? Bring it on. That combo is a great bit of kit for anything from small blue upwards. I also have the Canon 1.5x teleconverter, which is great for birds, and even better, I can stack the two lenses together and get decent close ups from 3 feet away. You need a steady hand to do this though, even with the camera's image stabilisation.
I'll concede that for image quality the Panasonic FZ50 is just about the best compact superzoom around, but it's a lot more expensive that the Canon. It's bigger too, and high iso noise is worse.
With the new hack that enables shooting raw mode, I wouldn't swap my Canon for any other superzoom.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by warehouseman56

Hi,
I am new to photography, I tend to use my mobile phone. I realise that I need a decent camera now, I have the oportunity to get some decent wildlife snaps.
A week ago I came across an adder, she didn't back away much, just coiled at the base of a tree and watched me. So I grabbed my moby, set the zoom to max and shook like a leaf.
I am not going to show you the results. There will be a forum set up exclusively to allow you to express your contempt for the newbie.
I am looking for something around £300 are there any decent compacts out there?
Colin

I notice that jessops currently have both the nikon D50 and pentax 100D DSLRs on offer at under 300 notes - which is cheaper than the average bridge camera - this might be worth looking at as getting a DSLR gives you the freedom to add more lenses as you can afford them (new or second hand)

if you go this route do yourself a favour and get the nikon cos the pentax 100d is bobbins and their future as a camera manufactuer is uncertain since they merged with hoya

[eccles]

You can get a Canon S3 for £220 plus postage if you shop around, or a Fuji S5600 for just over half that. Agreed a Nikon D50 will potentially provide better results, particularly at higher iso settings, but the OP is saying that he can't afford one. To get similar zoom capability as the S3 (36-432mm 35mm equivalent), would cost an awful lot more with a dSLR setup, Nikon or any other.

[eccles]

Correction: the Jessops offer is for the Nikon D40. With the £60 cashback from Nikon, it IS a very good offer. But it won't do it all like the Panasonic FZ50 or Canon S3, or whichever bridge camera you choose, without adding more lenses. You pays your money.....