DLSR or High end ?

[Fr0dders]

having just got back from holiday, i was playing about with my powershot A70

we went to south lakes wild animal park. And on several ocassions i found myself wanting in the lens department. the 3 x optical zoom isnt enough. Now ill be the first to admit im an amateur, and am still only learning how to shoot manually

so my question is this, would i be better going for something like the Sony H5 or Canon S3

or would that be a waste of money as im just going to want a full on 350d / D50 ?

i do like the look of the D50, seems to be much cheaper than the 350d, and uses cheaper memory too (SD)

oh and ill be the first to admit, the pro the animal park had in with his EOS 1d made me very jealous !

 

[SDK^]

If I were you I would go for a long zoom point and shoot camera.
A D-SLR with a decent telephoto lens is going to cost a lot of money and also time spent tweaking the images to get them sharp with vibrant colour.

 

[Fr0dders]

am i googling for the right thing, or is a lens that has any type of zoom comparable to 12x optical going to cost like £800 ?

 

[freebooter]

I think there is a Nikon superzoom (18-200?) that is supposed to be the best of the SLR superzooms and has anti-shake but I think it is very expensive and in short supply. Superzooms from sigma/tamron etc can be got much cheaper and I would be surprised if they are worse in quality than the long zooms on all-in-one cameras, although they will have smaller apertures.

I have been thinking the same as you re all-in-one versus slr + long zoom. The new Sony or Pentax with in body anti-shake plus a cheap long zoom sounds good and gives grater flexibility in the future if you want it but will cost more than an all-in-one.

I am always saved from making a decision by remembering how poor I am and that I don't make full use of the cameras I have

 

[SDK^]

am i googling for the right thing, or is a lens that has any type of zoom comparable to 12x optical going to cost like £800 ?

The bottom line is :

D-SLR
The best image quality but with a long telephoto lens it will be big and heavy. You'll also need to process all of your images on a computer to get the best out of them.
An very basic setup will cost as below

Nikon D50, lenses : 18-55mm and 55-200mm : £580
1GB memory card : £25

Total : £605


Point & Shoot - High end
Image quality is okay but does suffer from high noise; this is especially the case with long zoom lens cameras as you need to use a higher ISO to maintain a fast shutter speed. The advantage is they are small, light and much cheaper. Images taken are also processed in camera to produce a sharp and well saturated photo; this saves time processing them yourself.
A typical long zoom point and shoot costs

Canon Powershot S3 IS : £329
Batteries : £8.00
1GB Memory Card : £25

Total : £362


It's up to you to decide if you want to spend the extra and invest the time to learn and process the images from a D-SLR.
As I said in my post above – for occasion holiday snaps, sports photos and nature park visits I would go for the long zoom point and shoot camera.

 

[Ak!ta]

As above + the Resell value of a DSLR is going to be higher than a point and shoot (if you decide to sell at some point).
I got my D50 couple months back and im loving it - a lot more versatility than point and shoots ....

 

[wsurfa]

sigma 50-500 is the best bargain long telezoom. on a d50/d70 it will appear to be 75-750 due to the cropping that the sensor creates.

It's not great in low light due to the relatively small aperture, but is very good of light is decent.

this was taken from the edge of the reservoir on a slightly dull day

It's been good for taking shots of rugby games as well

Unfortuately the lens lust that develops when owning a dslr is costly.
Some of the better superzoom compacts can give great results - the latest sony H5 or H2, the panasonic superzooms etc