Spec me a camera for my next eclipse trip

Quartz · 30 Mar 2016 at 11:24

I'm just back from seeing the eclipse in Indonesia and my camera - a Pentax WG-1 - was wholly inadequate not only for the eclipse itself but for the rest of the tour. I knew it was going to be inadequate for the eclipse itself but was expecting it to be good for the rest.

So I need a better camera for next year's eclipse tour. Unfortunately, I was last into cameras over 20 years ago, and I know that I really don't know cameras these days.

It absolutely must be able to take a solar filter for photos pre- and post-eclipse. It must be fast to start up (a real problem when photographing butterflies). Good battery life. A good big viewer on the back. Must be mountable on a tripod and have a remote shutter control. Must cope with dust / desert conditions / trekking (Grand Canyon, Atacama Desert, etc). Must be easily portable. Must be able to take multiple photos rapidly, for wildlife / Diamond Ring as well as long exposures to capture the corona during the eclipse itself. Should have a decent optical zoom. Big sensor. Changeable rechargeable batteries. And I'm sure there's more I need - you tell me!

Fancy gewgaws are nice, but for most things, I really just want to point, compose, zoom, and shoot.

I would note that out of 17 people on the trip, four had Canon cameras that failed.

Andy90 · 30 Mar 2016 at 12:26

Well we all want those nice things in a camera too.

You've left out a few important things.

How much do you have to spend? Without that figure it would be difficult to spec a camera.

Do you want an DSLR? A Mirrorless system? Compact? Bridge Camera?

Quartz · 30 Mar 2016 at 13:07

Andy90 said:
How much do you have to spend?

How much do I need to spend?

Do you want an DSLR? A Mirrorless system? Compact? Bridge Camera?

Why should I care about any of those? What are their advantages and disadvantages with respect to my requirements?

Andy90 · 30 Mar 2016 at 14:06

Well you can spend a fortune. If you've only got a few hundred to spend or a few thousand, that dictates what people are going to suggest and what camera you will end up with.

Why should you care about DLSR etc? Again we could recommend kit from any of those types of systems that would fulfil your requirements.

Do you want interchangeable lenses?, portability?, an all in one bridge type camera? Again it all makes a difference on what cameras will be recommended.

englishpremier · 30 Mar 2016 at 14:36

To me this seems more like finding a camera with those features first then figuring out if you can afford it.

I know it's no good to you because of the slow startup time, but I took my A7 to some of the harshes places in South America (including the atacama), and did thousands of off road motorcycle miles with it. It's come back all in one piece without ingesting loads of dust.

D.P. · 30 Mar 2016 at 16:16

Sounds like a Canon 7Dmk2 or Nikon D7200 or D500 would be perfect. Fast start-up, big battery life and decent weather proofing rules out mirror-less IMO.
A decent DSLR like I suggested will be robust, give you like 800-1000 photos per battery, happily live in dusty environments, instantly take photos with killer auto-focus, have big sensors and stunning image quality and can shoot at high FPS for action shots.

Caracus2k · 30 Mar 2016 at 16:43

It sounds like you would be best served with either a dslr or mirroless system. When you say a number of canons 'failed' on your trip, what models? My 6d and more recently my 7d mk2 have been all over the world from humid jungle to sandy deserts and with some user care have remained fully functional.

Like most things buying a camera is a compromise between a number of competing factors e.g. Price, weight, features ease of use etc. The op has made a wish list but without some defined parameters its hard to give solid advice

I would however provisionally recommend the 7d mkii, fast relatively light body with excellent focusing, good weather sealing and a large library of interchangeable lenses

Lens wise consider the 17-55 f2.8 (great lens but not the best weather sealing) and the 55-250 is stm (ditto - good lens bit not the most robust). For wide angle look at either the 10-22mm usm or the 10-18mm stm. If you have more ££££ and want better more robust lenses look at the 'L' (red ring) lenses (there more suited to the full frame bodies however and can cost £££).

Quartz · 30 Mar 2016 at 17:41

Andy90 said:
Why should you care about DLSR etc? Again we could recommend kit from any of those types of systems that would fulfil your requirements.

Indeed, but the manner in which the camera takes the photos isn't particularly important to me. Unless you convince me otherwise.

Do you want interchangeable lenses?

Not especially. I'd prefer that the camera do everything itself. I'm not even an amateur photographer, I just want something that will take the photos I want to take.

englishpremier said:
To me this seems more like finding a camera with those features first then figuring out if you can afford it.

Well put.

Caracus2k said:
When you say a number of canons 'failed' on your trip, what models?

Sorry, I didn't make note of that.

Something else: a number of the others' cameras had real problems going from air-conditioned hotels and busses to the humid outdoors. They steamed up inside.

D.P. · 30 Mar 2016 at 19:34

All cameras will have difficulty coping with changing environments. Going from Cool air-conditioned room to the warm humid outside will cause fogging in any camera. The solution is to make gradual changes so the camera gets acclimated.

Also the camera you specific doesn't exist. Every photographer in the world would live a magic camera that will always take photos that they want. unfortunately, the technology simply isn't there. You best bet would be a high end DSLR that will get things right more often than not, and then invest the time in to learning how to force the camera to achieve what you want an even higher percentage of the time.