Birding binoculars

[Another Kevin]

Now for my next toy, a camera. I am not looking for a camera for backpacking, I already have 2 point and shoot cameras. I'm looking to make the jump from taking pictures to photography. Admittedly I am way more ignorant about cameras than binoculars, they seem a bit more complex.

Here is what I'm looking for:

Obviously I would like the highest quality/megapixels I can get for my dollar. I would like to be able to send photos to my phone. Most importantly since I am a novice, I would like a camera that is user friendly for a beginner, that I can upgrade with different lenses, filters, etc., as I learn more and become better at photography. If anyone know of this magic camera please let me know.

Contrary opinion: I've been trying to jump from picture-taking to photography for years. (It seems that about once a year, someone stumbles on a picture of mine on Flickr and buys it to use it in a tourist brochure or something, so maybe I'm sort of a photographer.)

I know what to do with a DSLR, but I'd never pay the weight penalty to take one backpacking. They are just too darned heavy for the benefit that they give. I hike, and photograph, with a higher-end point&shoot (my current one is a Canon PowerShot SX150IS that I got on closeout). For a P&S, good optical zoom is much more important than megapixels. For super-high-resolution landscapes, the kind you can blow up and cover a whole wall with, I take a lot of individual frames and stitch them. I don't use the pano function in the camera for landscapes I care about. I use an open-source stitching program called Hugin, and tune the control points and exposure matches carefully. For the most part, the seams don't show.

Here's one from last weekend to show what stitching can do. (Click through and download the original size to see how it would enlarge.)


The big thing I miss with a DSLR is the ability to use filters. I would love to have a P&S on which I could put a haze filter (for better penetration on long range shots), a polarizer (for a more interesting sky), a neutral-density (for those waterfall shots), or an amber filter (for those stark Ansel Adams-style monochromes). The better glass that I'd get from interchangeable fixed-focus lenses would be a benefit mostly in low light, which isn't that often a problem Out There. (OK, it would also get me better definition in some shots, but most viewers don't notice...) A polarizer would have really helped add punch to the sky in that pic above. I would have taken off the haze filter because in that particular image I really liked the soft quality of the light.

I find having a macro focus capability is really useful, so you'd want to look for a camera that has one. More and more often, I find all the landscapes tend to look the same: mountains are basically piles of rocks, and one rock pile is very like another. But there's endless variety in the small things. On the same day as I took the landscape above, the Vernonia noveboracensis was in bloom, but without being able to macro-focus, I wouldn't have been able to photograph it properly.


Something lightweight that can serve as a tripod is also useful. One possibility is the TrailPix.

Photography is mostly about being where the shot is when the light is right. I've even sold the odd cell phone picture or two.

Sure, it's not what it could be technically, but the quality of the light was magical. And on that particular walk, a cell phone was what I had with me. I hadn't brought a camera. That moment of mysterious light wasn't going to last.

[imscotty]

Kevin, I use a Sony RX100 camera. It seems to be a nice compromise between quality and weight. I bought this accessory here so that I could add a polarizing filter to this camera...

https://www.amazon.com/RX100-Quick-C.../dp/B00OWG0IAA

Worked out pretty well.

[Another Kevin]

Kevin, I use a Sony RX100 camera. It seems to be a nice compromise between quality and weight. I bought this accessory here so that I could add a polarizing filter to this camera...

https://www.amazon.com/RX100-Quick-C.../dp/B00OWG0IAA

Worked out pretty well.

Yeah. I shouldn't have cheaped out. The camera body and lens tube on the SX150 seem to be specifically designed to prevent attaching any sort of optical accessory.

[Pony]

Well, I am a beginner. Pretty much every picture I have taken has been with a point and shoot or with my phone. My intention is to get a camera that I can upgrade with better lenses and accessories as I learn more about the craft. I should clarify that I'm not necessarily looking for a backpacking camera.

That being said, I found a Canon eos rebel t5 bundle on amazon for $500. It came with 4 lenses, filters, tripods, sd cards etc, so rather than spend several months researching (as i did with my binoculars), i pulled the trigger and bought it. Didn't take me long to realize that I was in over my head, so I bought the Canon rebel T5 for dummies book, which should be here in a few days. This is something I plan on using for a while as I learn more about photography.

One important caveat; My family has been going to Ontario fishing for smallmouth for nearly 50 years. I have been going since I was in diapers, and my Dad has been going for 10 yrs before that. We always went in july as a family and stayed in a cabin and my Dad usually went back in september with his buddies and camped. As a small child I never understood why I couldn't go in the fall, but we always agreed when I was all grown up I could go with the boys. Well, life got in the way and we never made the trip. Two years ago I nearly lost my Dad. So after he recovered, we decided that we were gonna quit wasting time and do it. Dad turned 70 this year and I will turn 41. We leave in 8 days and we couldn't be more excited. I want to make sure I can get some great photos to remember this trip. Life is precious.