hetismij

Manuel, a lot depends on what the widest angle is on the other cameras how far they can zoom.
You can crop your photos, and also make great panoramas by stitching two or more photos together.
And I'm sure your commapnions will be happy to share their "zoomed in" photos with you. It isn't a competition is it? Better to take a camera you are really confident with than buy a new one just to get more zoom, and then find out you don't know how to use it properly or decide it has features which really annoy you.

goingconcern

Is the Powershot S3 available in North America and if so is their an extended name. Thanks eds

rkkwan

The current model is Canon Powershot S5 IS. The previous one is Canon Powershot S3 IS.

Zermatt2

Photography is serious hobby of mine. I've had Minolta film SLRs for close to 25 years, but 3 years ago, I bought my first digital camera. It was a compact Canon G3. I really liked it. I eventually bought the Nikon D70 in mid 2004. I love that camera, but late last year, I upgraded to the Nikon D200. If you want take photo lessons and change lenses, then the SLR is what you should get. If you don't have time for lessons before your trip, just put the camera in fully automatic mode, and that should work very well for you. For any camera, I wouldn't bother with the digital zoom figures....you can do that with software after you take the picture. Optical zoom is what is important. If you go with Nikon, then the D50 or D40 would be a great camera for you. Canon also makes very good digital cameras.

hopscotch

Many thanks to all who have contributed. I learned a lot, especially from rkkwan.

I am considering the Nikon D40 for my trip to Europe in April. How does it measure up in quality and price this year?

basingstoke2

The Panasonic FZ18 has a Leica lens and an 18X optical zoom that begins at 28mm. It is 8.1 mpxs.It can be used in JPEG or RAW. In the US it can be found at about $300. Most reviews rate it at the top of the PS super zooms.

The Olympus 560 UZ has similar zoom specs to the FZ18 but costs a bit more and most reviews rate it below the FZ18. It too will shoot in JPEG and RAW but the RAW is very slow. That seems to be the problem of the xD media card that is slower than the SD. There is a new xD card coming out soon that will be faster.

Olympus will be shipping its new 570 UZ model in a week or two. Its zoom will begin at 28mm or maybe even 26 and will be a 20X optical. It will have an additional "helper" processer to speed things up a bit and an increase from 8 to 10 mpxs. It will retail at $499.

hopscotch

basingstoke2,

Thank you.

I have three Olympus SLR series OM 1 & 2 film cameras and have loved them for decades but my local camera store is pushing Nikon for digital. Says that Olympus just hasn't got it together with digital. I'll take another look.

I am a digital amateur, having only used an Olympus FE-100 P&S. I liked the results but now feel that it is time to move up to digital SLR.

Also, the camera store owner tells me that focal length for film and digital are different. He says that the effective FL for a digital is 1.6 times more than for a film camera. In other words, a 20 mm lens comes out as a 32 mm in digital. I like to take some wide angle shots now and then and have always carried a 22 mm lens. I figure that I need a 14 mm on a digital to get down to that. There are some zooms that start at 12 mm but they are high dollar. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Thank you.

basingstoke2

The cameras I mentioned are "point and shoot" not SLR. I find this kind of camera great for travel since with my old film SLR I would drag along several lenses and that got old. With the new dSLRs you can expect to pay plenty for the lenses, paricularly those where the drives and IS are in the lense rather the camera body e.g., Nikon 40. 28mm or maybe 26mm is as wide angle as you are going to get on a consumer super zoom point and shoot, although I believe there are aftermarket wide angle adapters available. Most consumer digital zooms are at about 35-38mm at their widest, so 28mm is quite an improvement. Also many of the point shoots allow you stitch frames to achieve a panoramic effect.

rkkwan

Actual angle of view depends on focal length of the lens and the size of the sensor.

Nikon's consumer dSLR uses what they call the DX size sensor (16x24mm), and has a 1.5x crop factor compared to 35mm film (24x36mm). So, to get the same angle of view as 22mm on film, you need a 15mm lens. Nikon has lens and Sigma, Tamron, Tokina also have ultrawide zooms that cover it.

Olympus uses the "Four-Thirds" sensor, which is 12x18mm, and has a 2x crop factor. To get same angle of view as 22mm on film, you need a 11mm lens. Olympus has a 7-14mm, a 11-22mm, as well as a 8mm fish-eye for the Four-Thirds.

rkkwan

One thing about the Four-Thirds that's used by Panasonic, Leica and Olympus. Because of the smaller sensor sizes, their cameras and lenses can be made slightly smaller than the dSLRs from other manufacturers. Disadvantage is that because of the smaller sensor sizes, noise at high ISO is worse.

Nikon and Canon are the most popular brands for dSLR, both with a huge arsenal of lens and accessories. However, neither has in-camera stabilization. To get IS, you need to buy a lens with built-in IS, which tend to cost more (a lot more in the past, but prices have come down). Other brands like Pentax, Sony and Olympus has in-camera IS.

basingstoke2

Everything that rkkwan says is correct. However, to make it easy, the manufacturer's focal length figures are stated in roughly 35mm film camera equivelents. Thus when the Panasonic states its FZ18 zoom is 28-504mm, that is the range of a film camera zoom lens you would need to get the same range built into the FZ18.

As far as sensor size, noise and noise reduction programs - everything is a compromise.

wasleys

<i>I am considering the Nikon D40 for my trip to Europe in April. How does it measure up in quality and price this year?</i>

April is next month. That's not long.

Stop fretting about quality. Within a given price range and camera type there is little real difference for most people.

Decide how much you want to spend. Decide what you want to do with it in terms of type of photography (eg landscape, people, outdoors, indoors). Give careful consideration to the maximum angle of view you want, to me wide is much more important than long as you can always crop.

Then go to a good dealer and talk about what you want. <u>Hold different cameras, look through their viewfinders, try their screens outside in bright light, use the controls</u>. See which one feels best.

If you're not careful you'll end up buying the 'best' camera based on the opinions of others but which you're not comfortable with. And you'll leave it so late that you won't be able to learn how to use it and get some practice in before your trip.

basingstoke2

In addition to the good things wasleys is saying, remember that when you buy an SLR you are buying into a system of lenses and accessories. Prices of these can vary quite a bit between brands so be sure that you are comfortable with the entire system, not just the camera body. Not all dSLRs are backward compatible with its brands lenses. For example, Nikon 40/40x mostly no. Pentax mostly yes.