Cameras you want for your NEXT cruise.

[Sam D.]

zackiedawg - yes and I will have fun learning!

 

I have to apologize to everyone reading. There are way too many typos in my previous post. I was really tired last night.

[butchiezmom]

You are all just messing with my mind. I have no real knowledge of cameras. All I know is that we have a Point & shoot that is about 3 years old. We took it on a cruise to Alaska. We got decent photos, well at least enough to keep me from going nuts.

 

Going on another cruise this summer. I don't think I would even know what to do with a D-SLR. They look and sound so cool but although I am really computer savy, photography is not my strong suit.

 

So is there a P&S camera that we can buy that will give me some nice photos. I am not blowing them up over 8 by 10 and usually smaller. Want something that will work in low light. Something that eliminates by shaky hand. Faster shutter speed possible?

 

Cheryl

[stevefrankel]

As I've noted elsewhere on this thread, I'd opt for the Canon S95. Put it on Automatic and it's today's world's best point-and-shoot camera thanks to its very sharp lens, wide aperature (f2.0) that makes the built-in flash usually unnecessary, excellant stabilization (helps avoid blurred pictures), large sensor (sharp 8x10s), nice build quality, surprisingly good high-def video, zoom lens, $400 price and 5 oz size.

 

While I'm eagerly await delivery on a Fuji X100 at 3 times the weight, size and price, if it doesn't arrive in time for our May 29 Danube River cruise on the Uniworld River Beatrice, I'll happily just put the S95 in my pocket and take off. The only accessories I'll pack is a very light monopod/ ballhead, along with a spare battery and SDHC card.

 

And, if the X100 does arrive in time, I'll still put the S95 in my pocket where it will likely remain for the entire trip for instances where a non-pocketable, expensive, super-high quality camera may not be the best choice. Remember, as the pro's say: The best camera to use is the one you have with you.

[butchiezmom]

Thanks so much. I did find your original post after I made mine. This is really helpful for me. I appreciate your re-posting your suggestion!

 

Cheryl

[donaldsc]

[quote name=zackiedawg;28888330

 

But with the idea of living completely without a viewfinder for all of my shooting' date=' or traveling without my DSLR...no, I don't think I could ever do that, and we're on the same page there![/quote]

 

I am with you. While I could live with a good electronic eye level viewfinder, I would NEVER ever buy a camera without some sort of eye level viewfinder. It is just unnatural to take pictures while holding you camera at arm's length in front of you.

 

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

 

DON

[dileep]

My wife carries her Sony A700 with multiple lenses. I use my $300 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40 which takes good pictures with 24X zoom. You can check out my recent photos on Webshots link below.

[stevefrankel]

Thanks donaldsc for your loyalty to viewfinders.

 

Yesterday I picked up my Fuji X100 and it looks like it's everything I hoped for since it has a really nice optical viewfinders, a high quality electronic viewfinder (as good I think as the one on the Lumix GH2 that I recently sold), and a reasonably good LCD finder on the back. I went straight from the store (Samys Camera in Culver City, CA) to Marina del Rey to try it at the California Yacht Club on a bright sunny afternoon. The optical finder was impeccable showing a really bright image; the electronic finder was fair since in bright sunlight it (just as my GH2) tends to go dark), and the LCD was essentially useless as nearly all LCDs when faced with very bright sunlight and reflections off the water.

 

When I go home and uploaded the shots to my computer they were really high quality and could easily be enlarged BEYOND 8x10 (Fuji says 13x19 without noticable loss of quality).

 

Handling-wise, the camera is a (mostly) beautiful dream. It looked and handled like my Nikkormat FTN with a 1.9 50mm lens that had seen service with a military photographer in Japan in the late 1950's and I used in the 1960s. It's just as fast, light, well-balanced and quiet as a classic Nikon; and 2 club members who saw me on the docks with it stopped me and asked me admiringly what it was, how much it cost and -- even after hearing "$1200" -- asked me where they could get one.

 

There are only 2 flies in this proverbial ointment.

 

First -- just like the Nikkormat when I was working my way through college doing photography and I couldn't afford better even to shoot weddings and sports events -- it comes with only one lens (an f2.0 35mm equivalent) and that lens is not interchangeable. However I find myself enjoying the simplicity of toting only one small camera and a semi-wide angle lens; and I think I'll end up a better photographer by imposing this discipline on myself. Also, for most of the kinds of photography I enjoy, cruise photos and street photos, the 35mm lens is ideal. For the remainder I'll relay on another camera with a zoom lens and that fits in my pocket. For now it's a Canon S95 that I really enjoy. However, I blew up some photos yesterday that I took at the same time with both photos, and while both of them produced excellent results, at higher levels of enlargement the Fuji with its much larger sensor blows away the Canon. In the future, if I can get a really good buy on a used small DSLR which I can equip with one of the very light 28--270 zoom lenses that have just come out, maybe I'll pick up that also as a (gulp) third camera.

 

The second fly in the ointment is that this is definitely a camera you need to READ THE WHOLE DAMN MANUAL!!! I want to go beyond the basics and take advantage of its additional capabilities that justify its price; and so far I've put in about 5 hours of reading the manual and the better reviews to gain the info I need. The X100 is far from intuitive and quite different from the Canons and Panasonics that I've been using almost exclusively for the past five years.

 

However, with these 2 caveats, the X100 is to cameras what the Regent, Silverseas, Crystal and Seabourn ships are to cruising. All are exquisitely made and of impeccable quality. If that fits your lifestyle, don't hesitate to try a Fuji X100!

[donaldsc]

Thanks donaldsc for your loyalty to viewfinders.

 

l/QUOTE]

 

There are precious few of us Luddites left. The really hilarious thing is to watch a old folks who are not too steady to begin with taking pictures at arms length on a moving and vibrating ship. Their pictures must be a hoot.

 

DON

[pierces]

I am with you. While I could live with a good electronic eye level viewfinder, I would NEVER ever buy a camera without some sort of eye level viewfinder. It is just unnatural to take pictures while holding you camera at arm's length in front of you.

 

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

 

DON

 

Improvements in LCD technology have helped me get over being a viewfinder purist and I now own two very capable cameras with great LCDs that do not have any form of eye-level framing assist.

 

That said, I have found myself occasionally trying to raise my NEX or even the HX5V up to my eye to frame a shot. I imagine that makes me a relic of those bygone times when an optical viewfinder was the only option and I agree that it still feels more "natural".

 

On the other hand, I sometimes find myself wishing that I could forgo the excellent viewfinder and hold my A700 away from my eye while framing a shot (high, low, etc.). My next DSLR (or DSLT) will have both an eye-level viewfinder with the addition of a competent (not slow-as-molasses focusing) live-view LCD. That eye-level viewfinder may well be electronic if the specs on the upcoming A77 are correct. At 3MP with 100% coverage, it will be very near an optical viewfinder in clarity and will only have a bit of lag-time as a negative. I owned a Minolta A2 digicam a few years ago with an eye-level 1MP EVF that was light-years ahead of the competition at the time (.3MP was common in 2004..and still is). It provided real-time feedback on white-balance, exposure and included niceties like grid and histogram overlay. It was great for reviewing images in bright sunlight since the LCD on the back wasn't anywhere as good the current generation. It also offered live tethered shooting that not only let you trigger the shutter with a click or a keystroke, but saved the image directly to the attached computer. It allowed you to control everything on the camera from the software and even let you use the mouse to indicate a spot on the live image as the primary focus . I did a lot of product shots with that setup and it was a huge time-saver.

 

I know that many bemoan the aforementioned lag time as a deal-breaker for action shooting, but I shot a lot of high-school football games from the sidelines with the A2 and it worked fine once you got the timing down. Action shooting requires some prediction anyway since human reaction plus shutter delay adds up to at least the video lag (if not more). A little practice and an understanding of subject behavior makes a good EVF workable for action, though certainly not optimal. (I rather imagine the whole EVF lag thing has improved a bit in the last six years!) Since I don't shoot that much action anymore, all the overlay goodies I mentioned before plus throwing in my NEX's ability to zoom electronically for critical focus would make a 3MP EVF a desired feature rather than a compromise.

 

As usual all the pluses and minuses add up to justification for me to own multiple cameras and my favorite is still the one I have with me when I need it. :)

 

Dave

[zackiedawg]

I'm one of the bemoaners...the EVFs at least of the technology that exists to this moment in time are still not sufficient for proper bird-in-flight type action, where you are dealing with small, fast moving subjects with extremely sudden and random directional changes - the tiniest amount of lag while firing a shutter will cause you to have a sparrow in the frame one millisecond, and gone the next. So for me, optical is still the way to go, and I don't yet embrace the concept of replacing optical with electronic entirely - only when electronic can do absolutely everything identically as well as optical.

 

There is some hope I think - there may be some intriguing temporary solution or workaround that could give an optional 'burst panning' mode whereby the feed stays live continuously with no blackout or last-frame lag - with screen refresh times becoming near enough to lag-free as not, a continuous electronic feed without blackout would allow for easier tracking. Maybe something like the 5xx series dual sensor solution, where the second sensor keeps a feed from the translucent mirror, which wouldn't show accurate exposure or white balance, but would allow tracking and panning of a moving target. Or maybe something like the X100's hybrid optical/electronic overlay viewfinder merged into a DSLR. I have some hopes, but must say for now more hesitation than confidence of what's coming next - for now, the A550 and the successor A580 are absolutely 100% perfect for my shooting needs, so I have a good current cam and a good upgrade for the next year or so. If and when Sony goes all EVF, I need to hope they shock the world with an EVF that figures out the lag/panning conundrum!

[pierces]

I'm one of the bemoaners...the EVFs at least of the technology that exists to this moment in time are still not sufficient for proper bird-in-flight type action, where you are dealing with small, fast moving subjects with extremely sudden and random directional changes - the tiniest amount of lag while firing a shutter will cause you to have a sparrow in the frame one millisecond, and gone the next. So for me, optical is still the way to go, and I don't yet embrace the concept of replacing optical with electronic entirely - only when electronic can do absolutely everything identically as well as optical.

 

There is some hope I think - there may be some intriguing temporary solution or workaround that could give an optional 'burst panning' mode whereby the feed stays live continuously with no blackout or last-frame lag - with screen refresh times becoming near enough to lag-free as not, a continuous electronic feed without blackout would allow for easier tracking. Maybe something like the 5xx series dual sensor solution, where the second sensor keeps a feed from the translucent mirror, which wouldn't show accurate exposure or white balance, but would allow tracking and panning of a moving target. Or maybe something like the X100's hybrid optical/electronic overlay viewfinder merged into a DSLR. I have some hopes, but must say for now more hesitation than confidence of what's coming next - for now, the A550 and the successor A580 are absolutely 100% perfect for my shooting needs, so I have a good current cam and a good upgrade for the next year or so. If and when Sony goes all EVF, I need to hope they shock the world with an EVF that figures out the lag/panning conundrum!

 

The A77's 3MP EVF is rumored to be OLED rather than LCD (I mis-stated earlier) and as such, can theoretically refresh as fast or faster than a plasma display (600 hz +). If the image dump from the sensor is a fairly standard 30hz, it will be like looking at a Full 1080p HD video (which is only 2MP/30fps). If they manage to feed it at 60hz (the rumored max HD video rate of the new 24MP sensor) it will be a game-changer. If they can move up to 120hz (roughly double the rate at which you eyes refresh) for the next generation, the .008s frame lag will be, in my opinion, a non-issue.

 

I wonder if even Gordon Moore thought we would see digital imaging progress like it has?

 

Great time to be a photographer!

 

Dave

[zackiedawg]

I'm definitely staying open minded, but cautious. There are many issues I'd need to see resolved with the SLTs to make them a worthy replacement for my DSLRs - and I know Sony is addressing some of them...so I'm hopeful they won't make the move to entirely EVF cameras if they're not ready for prime-time. The current SLTs are too small and light - the A77 should solve that issue. The current SLT mirror is an issue for me, being a very big night photographer - the ghosting and light loss are not thrilling me - but maybe they can include a flip-up mode for night shooting. The lag/panning refresh is the biggest issue - if the viewfinder can be as you describe, especially 120htz...that might be a winner. Battery life and overheating are huge worries for me - battery life is likely addressed with the A77, but the overheating has to be tested in real-world conditions before I'll feel confident in that one (I've personally seen an A55 overheat during stills shooting side by side with my A550, so I definitely have reservations!)...but the specs on the A35 showing 29min video recording (I don't want or need video, but that's telling of how the sensor handles heat) are way up over the A33/55, so maybe they've figured that one out finally. Of course, I'd expect semi-pro controls, at least as good as the A580 or A700, and some weatherproofing would be nice.

 

I do look forward to the camera hitting the street and seeing if it can meet the hopes and promises...especially if it is going to be the official death of Sony DSLRs which I love.

[TheOldBear]

I'm one of the bemoaners...the EVFs at least of the technology that exists to this moment in time are still not sufficient for proper bird-in-flight type action, where you are dealing with small, fast moving subjects with extremely sudden and random directional changes - the tiniest amount of lag while firing a shutter will cause you to have a sparrow in the frame one millisecond, and gone the next. So for me, optical is still the way to go, and I don't yet embrace the concept of replacing optical with electronic entirely - only when electronic can do absolutely everything identically as well as optical.

 

There is some hope I think - there may be some intriguing temporary solution or workaround that could give an optional 'burst panning' mode whereby the feed stays live continuously with no blackout or last-frame lag - with screen refresh times becoming near enough to lag-free as not, a continuous electronic feed without blackout would allow for easier tracking. Maybe something like the 5xx series dual sensor solution, where the second sensor keeps a feed from the translucent mirror, which wouldn't show accurate exposure or white balance, but would allow tracking and panning of a moving target. Or maybe something like the X100's hybrid optical/electronic overlay viewfinder merged into a DSLR. I have some hopes, but must say for now more hesitation than confidence of what's coming next - for now, the A550 and the successor A580 are absolutely 100% perfect for my shooting needs, so I have a good current cam and a good upgrade for the next year or so. If and when Sony goes all EVF, I need to hope they shock the world with an EVF that figures out the lag/panning conundrum!

 

Bird in flight pictures are popular over on the DPReview Panasonic forum [Pix taken with FZ50 and FZ30 cameras, often with aux teleconvertors].

 

Remember, unless you have an old Canon Pellix or EOS RT, your SLR also has a shutter delay - the mirror needs to get out of the way before the shutter can fire. Back in the film days, this was an enduring reason for separate viewfinders [Rangefinder, TLR] so that you did not miss any fleeting change in the subject.

 

It will be a while before technology eliminates the lag from the brain to the shutter button [new technology replacement spine and nerves?] ;-)

 

I believe that some Casio cameras already do a full resolution burst, triggered when you bring the shutter to the first detent for focus - it's only saved once the shutter is clicked.

[zackiedawg]

Bird in flight pictures are popular over on the DPReview Panasonic forum [Pix taken with FZ50 and FZ30 cameras, often with aux teleconvertors].

 

Indeed - I shot birds, and birds in flight, for several years with an ultrazoom using an electronic viewfinder. It's possible, but it isn't easy, convenient, or as successful with as high a hit rate and the ability to track certain types of birds of smaller sizes and closing distance.

 

Remember, unless you have an old Canon Pellix or EOS RT, your SLR also has a shutter delay - the mirror needs to get out of the way before the shutter can fire.

 

The problem with electronic viewfinders isn't the shutter delay...it's the lag delay in the screen showing what you're shooting. When you use an EVF in burst mode, the shutter fires, and the EVF shows a quick image from a few milliseconds ago of the last frame you shot...each time the shutter fires another of the burst sequence, the EVF shows you the successive 'last frame' taken - in other words, you are seeing a slideshow in fast motion of what you just shot a few milliseconds ago, rather than an actual live real-time view of the subject. When a DSLR fires the shutter, the OVF blacks out for a millisecond or two, like a blinking eyelid, before restoring the real-time optical view between blinks. Every time the view of the bird comes back to the OVF, it's a real-time view of the bird...every time an electronic viewfinder returns a view of the bird, it's an electronic image of where the bird was the last time you shot. When you're in the process of panning a moving target that is all of 5 inches long going 35mph with a 500mm lens, with an EVF you won't know the target has begun to turn or drop altitude until you see the last frame you shot showing the bird down at the bottom of the frame at an angle - it already happened, and you're now going to try to catch up with a good guess of where it was headed. With an OVF you see the bird begin the turn in real time, and can adjust the pan with the target.

 

And then there's the focus tracking systems - the SLTs might be capable of keeping up since they maintain phase-detect AF with a good multipoint grid and at least 3 cross sensors...a P&S camera, no matter how good, simply cannot focus fast enough with a contrast-detect AF system to keep up with a closing target - a bird flying directly towards you. You might get off 1 shot, if you're lucky and skilled. But with a DSLR, you can fire off a whole sequence of shots, 10-15 in a row, all focused, and pick the best wing position and eye detail among the sequence.

 

Believe me, I know birds in flight CAN be done with an EVF - I've done it. But it was more a matter of picking the right target, that was big enough and slow enough, in the right light, and using lots of prefocus and pre-panning to attempt to predict future movement, and a bit of luck that all of that was correct. I could get a good bird in flight image, and put it on a forum to say 'look how good my ultrazoom is at shooting flying birds', but the reality is my skill, lots of effort, and a good bit of luck came into play. With a DSLR and the right settings, it still requires skill, but luck can be almost completely removed from the equation. As long as that DSLR has an optical viewfinder. Current EVFs, no matter how great the camera, still require luck to some degree.

 

I have quite a long experience as a bird photographer, and can get by if I have to with a vastly inferior tool - but I'd rather not have to. So Sony needs to fix the primary problems that EVFs present that make them far less effective and capable tools for this type of shooting before I can consider them a worthy replacement for an optical viewfinder. Hopefully they will, and usher the photography world into a new revolution.

[pierces]

I'm definitely staying open minded, but cautious. There are many issues I'd need to see resolved with the SLTs to make them a worthy replacement for my DSLRs - and I know Sony is addressing some of them...so I'm hopeful they won't make the move to entirely EVF cameras if they're not ready for prime-time. The current SLTs are too small and light - the A77 should solve that issue. The current SLT mirror is an issue for me, being a very big night photographer - the ghosting and light loss are not thrilling me - but maybe they can include a flip-up mode for night shooting. The lag/panning refresh is the biggest issue - if the viewfinder can be as you describe, especially 120htz...that might be a winner. Battery life and overheating are huge worries for me - battery life is likely addressed with the A77, but the overheating has to be tested in real-world conditions before I'll feel confident in that one (I've personally seen an A55 overheat during stills shooting side by side with my A550, so I definitely have reservations!)...but the specs on the A35 showing 29min video recording (I don't want or need video, but that's telling of how the sensor handles heat) are way up over the A33/55, so maybe they've figured that one out finally. Of course, I'd expect semi-pro controls, at least as good as the A580 or A700, and some weatherproofing would be nice.

 

I do look forward to the camera hitting the street and seeing if it can meet the hopes and promises...especially if it is going to be the official death of Sony DSLRs which I love.

 

The A77 prototype flaunted at the shows looks to have A700 level controls and will have a vertical grip available.

 

Ghosting is an actual issue in night images with bright specular light sources against a dark background, but in any other situation it is non-existent or un-noticeable. (Sony has filed a patent describing a movable pellicle for situations where you would use mirror lock-up with an SLR. Maybe next year when they release a full-frame follow-up?)

 

Light-loss is a bugaboo with no substance to me. The sensor and processing engine in the A55/A580 is so much better than the excellent one currently in my A700 that even with a third of a stop being sacrificed to the phase-detection gods, it adds 2-2½ stops in usable sensitivity that I don't have now. The new sensor in the A77 is supposed to be even better so that third of a stop lost to the pellicle mirror falls into the category of "don't be afraid to lose something you never had"!;) Besides, wouldn't you give up a third of a stop for 24MP at 7-10 fps with deadly accurate continuous AF?

 

As for the heat, the larger body and technical improvements demonstrated in the revised movie spec on the A35 bode well for the demise of that issue. BTW, isn't "they've figured that one out finally" kind of harsh for a first-generation issue fixed in the next release? :)

 

Yay, technology!

 

Dave

[zackiedawg]

Ghosting is an actual issue in night images with bright specular light sources against a dark background, but in any other situation it is non-existent or un-noticeable. (Sony has filed a patent describing a movable pellicle for situations where you would use mirror lock-up with an SLR. Maybe next year when they release a full-frame follow-up?)

 

I'd love to hear it possible in the A77 - I do enough night photography for that to have some impact for me - a movable/lock up feature is all I'd ask for to solve that complaint.

 

The new sensor in the A77 is supposed to be even better so that third of a stop lost to the pellicle mirror falls into the category of "don't be afraid to lose something you never had"!

 

The only niggling little problem that sticks in there for me is knowing how much better it can be - for example, the A55 is pretty good, but the A580 shows how much better Sony can do it - and the Pentax K5 and Nikon D7000 similarly show that sensor can shine even more without the mirror in the way. It likely won't matter for 90% of shooters, but again as a very frequent high ISO shooter, I'm not 'normal' - I'm one of those oddball outliers!

 

Besides, wouldn't you give up a third of a stop for 24MP at 7-10 fps with deadly accurate continuous AF?

 

That part I agree with - I would if the EVF issue is out of the way. The 10fps of the A55 is nice and I find the tracking does very well, except for that panning/tracking delay in the EVF which I didn't like very much at all.

 

As for the heat, the larger body and technical improvements demonstrated in the revised movie spec on the A35 bode well for the demise of that issue. BTW, isn't "they've figured that one out finally" kind of harsh for a first-generation issue fixed in the next release?

 

I guess 'finally' wasn't necessary there. Hey, I'm not one of those Sony-bashing critics - I've been a Sony shooter since 1997, happily so, and there isn't another DSLR on this planet that works better for my needs or styles of shooting than the A5xx series. So I'm fully aboard. I just know that the A33/55 aren't there yet for replacing DSLRs, and the A35 and A77 so far still have some issues to overcome before they can be legitimate replacements for DSLRs for all shooters. I wouldn't be at all concerned or following each step of the SLTs if I knew Sony would just keep releasing a DSLR version along the way like the A580 to the A55...but knowing that they are rumored to be killing off the DSLR even while SLTs have yet to step into their shoes, it's a bit of a leap of faith.

 

Signs of how open minded and hopeful I am: I had zero interest in the NEX upon debut, and figured there was no chance I'd ever own one. Then the firmware came, and I started looking...and now I own one. SLTs may follow the same course. But not yet. :)

[stevefrankel]

I'm going out shooting with my new Fuji X100 and I'll be hunting seagulls in flight down at the boats. Using the framed optical finder there should be no shutter (or mirror obviously) lag of any kind. The only kicker is, of course, the lens is a 35mm equivilent which will mean it will be ideal for gulls arriving or leaving the pilings, but not idea if the bird is 50 feet away. However, with the large sensor .....

[pierces]

I'm going out shooting with my new Fuji X100 and I'll be hunting seagulls in flight down at the boats. Using the framed optical finder there should be no shutter (or mirror obviously) lag of any kind. The only kicker is, of course, the lens is a 35mm equivilent which will mean it will be ideal for gulls arriving or leaving the pilings, but not idea if the bird is 50 feet away. However, with the large sensor .....

 

That X100 is one pretty camera! I was intrigued by the concept that they announced last fall but was put off by the odd choice of a fixed 35mm lens.

 

Still, it is a fine unit and should make you one happy snapper!

 

Enjoy!

 

Dave

[pierces]

I'd love to hear it possible in the A77 - I do enough night photography for that to have some impact for me - a movable/lock up feature is all I'd ask for to solve that complaint.

 

Sadly, the rumor mill had stated that the lock-up will not be implemented in this generation.

 

The only niggling little problem that sticks in there for me is knowing how much better it can be...

 

"Don't be afraid to lose something you never had..."

 

I won the Powerball lottery but refused it because they only pay out 55% for the cash option. I kept thinking "If I can't have it all, I don't want any of it!";)

 

 

Face it, whatever you shoot with, you'll continue to churn out the same great images!

 

Dave

 

PS. I forgot to mention the specs for the NEX-7. Same sensor as the A77 and the same 3MP EVF...hmmmm!

[stevefrankel]

I started off this thread by posing the question: If weight is at a premium, what's the best combo of camera equipment I can take on my next cruise (Uniworld River Beatrice, May 25, "Enchanting Danube). For the last few years I have carried a Panasonic Lumix GH1/GH2 and a Canon SD780IS, and I've gotten tired of leaving my 6-8 pound gadget bag in the cabin or on the bus, and just grabbing the GH1/GH2 with one lens, or the cigarette pack-sized Canon, while walking around on a tour. Therefore I sold this outfit and decided to start out fresh.

 

I can now proudly report that I've cut down my gadget bag weight to 47 ounces and increased my quality to boot. I'm now packing (no surprise for readers of this thread) the Fujifilm X100 and the Canon S95: That's 15 oz. for the X100; 9 oz. for the S95 and its Case Logic case and spare battery & SD card; and 23 oz. for Lowepro Edit 120 gadget bag, a spare battery & SD card for the X100, and the battery chargers and USB cords for both cameras (naturally they're different).

 

Spurred on by my promise to try out the X100 on shooting birds in flight to determine whether shutter lag or a " viewfinder lag" is a problem, I went down to the Marina del Rey bait station today and got a terrific picture of a crane landing on the dock, taken while the bird was still in flight. I also got a nice image of another crane flying about 50' away and about 30' above the water. Not only were both images sharp, but the birds were dead-center in both photographs. Thus shutter lag, "viewfinder lag" (I used the optical viewfinder for these shots), and sharpness were not problems in these or about 20 other photos I took on the bait dock.

 

I finished off the day by taking some very nice and very sharp candid shots at our Mother's Day brunch which we celebrated a day early; some with flash and some by available light. They were also of "keeper quallity" and because the camera was so quiet and fast, no one really noticed that I was taking the available light shots.

 

Suffice to say that I really believe the Fuji X100 is the best digital camera I've ever used. I would have to go back to shots I took in the 1960s with Nikkormats, Rollicords, and Yashicamats to equal its combination of sharpness, size and easy handling.

 

By the way, the day before I had tried out the Canon S95 at the bait dock. Due to the bright sun, this was a complete bust! The shots are exposed properly but framing was usually far from satisfactory due to the difficulty I had with using the LCD to track birds flying over the water. On less challenging tasks, such as candids I took last week in a restaurant, it served admirably except that it's available light shots were not as sharp as the X100s when I blew them up to 8x10 size.

 

In summary, I think the X100 is the ONE camera I'll take whenever I leave the ship; although I'll try to smuggle the Canon into my wife's fanny pack for emergency uses or when cameras are "forbidden" or when a 90mm zoom is essential. The X100's optical finder is so useful on the water that I don't anything, short of a heavier and complex DSLR or electronic finder camera such as the GH2, can keep up with it.

 

PS. If anyone can suggest an easy way to display 5 meg jjpegs here, or anywhere else, I'l be happy to share the photos with you.

[stevefrankel]

Just when I was feeling so pleased with myself for replacing my 3-lens GH2 system with a Fuji X100, and I had foresworn on this board any more equipment changes before my next cruise in 2 weeks, my daughter visits us with an Apple iPad2.

 

Now here I was planning to take a laptop and a Canon iP100 printer on the cruise to share my work with others (weight about 15 pounds with the case), and she shows me this little one-pound beaty that has a 10" screen that's actually brighter and just-as-detailed as the 13" screen on my Dell Latitude 6410 (a top-drawer laptop costing $2000+). Also, showing off my photos on the iPad2 will be just as impressive than holing up in the cabin and producing 8x10's at about 20-minutes each.

 

So this morning I ran down to the Apple Strore where they had the 64 gig model for immediate sale, bought the $29 Camera Kit that lets you uploade via an SD card or a USB cable photos to the iPad 2 (about $700 for the 64-gig model but $500 for the 16-gig model if you order on-line); and so far I'm delighted! The screen is so attractive, and the size and weight so appealing (it's about 1/4" thick), that even my technology-disaffected wife said she may buy one too. The only other extras you'll probably need are a cover/typing stand for $39, about 6 photo software package downloads at less than $5 each, and (I couldn't resist) an 8 oz. bluetooth keyboard ($69)that lets you type on a real keyboard from anywhere in the room. If you prefer optical viewfinders to LCD screens, you probaly also prefer real-button keyboard to virtual keyboards.

 

I got out a medium-sized gadget bag that has room to slide in the 8"x10" iPad2 into a back compartment, and now I have a 6-pound outfit that includes the Fuji X-100, the Canon S95, the iPad2, and all the cables and chargers, etc. that I need. I'll also pack a tiny Lowepro Edit 110 gadget bag in my suitcase so that when I go out shooting I can put into it the X100 and a spare battery and SD card, with that whole outfit weighing less than 2 pounds; and also put a one-pound monopod and the keyboard in the suitcase as well.

 

This kind of blows my mind. Even 5 years ago the idea of taking 2 cameras and a computer with 64-gigs of storage and a color monitor would have required lugging around 50 pounds of gear. It would have been unthinkable "just" to go on a cruise. Now a 6-pound system will handle it all and pack into a quarter of the space available in a carry-on bag!

[CoronaCRZR]

Steve, thanks for telling me about the iPad and camera kit option. I was not aware of this option. I will be getting one for my iPad as well.

Can you tell me which photo software package you would recommend downloading?

 

Thanks,

|

Ted

[stevefrankel]

I've downloaded about 5 different programs, but I think Picasa has proven the best so far. Picasa is called Web Albums on the iPad 2. I'm also playing Photogene which may promissing for pure editing. PhotoManager is somewhat nice for photo management, but I think Picassa and Web Albums beat it. Picasa charges only $20 for 80 gigs of storage on all of its platforms.

 

I also want to play with Flickr since it's the most popular and has hundreds of special interest groups, but I don't think it is integrated as well as Picasa/Web Albums. However I may be wrong about this, and I'd love to hear from other participants about this. Perhaps it's worthy of its own thread at some time if others get in on this conversation. If someone with more than 2 days' experience wants to start it, I'd love to participate and learn.

[pierces]

..though technically, it's for my daughter's wedding (which is replacing our next three cruises! :()

 

Looks like the hype wasn't really exaggerated much...

 

(image courtesy of DPReview.com)

 

Cool LCD!

(image courtesy of imaging-resource.com)

 

 

First impressions are encouraging.

 

Dave

[cerabella]

Ohhh my! Amazing!! (sorry about the next three cruises, tho...always look forward to your inspiring posts!);)