Digital bridge camera info please

[daveuprite]

Don't Panasonic use Leica glass?

tom

Yeah, you either want a Panasonic Lumix, which uses a Leica lens, or a genuine Leica camera - which is classy and expensive - as much a piece of precision art in itself as a camera. But some Panasonics are almost the same camera as the Leica equivalent, with different branding. Kind of VW Passat vs Audi A6.

All depends how much money you want to spend. With small digi-bridge cameras, given that you always use the one lens, the sensor size is important too.

Back in the 35mm film days, something like a Leica R4 camera body was a relatively small proportion of the total cost once a lens was fitted. A Summicron F1.7 prime lens could cost over £2k back in the 1980s!

[DavidS]

I’ve got the Panasonic four thirds with a superzoom. Cost me around £600 or so secondhand but it is light, easy to carry and a great camera.
Also a Panasonic TZ90 compact, which easy equally brilliant. Under £300 I think.

If you’re anywhere near West Sussex, look up Park Cameras near Burgess Hill.
https://www.parkcameras.com/cameras/

[bikenav]

I know not much about cameras but am on my second Nikon coolpix compact s series this one a 9200 used off ebay similar to the first a 8000 also bought used as I remember. Observations, small, integral battery lasts well, needs an oddball usb connector to charge, flash unit needs to be pushed back into the body manually, little mode wheel has a habit of turning when using and replacing in my breast pocket for snapping from bike, the first one's lens protector thingy died and scratched the lens as did the canon before that. They do get a bit of a rough life with me in the dust on the trail etc. As I remember the S series one's have an integral rechargeable battery, there are other ones with other batteries. As I said very much point, hope and shoot, if I can help with anything else just ask.

[garyboy]

I started with a phone camera, and progressed through the upgrades and each one got better.
I then got a small fuji, waterproof, normal batteries, sounde great ... until the results... very poor ... put away in a drawer now , doh.

Then i treatd myself to the bridge camera, £250 .. Nikon coolpix, P600 like the one by LL on here.
first of all it was great ... 2 ways to view, twistable small screen and through the viewfinder ... the colours were brilliant and it was fast to use.

Then one day I woke up to find it had slowed right right down ... bought new batteries and charger, which are just as convenient as shop batteries and last ages and you can carry a spare or two. So I still use it but have to put up with its slow slowness (wont pay to have it looked at lol).
The other thing is it is too fragile and bulky to take on the bike .. and also, i notice that the definition is only about the same as my older phone cam, despite it saying it had double the megapixels. Also, it has the very poor converging thing, where uprights slope inwards to the the distant points, meaning cropping may be required in the editing.

Recently i got a new phone, Samsung galaxy A21s (nearly got the Huawei one) and the definition is very good, big screen as phones go, its portable and convenient for the bike, in a large pocket, and high pixels.

So i would say, get a full on expensive camera.. canon or wotever, for great shots, presumably [as not got one], .. or simply get a better phone with very good camera?

[SHarper]

When looking for a camera to carry about on my bike, I found the digital SLRs too bulky and ended up going mirrorless with an
Olympus EM10 mkII, it fits nicely in a tankbag and takes brilliant photos.

[MotoCP]

I find this a good source for in-depth reviews;

https://www.dpreview.com/

[Nico-D]

When looking for a camera to carry about on my bike, I found the digital SLRs too bulky and ended up going mirrorless with an
Olympus EM10 mkII, it fits nicely in a tankbag and takes brilliant photos.

Yes I have the exact same , used a couple of Olympus M 4/3 cameras and now have a Panasonic too using the same lens mount. As you say it can be put in a small tankbag with a spare lens, mine has survived bouncing around on the trails for nearly 5 years with no problems.

There's a huge choice of lenses and tons of secondhand about as people have been seduced into 'upgrading' to 'full frame' by the marketing...

If you want to buy secondhand with a guarantee, I've bought from these , https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipmen ... s-cameras/

If you can't get outstanding pictures with something like this setup then don't blame the equipment !

[Nico-D]

despite it saying it had double the megapixels. Also, it has the very poor converging thing, where uprights slope inwards to the the distant points, meaning cropping may be required in the editing.

Err... Converging vertical lines are caused by tilting the camera upwards.. unavoidable unless you get a ( very expensive ) lens with tilt and shift or large format camera with movements...

Having more megapixels is no guarantee of better quality particularly if all those 'extra' megapixels are crammed into a physically small sensor .

[catcitrus]

some time ago we bought a Fuji Film "Big Job HD-3W" digital camera for next to nothing (fleabay)--thats what its called!!!. This old BUT has a BIG 28-84 mm wide zoom and I believe is (was) really used on building sites etc to record developments. Its actually superb for detail and outside use--the lens aperture starts at about 25 mm. It comes with a protection hood for commercial use--very high quality piece of kit with a built in flash or hot shoe. Runs on good old AAs and has a large card so needs an adapter to load pics on to the PC.(it has an "output" (it doesn't correspond to either of my mini or micro USB sizes--too old!)

[Tramp]

Cheers everyone... I've got a coolpix s9050 at moment so going to try a cheap facebay bridge camera coolpix or fuji or even a Panasonic max 100 quid to see how it compares pics wise.... On paper they are similar both have cmos sensor and 16 mpeg but normally 6mega is fine for me... Interesting to see how the bigger size as in diametet lens affects it at low lowlight...