Digital Cameras

[seafoid]

Scraped together the cash for a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II lens for my 600D (~£175 new) and I have to say I'm extremely impressed by it. I'd seen people be told a hundred times that they'd need to splash big money for a lens that's fast enough for action photography but this fella performed fantastically well at the Mayo-Dublin game for me when I optimised the settings. I was in Row EE, 31 rows from pitch-side:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/Syferus/catch.jpg

And that's not even the clearest picture I took. Obviously the higher end lenses will preform even better but if you're just someone who likes to get a few high quality snaps at a game or event (concerts probably excepted given the darkness and the f/4-5.6 range) this lens offers that and plenty more besides. I chose Canon over Nikon earlier in the year specifically because of the quality and price of this lens and their f/1.8 50mm, which remains the best value lens on the market - you can usually find it for around £75-80 on Amazon.

Syf

How many lenses would you bring to Croker ? I don't like all the foostering with changing them. 
I prefer the 18-200mm which means you can get most stuff from one lens but I was thinking of buying a better zoom for matches to get more of the action. Being from Galway it looks like there's no rush at the moment  . 

[offtheground]

Ok, looking for a decent quality camera.

Not overly into photography or that but with the kids growing up now, it be nice to get a decent camera to take snaps and that of them and other stuff. Have a lower priced digital camera from few years back but it takes about 3 secs between pressing botton and picture been taken.

Main key features:

Good zoom
High quality
Instant pictures


I'd be quite clueless in this area, so any help be much appreciated.

I'd hazard a guess that the most of that 3 sec's is writing to your memory card. Cheaper SD card have slow data rate, therefore longer time between pictures.. When you get your new camera, treat yourself to a decent SD card. There are 4 different types in terms of speed ; class 2, 4, 6 and 10. This means a write speed of 2MB/sec, 4MB/sec, 6MB/sec and 10MB/sec respectively.

[Karl Kennedy]

Anyone here have a digital bridge camera that they use and is good quality?
I have researched some SLR cameras and definitely one that stands out is the CANON EOS 1200D at £250 which is reduced a good bit too.

I am curious about the digital bridge cameras as I don't think I will be taking photos all the time and an SLR may be waste of mney.

[laoislad]

If you have an interest in taking photos at all,  a dslr is never a waste of money imo.

[seafoid]

If you have an interest in taking photos at all,  a dslr is never a waste of money imo.

I would agree. And a decent lens

[Maguire01]

It's a waste of money if you're going to shoot on auto. It's also a bulkier buy than a good compact (which can produce photos of comparable quality). Depends on what you plan to shoot, and how you plan to use the camera.

[Karl Kennedy]

Maguires01 you would advise getting bridge camera then?
I would be using it for family occasions, on holiday & family photos plus maybe some action photos of children playing etc.