Advice on camera selection

When you start long range zooming from a boat, are you loosing any quality?
I figure some issues like super big binoculars, you can't get a steady view.

Most of the better cameras have Image Stabilizer, built in or in the lens. And with a zoom lens you can always zoom out, unlike most binoculars.

Image Stabilizer
Ah, That's rite. Doesn't work well in my phone but I didn't think about a new tech camera with a Image Stabilizer. Just goes to prove how far behind I am on these fancy things.

I'm remembering a windy a day watching hang gliders take of a cliff (early 90s) and getting some nice shots using an old Cannon with standard lens.
When I looked over the cliff and looked way down, I thought I saw people. Cranked on the BIG lens and took some shots of the folks down below. The wind on me blurred some dialed (zoomed) up pictures.

I trashed all the beach pictures soon after but I remember how that wind affected the steady of the hand held camera.



Yea, That was La Jolla, CA (Blacks Beach).

You might want to look at a mirrorless camera. Small size and interchangeable lenses. The Olympus OM-D E-M10 II is a good one along with some Sony's. See the article below. There will be several new announcements next week with CES kicking off so depending on your urgency, you may wish to wait till then as the older models will become cheaper or you might like the tech in the newer models.

Another option are attachable lenses if you have a smart phone. The iPhone's camera has become pretty well over the years and Apple had a large dedicated team working on it with the mantra of quality over megapixels. There are a lot of clip on lenses out there that are fairly cheap and do a pretty good job. Just another option to using tech that you may already have and keeping costs low and portability high. This could be a good supplement to another option if you wish.


http://www.techradar.com/us/news/ph...m-camera-2013-the-best-models-reviewed-960832

This is a good camera, especially with the 16-70 mm lens. It has an APS-C sensor and is using more or less the same lenses as a full frame 35 mm camera.

If you want a smaller camera, there is a system called 4/3 or Micro 4/3 where the sensor is 1/4 of a full frame and all lenses are smaller. With a 4/3 sensor a 14-140 mm zoom compares to a 28-280 mm, just double the numbers to get the right length.

The first 4/3 cameras were launched by Panasonic/Leica and Olympus and they had mirrors, later the smaller mirrorless Micro 4/3 cameras took over and today there is a third generation which is even smaller. I have all three on this picture and prefer the one in the middle. The left one is too big and the right one is too small. As a small camera with high quality I am using the Canon G-series and for full frame the Canon 5D:s. In reality, I am bringing the full frame whenever I know I will take pictures and the rest of the time I have my iPhone if something comes up that I must capture...

... When it comes to lenses, i am using the 24-105/1:4 for 80 percent of my pictures, it is with a built in Image Stabilizer. The second lens I use quite a lot is the 16-35/1:2.8, it is a good lens but more expensive and not as versatile as the 24-105.

You are right, the G9 is one of the best and after that they got bigger and bigger until the G15, when they shrinked it to about the same size as the G9 again. The main difference is a shorter zoom with more wide angle on the G15 and G16. Good cameras all of them...

We have an Nikon F7000 with half a dozen lenses and a Canon G15. My wife got herself a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000. The Lumix is really a perfect camera in between the others. Great sensor, great zoom, stabilized, and lighter than the Nikon, but more performance than the Canon. Same with weight: in between the others. Also good for macro! The only minus is the power consumption / battery capacity: we need to recharge every second day.

https://goo.gl/J0smc5 and https://goo.gl/ct2pLp