What camera do you use?

[orchid-man]

well don't forget that its the digital zoom that ruins the quality

[wetfeet101b]

well don't forget that its the digital zoom that ruins the quality

I agree.
If you are looking for a camera for long distance zooming, ignore the digital zoom rating. It is the optical zoom that really matters.
Once the camera reaches its optical zoom limit and switches to digital zoom, the picture quality goes downhill.

[wetfeet101b]

I'm sure camera buffs will enjoy reading through these:

Digital Camera History

CANON RC-470 - 1988. The Canon still video RC-470 had 400-line quality (1/2-inch, 360,000 pixel CCD). The RC-470 was part of the Canon Professional Still Video Imaging Kit that listed at $4,899 and included the FV-540 (on right), a SCSI-based 2-inch video floppy drive, and SV Scan image editing software. The drive and software would display thumbnails of all photos.

I sure am glad I waited until 2004 to buy my first digital camera

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Great, fun link, John. I had a laugh at all of the cameras that either I have bought or have used for work, etc. I think I still have one of those floppy disk jobs from Sony with the 10x zoom. It was bought for me at the University. It is either in the bottom of the filing cabinet, or it may have been placed into props. I remember some student dropping it from on top of a ladder and it not working anymore. LOL.

Cheers,
BD

[mohi]

Dude... Get a canon EOS... Something like the EOS 450D or the 40D... much lower noise than nikon... If you have the budget buy some good macro glass too... I've been a canon fan for the last passed years... I have my powershot a75 but the sensor is dying so I'm investigating on an EOS 40D...

[the dragonn]

I use a Canon EOS 400D with a Tamron 70-300 lens. The macro facility on the lens is great for photographing insects, you can stay a distance away and not spook them. Here are a couple of bugs I took in the garden and a jumping spider on the hood of my car.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Great shots, Steve!! I really like the second one. That is an awesome camera.

Cheers,
BD

[dsm]

Those oncs look like leather! what incredible texture!

[Hoskins Orchid Man]

Hi guys
I use a Pentax K100d with various lenses. Using combinations of lenses and macro ring or 2x accesories, I have a range of Macro (touching the object) to a 900mm zoom. Somewhere in there I manage to get some reasonable photos. Oh...and it even take photos of my orchids!

[dsm]

I am not much of a photographer. I had been getting some wonderful pictures with an old digital Kodak DC280, but the Win98 computer with which I used it has died,.

I know this is not "real" photography, but since I am very utilitarian, I probably will stick to digital. I tried to get my old system fixed, but the laptop is an antique in computer-years and none of the modern digitals have the quality of that old DC280