Ive been thinking about getting a digital camera to carry up the tree with me while bowhunting. I would like to keep it under 200.00 or so. Ive got a couple d-380's in game cams that i could use, but im afraid of the loud beep it makes when it fires. Does anybody know of a decent 2 to 3 mp camera with a little optical zoom that is quiet? I see alot of nice young bucks while hunting and id like to get some pics of them. Also smart media cards and aa batteries would be nice since i already have the reader and a stockpile of rechargables. Thanks for any info, Abe
- Thread starter ABE
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To get anything with 6x or more of optical zoom, like that Fugi 3800, your choices are narrow and the prices aren't cheap. I did some research on that camera and it looks very nice. It came out just about 1 yr ago next month. The only drawback I saw was that it uses the xD memory cards which are relatively new and still pretty expensive however the prices are coming down on them all the time and I bet they will be cheap before long. The only other options I can think of off hand would be to go with an Olympus C-7xx series, namely the C-740 or 750. They are both new cameras and both have a 10x optical zoom. I just bought the 750 last week. The 740 is a 3 mp camera and the 750 is a 4 mp. They both use the xD cards that I mentioned above. I paid $488 shipped for the 750 which isn't a bad price on it right now, but I know it will be cheaper before long. I think the 740 can be bought for about $350 or less and it's price is dropping some too. Those are just two options to think about if you want to stay with the Olympus brand. The Fugi does look pretty nice though!
Oh and one more thing, that beep on the D-380 can be turned off in the menus I believe. I was able to turn it off on all my D-370's and I turned it off on my new 750. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!!!
Oh and one more thing, that beep on the D-380 can be turned off in the menus I believe. I was able to turn it off on all my D-370's and I turned it off on my new 750. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!!!
Txcowboy thanks for the info. I was able to turn off the beep. I have one other question though. On my d-380 i just took a couple pics to test without the flash while sitting here in front of the computer. It is blurry with no flash, but clear with. That is another concern of mine. I dont want to flash at the deer while im hunting. Is this going to be a problem?
Thanks again for the info, Abe
Thanks again for the info, Abe
Abe, good question and I have an answer!
I am going to try my best to explain this concept. It is really pretty simple but I'm not great at explaining things.lol The less light that a camera lens sees the slower the shutter speed will be. For instance, on a bright sunny day outside with a large F-stop (that's another lesson.lol) a camera might select a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second or so. What this fraction tells us is that the camera will open the shutter for 1/500 of a second, allowing that much light to enter the lens to actually expose the photo. If you left the F-stop the same and you manually changed the shutter speed to a slower number, say 1/125, the photo would most likely be totally washed out a bright white because way too much light entered the lens. Make sense? Ok, now to your question.....
The more light a camera "senses" it needs to properly expose a photo the slower the shutter speed it will use. So if it is getting to be lowlight outside a camera might use a shutter speed of 1/40 or longer. Once the shutter stays open much longer than 1/30 or so, it will be near impossible to get a sharp focused photo because even though that is a very short amount of time, you natural shake or movement will show up in the photo, causing it to blur. The way to solve this? Either use a tripod to eliminate any camera shake OR use the flash. Obviously, as you know, the flash has a limited range. Taking a photo of a person at night that is 50 yrds away with the flash on your D-380 will do you no good. You will most likely never see the person in your photo. The flash isn't stong enough to reach that person. So using a flash to take photos of deer while in the stand won't help you because 99% of the time, they won't be close enough for it to help. And as you mentioned, who wants to take a chance on spooking them. So where does all this leave us? You will be able to take sharp clear photos most all day with your camera, however in low light (early morning, dusk) you will really need to brace on something as the camera uses lower shutter speeds, so that you will have sharp photos. NOW, we have to add the fact that we have been talking about bigger optical zooms. The longer the zoom, the more light the lens needs to gather to properly expose the photo AND the more obvious camera shake will show up, even at somewhat faster shutter speeds. Think about it this way. Is it easier to hold a 2 foot stick out in front of you rock steady OR hold a 6 ft stick rock steady out in front of you? The longer the stick (or zoom) the harder it is to hold it steady. Ok, that was lame but it's the only way I know to explain it.
I appologize for making this clear as mud.
I hope you can make some sense out of this but if you can't please let me know. Get out and play with the D-380 some and look at the different shutter speeds and I think you'll understand what I'm trying to say. Good luck!
I am going to try my best to explain this concept. It is really pretty simple but I'm not great at explaining things.lol The less light that a camera lens sees the slower the shutter speed will be. For instance, on a bright sunny day outside with a large F-stop (that's another lesson.lol) a camera might select a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second or so. What this fraction tells us is that the camera will open the shutter for 1/500 of a second, allowing that much light to enter the lens to actually expose the photo. If you left the F-stop the same and you manually changed the shutter speed to a slower number, say 1/125, the photo would most likely be totally washed out a bright white because way too much light entered the lens. Make sense? Ok, now to your question.....
The more light a camera "senses" it needs to properly expose a photo the slower the shutter speed it will use. So if it is getting to be lowlight outside a camera might use a shutter speed of 1/40 or longer. Once the shutter stays open much longer than 1/30 or so, it will be near impossible to get a sharp focused photo because even though that is a very short amount of time, you natural shake or movement will show up in the photo, causing it to blur. The way to solve this? Either use a tripod to eliminate any camera shake OR use the flash. Obviously, as you know, the flash has a limited range. Taking a photo of a person at night that is 50 yrds away with the flash on your D-380 will do you no good. You will most likely never see the person in your photo. The flash isn't stong enough to reach that person. So using a flash to take photos of deer while in the stand won't help you because 99% of the time, they won't be close enough for it to help. And as you mentioned, who wants to take a chance on spooking them. So where does all this leave us? You will be able to take sharp clear photos most all day with your camera, however in low light (early morning, dusk) you will really need to brace on something as the camera uses lower shutter speeds, so that you will have sharp photos. NOW, we have to add the fact that we have been talking about bigger optical zooms. The longer the zoom, the more light the lens needs to gather to properly expose the photo AND the more obvious camera shake will show up, even at somewhat faster shutter speeds. Think about it this way. Is it easier to hold a 2 foot stick out in front of you rock steady OR hold a 6 ft stick rock steady out in front of you? The longer the stick (or zoom) the harder it is to hold it steady. Ok, that was lame but it's the only way I know to explain it.
I appologize for making this clear as mud.
We just recently bought the Olympus C-720 refurbished on ebay for around $320. Its a 3mp camera with 8x optical and 3x digital zoom for a total of 24x. It used smartmedia cards which are very portable. A 128mb card will hold over 300 pictures at low resolution. My wife used it on our Alaska cruise and got some amazing pictures. Some were better than I got with my 35mm using Fuji Velvia slide film.
Dave
Dave
I bought my C-750 from buydigitaldirect.com I checked out the ratings on resellerratings.com and they had high marks, so I trusted them. I called them and the guy I talked to was nice and not a rude foriegner like most of other NY online camera shops I called. They had the 750 in stock and fedexed it to me for $488 total.
Hey guess what.......I just looked over at Buy Digital Direct's web site and the 750 is down to $443! That would make it around $463 shipped, that's $20 less than I paid them last week!lol They also have the C-740 for $355 which is a dang good price on it, I was in Circuit City 2 weeks ago and they wanted $499 for the 740.
Hey guess what.......I just looked over at Buy Digital Direct's web site and the 750 is down to $443! That would make it around $463 shipped, that's $20 less than I paid them last week!lol They also have the C-740 for $355 which is a dang good price on it, I was in Circuit City 2 weeks ago and they wanted $499 for the 740.
Well i did some testing with my d-380. I will use it if i have too, but i will probably get another one. On very close shots it did fine but say 20 yards or further it would focus on foilage leaving the ground or where the deer would be blurry. I think the zoom on the fuji or the olympus 740 will help in getting past the foilage to the intended target. I dont really want to spend the cash on one right now so i will probably end up getting raped at circuit city so i can use my card there. TXcowboy on your 750 is it threaded so you can use add on lenses and filters? Abe
Abe, the 740/750 does not have a threaded lens but it does have a threaded ring that is inset around the zoom lens. What this allows for is an adapter tube. The adapter tube is threaded on both ends. One end threads into the camera back by the lens and the other end is threaded to accept filters or tele lenses. I'm not sure what diameter threads you'd need on the adapter tube but I've heard of several people buying them.
Well im headed to circuit city tonight. I think im going to get the c740. I was set on getting the fuji 3800, but i got to thinking. If i got the 3800 and put the 1.5 telephoto lense on it it still wouldn't have the zoom of the 740 and i would have about the same money in it. So i think ill get the 740. I printed a couple pages from a couple online camera stores so i can maybe jew them down a little. I dont think they will price match, but they might nock some off. Abe
Well i got the 740. All i can say is this things awesome. I took a couple test pics today. The pics were better than i imagined. Its definately going to take awhile to figure out how to use all the settings to their potential, but on auto it takes some good pics. Thanks for all your help and im sure ill have some more questions before i get this thing figured out. Abe
Jim Thompson
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Abe,
Glad you like the new cam. I still have a C700....and still love using it as a pocket cam when on stand. Good luck and we look forward to seeing some shots from you soon.
Jim
Glad you like the new cam. I still have a C700....and still love using it as a pocket cam when on stand. Good luck and we look forward to seeing some shots from you soon.
Jim
