Review your own photo kit

[Ivan]

So what kind of camera / cameras do you use, what are the good and bad points of it / them

I'll start off with mine:
I own 3 useable cameras, and have used about 5 different types in total

Cams i've used, first three are / were owned by my parents
1: Half frame Canon... Has been that long ago that i only remember that the thing had a fixed speed shutter and those icons on the distance scale. Door latch broke on this one but it might be still around hidden in a box somewhere

2: All-auto Minolta... with DX detectors, built-in flash and so on... Large enough for my hands, usually doing exactly what it should do. Was dropped on the floor so the zoom locked up and discarded as it was unrepairable.

So now the real review stuff
3: Canon powershot 520... 5 megapixel digital.
Good points:
[*]Small and light
[*]Large preview screen

Bad points:
[*]Too small for my hands (fingers hanging over the flash or autofocus sensor)
[*]Flash is completely useless as it is too small to make a difference.
[*]Autofocus doesn't always do what it should do.
[*]Preview screen resolution not good enough to see how the picture will turn out
[*]Impossible to look at the viewscreen when the sun is in the wrong location
[*]Hates weird light conditions
[*]Useless viewfinder (you can turn the screen off but you lose all info with that)
[*]Slow shooting rate when using flash

4 Praktica MTL (now disposed of... unrepairable)
Good points: Ergonomics, hot shoe
Bad points: weight, shutter shake (up-and-down movement of the shutter goes together with the mirror), shutter springs died.

5: Fed 4B... 1968 vintage rangefinder
Good points
[*]Reactions of the public
[*]Overall balance
[*]Mint condition
[*]Loads of shutter speeds... from 1/500 to 1/1

Bad points
[*]Weight (900+ grams)
[*]Degraded focus lubricants make turing the lens very heavy when its cold
[*]Parralax problems when doing close ups
[*]No hot shoe
[*]No belt attachments on the body

6: Zenit 122
Good points
[*]Size
[*]M42 has interesting cheap lenses
[*]Belt clamps on the chassis
[*]Hot shoe

Bad points
[*]Balance is off... it tends to tilt down as the lens-to-body weight ration is a little strange because they replaced parts of the original steel body (Zenit 12) with plastic.
[*]Loud shutter and mirror
[*]Shutter speeds (1/500-1/30 and manual)

[Mictheslik]

Nikon Coolpix L3

Good points
Simple
Easy to use
Good quality (generally)
Takes AA BAtteries

Bad Points
Awful flash
small zoom
no viewfinder
no manual modes


Canon EOS 400D

Good points
Lovely image quality
Still easy to use
Lots of different features
Good built in flash
Large screen
Lots of compatible lenses
Self sensor cleaning

Bad Points
A tad small (can be rectified with a battery grip)
Light metering can be a struggle at times to get it right (but maybe thats just me )
Cant think of anything else atm...

.mic

[Omag 2.0]

Panasonic FZ5 - 5 megapixel

Good points

Bridgecamera, usable as a point and shoot camera, but comes with plenty of settings that allow you to experiment
Small
Excellent Leica lense
12 x optical zoom ( 35 mm equivalent: 36 - 432 mm)
Good quality in abundant light
Long battery-life ( if you avoid using the LCD)
Comes with a sunhood for the lense
Affordable price

Bad points

Bridgecamera, hence a small sensor
Noise becomes a problem in low light conditions
Autofocus, no means to focus manually
Apperature 2,8 - 8,0
Shuttertime max 8 sec.

All in all, I really like this camera, as it teaches me a lot and prepares me for the day I switch over to SLR

[ATI_7500]

Canon Powershot A80


Good:

Takes photos.


Bad:

Eats Batteries.
Clumsy.
Bad image quality.
Only 3x optical zoom.


Conclusion:

I want a new camera.

[Jakemaster]

Cannon Powershot:

Good
Small
Light
Takes pictures of okay quality
Uses AA Batteries (means easier to replace when it dies)
Movie mode

Bad
Crummy zoom
Picture quality really only good when near subject (in otherwords, bad for aeroplanes)

Conclusion: Great for a camera to take on trips for the occasional picture and good for pictures of people

Cannon EOS Digital Rebel

Good
Takes AWESOME pictures
Change lenses for different types of pics
Nice autofocus

Bad
Batteries must be charged
Saving to memory card=occasionaly MISSED picture
HUGE
HEAVY

Conclusion: Need bigger zoom lens, remember batteries (it DIED at the last airshow I went to)

[Ivan]

Are you saying that it sometimes fails to save the picture to the card? or is that batteries related?

[Pilot_Alex]

Panasonic FZ5 - 5 megapixel

Good points

Bridgecamera, usable as a point and shoot camera, but comes with plenty of settings that allow you to experiment
Small
Excellent Leica lense
12 x optical zoom ( 35 mm equivalent: 36 - 432 mm)
Good quality in abundant light
Long battery-life ( if you avoid using the LCD)
Comes with a sunhood for the lense

Affordable price

Bad points

Bridgecamera, hence a small sensor
Noise becomes a problem in low light conditions
Autofocus, no means to focus manually
Apperature 2,8 - 8,0
Shuttertime max 8 sec.

All in all, I really like this camera, as it teaches me a lot and prepares me for the day I switch over to SLR

+1