My wife wants a new camera, mostly for pictures of birds and wildlife around the house. Neither of us know anything about F-stop, shutter speed, exposure, etc... and don't really have a desire to learn.
Here's what she wants:
> Autofocus
> Excellent optical zoom, (~10x or better)
> Macro function for closeups
> Fast picture taking button. (When you push the button, take the stupid picture now, not a second or two later.)
Finally, not required but nice, would be the anti-shake feature we see advertised on some phone cameras. So if you move or shake a little, the picture is not blurred. Don't even know if that's a thing on cameras.
I suppose things like flash and ease of downloading to a computer are pretty standard. It seems camera stuff is kinda like audio stuff. Lots of online places to buy, but few local B&M stores for trustworthy advice. She read somewhere that you have to move up from a Point-and-Click to a "Bridge" camera for the excellent optical zoom. But again, we don't know what that means, and don't really care what the camera is called.
Price is not really an issue, within reason. We're willing to go Phil3s, but not Soundscape 12s.
Any suggestions would really be appreciated. Thanks.
Anyone who wants to be somewhat serious about photography needs to understand a bit about F-stops, shutter speed, exposure, light and how they affect the image. Fortunately, it's not necessarily rocket surgery.
My dad had a subscrition to Outdoor Photogragher magazine and when I would go to my folks' house, I would always read it and if he was done with them, I could take them with me. I eventually got a subscription and would read the articles to see how they were getting the shots. One of the most frequent comments about how to "get the shot"- you have to be in the right place, at the right time and that's often a matter of luck. Galen Rowell, who was a very successful photographer had a saying- f8 and be there, meaning that just being there is half of the equation and if you don't have time to calculate the exposure values, use f8 and auto exposure, if you have it. If not, use the speed of the film for the shutter speed and you'll be close enough that it can be tweaked during processing. Digital cameras are different- there's no processing, but it can be fixed in the editing software, later.
There's also something called the "Sunny 16 Rule", which means use f16 and the film speed and there's almost no way the exposure will be wrong. It's an over-simplification, but it works- one of the best photos I have ever taken happened so fast I had no time to think and that's how I had set the camera.
There are as many books on photograhy as there are things to photograph, but I would start by looking at two magazines- Outdoor Photographer and Digital Photo, both from the same publisher. The last one is what it seems- all about the digital version.
The feature that removes slight movement is called 'Image Stabilization' and it has been offered since the '90s. Canon was one of the first to offer it.
You nailed it- photography has some of the same "Oh, why did you buy that one?" that we see here, but I would recommend going to a place that sells a wide variety and just look at the cameras- if it seems that it just has too many buttons and settings, move to something that's more simple and wait until you're more comfortable with the technical aspects. The Canon Rebel series is very popular and their lenses are excellent. You can get into something nice in the $500-$700 range without feeling like it's a POS.
The great thing about photography is that the equipment isn't the biggest factor in how well the photo turns out, other than optics but even then, great optics without good exposure and good composition won't make anyone think it's a great photo- some of the best photos were shot with equipment that wasn't technically top of the line.
