Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Two

[mysty]

Look how crisp that image is! OOOOOOOH! I am already planning how to play with the new camera. I may be putting all my chores on hold for a bit. No one ever really suffered too terribly from a herd of "dust bunnies" right? :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

:)

 

Jeff

[spinnaker2]

Thanks Jeff

I did see the "later", but just felt that my camera longings weren't as paramount as your rest and sleep.

 

I appreciate your offer of help.

I have been following this particular Sony since I learned of its intended release and primarily for the highly ranked zoom feature.

I have a Sony alpha 77 currently which I love.

I was looking for a replacement upgrade to my Canon point and shoot, which takes great pictures but I want to increase the zoom capability without sacrificing the pocket size.

I am not a techie or camera guru.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Great picture of the village. Love the perspective.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks Jeff

I did see the "later", but just felt that my camera longings weren't as paramount as your rest and sleep.

 

I appreciate your offer of help.

I have been following this particular Sony since I learned of its intended release and primarily for the highly ranked zoom feature.

I have a Sony alpha 77 currently which I love.

I was looking for a replacement upgrade to my Canon point and shoot, which takes great pictures but I want to increase the zoom capability without sacrificing the pocket size.

I am not a techie or camera guru.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Great picture of the village. Love the perspective.

 

I had been looking at some of the stuff on this sized lens since you raise the concern and I get the impression that the 24-70mm lens is considered to be a decent general purpose choice.

 

When I google that size lens - I was hoping to be able to point you to some images showing it's zoomability but found none- it shows it to be pretty big and bulky when on an SLR or DSLR. Some stuff I've read says that many SLR owners use this range for most of the time. Whether it would be zoomable enough for you I don't know.

 

I guess the other side of the coin is that as you are taking digital pictures and not sending them off (as film) for processing you could if you wanted simply use a simple photoshop type app to zoom in later if it was important on a piccy or two. So I perhaps in my mind an adequate lens on a decent megapixel digital camera could do almost anything most people want - if you get my drift.

 

I have no idea whether this input is helpful because I have never felt a deficiency of the zoom on the earlier model

 

Good luck

 

Jeff

[Mark_K]

Back when I was more into photography and had an SLR, I had two lenses - 35-70mm and 80-200mm. The 35-70 stayed on the camera 90%+ of the time.

[spinnaker2]

Thanks Jeff and Mark

 

You raise yet another issue, and that is number of pixels if you want to zoom post shot. Trying to blow up a picture afterward suffers from the number of dots/pixels as one enlarges it.

 

Again, I think I am using the wrong technical term and my apologies for that.

I am looking for telephoto capability.

I think that is technically different in photography parlance, or maybe not.

For example if I am trying to take a picture of an egret flying in the sky and wanted a close up, would I be using a zoom or Tele photo?

 

Thanks again for the input.

[Mark_K]

If you're looking for good telephoto in a small point & shoot type camera, pixels are important, and so is the sensor size.

 

The other thing is optical vs digital zoom. Optical magnifies the picture before it is captured by the sensor, giving you the full pixel count. Digital magnifies it after which causes you to lose resolution.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks Jeff and Mark

 

You raise yet another issue, and that is number of pixels if you want to zoom post shot. Trying to blow up a picture afterward suffers from the number of dots/pixels as one enlarges it.

 

Again, I think I am using the wrong technical term and my apologies for that.

I am looking for telephoto capability.

I think that is technically different in photography parlance, or maybe not.

For example if I am trying to take a picture of an egret flying in the sky and wanted a close up, would I be using a zoom or Tele photo?

 

Thanks again for the input.

 

 

A zoom is a telephoto. If you want a camera predominently for that type of use ie birds in the sky some distance away, then without wishing to compromise than this camera is probably not the right one for you. You probably want a DSLR with two or even three lenses.

 

Good luck,

 

Jeff

Edited September 8, 2015 by UKCruiseJeff

[duct tape]

Happy Birthday!

[UKCruiseJeff]

(All food piccies from home are ipad .......... ;) )

 

 

[spinnaker2]

Ok thanks all for input on zoom aka telephoto.

I already have Dslr, the Sony alpha, with several lenses.

I guess I will need to wait a little for the point and shoot replacement.

 

Lovely food Jeff.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Spins,

 

The standard lens on the Alpha, appears to be 16-50. If that is what you have then the Sony goes to 70. So appears to be slightly more.

 

Jeff

[mysty]

OH MY GODDESS! The camera just got delivered! Yippeeeeee! Of course, I have no memory card for it yet so I will have to content myself with reading the very slim manual and checking out the buttons. I can at least charge the battery. :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

OH MY GODDESS! The camera just got delivered! Yippeeeeee! Of course, I have no memory card for it yet so I will have to content myself with reading the very slim manual and checking out the buttons. I can at least charge the battery. :)

 

Congrats.

 

I really hope you enjoy it.

 

:)

 

Jeff

[mysty]

Thank you Jeff! And now I can see why you suggested the book by Mr. White! :) The "manual" is more like a road map to the various buttons and wheels and slots. Very little explanation. I just downloaded the book to my kindle and I will go from there. The adventure begins.......

Edited September 8, 2015 by mysty

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thank you Jeff! And now I can see why you suggested the book by Mr. White! :) The "manual" is more like a road map to the various buttons and wheels and slots. Very little explanation. I just downloaded the book to my kindle and I will go from there. The adventure begins.......

 

The main benefit for the book for me is that it is a sort of reference manual with a search facility and hyperlink subject contents which means that it travels with you for reference and you can also get a complete (in my case "idiots") guide on each adjustable function. There are one or two decent youtubes on suggested functions setups.

 

Think carefully about some of the accessories I mentioned. The wall charger and spare battery or batteries for example. You can't use your camera on the WC and charge batteries in your suite at the same time,

 

Shame you don't have a card, and I can't wait to hear how you get on with it.

 

Jeff

[mysty]

Yes, the spare battery and wall charger are on the list! Also looking at a lightweight tripod, the grip and the travel bag. Maybe I can coax Myster into making an emergency run for the card. :) We have a Best Buy about 10 minutes away.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks Jeff and Mark

 

You raise yet another issue, and that is number of pixels if you want to zoom post shot. Trying to blow up a picture afterward suffers from the number of dots/pixels as one enlarges it.

 

Again, I think I am using the wrong technical term and my apologies for that.

I am looking for telephoto capability.

I think that is technically different in photography parlance, or maybe not.

For example if I am trying to take a picture of an egret flying in the sky and wanted a close up, would I be using a zoom or Tele photo?

 

Thanks again for the input.

 

Good Morning Spins .... and all.

 

I did in fact take a couple of piccies yesterday which may help. The field piccy and a closeup of the horse. It wasn't full zoom but at least shows what it does until a point. I was playing with lightening and darkening and these were a touch lighter than I wanted. Are they any help?

 

Also a couple of pictures from todays walk down the ancient drove road in our village. I made them a bit darker!

 

Jeff

 

 

 

 

[spinnaker2]

Jeff, nice photos.

 

did you zoom in as much as you could?

 

i have two lenses with my sony.

DT 4.56/55-200

DT 2.8/16-50

neither one allows me to get up close from afar.

 

can't wait til mysty posts about her new cam experience.

 

have been dealing with the household issues. first a dryer element blew, and then we discovered we had duct issues with the dryer vent, which then of course, turned into a major issue with the adjacent washing machine and leaking faucets, hoses and a small flood. Now all well after plumber re-plumbed the spigots, definitely not a job i could do, as it required an acetylene torch.

all the while DH is talking about the joys of home ownership,

and that we should move to someplace where others will take care of these types of issues. I am not ready for that yet!!!

[Mark_K]

Since we've been talking about cameras, and it's a special day for Her Majesty, here's a story told to me by AF-1, a cruise critic poster, who was a steward on Air Force One during the Reagan years.

 

The Queen and Prince Phillip were touring the west coast on Britannia and visited Reagan at his home. They all needed to be in San Francisco for an event so instead of taking the yacht, they sent it ahead and they and the Reagan's flew to SF on Air Force One.

 

As they approached SF, someone noticed Britannia was approaching the Golden Gate Bridge, so they diverted the plane to get a better view. About this time AF-1 was walking through the cabin and noticed the Queen, on her knees in front of a window, with a camera in her hands taking pictures of her yacht going under the bridge.

 

No word on what brand the camera was, or whether she was using a telephoto or zoom.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi Spin,

 

As I said, it wasn't full zoom, because I simply zoomed to frame it. It had a bit left.

 

Jeff

[spinnaker2]

Jeff,

yes you did say that it wasn't full zoom. i apologize, there must be too much dryer lint in my system

[spinnaker2]

great story mark!

[mysty]

OK Folks - here goes nothing. I went out this morning before the rain to play with the new camera. Please bear with me as these are my fledgling efforts.

 

 

First I wanted to attempt a selfie.....

 

 

 

 

Next I climbed a tree and the photographer took a picture from about 4 feet away.......

 

 

 

 

Next the photographer did a full zoom from that location.....

 

 

[mysty]

Then the photographer backed up to about 7 feet away and repeated the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please note that the "selfie" was not a zoom shot but with the camera positioned close to my face. :)