Cruise Optics? (camera lens & binoculars)

[Napi's Mom]

They will certainly be a step up, and seemed well made. I would not pay the original price, but the discounted price seems like a much better deal:)

I CERTAINLY wouldn't have paid that so called "Original" price, and saw reviews written 2 yrs ago that more or less hinted that they've never been near that price. Will say they had very few "negative" reviews out of 44, some quite recent, main problem was hard to adjust Dioptics (had to look that one up) but once set they stayed in place. I use my camera 12x zoom to do my long range looking so I'm ready to snap anything...:D

[plenox]

I don't have a 300mm lens.

 

I was looking at post 18 on this thread (born2cruise) where his website link showed comparative magnifications of Mount Rainer through various size lens. From the same spot, focusing on Mt Rainier he used 18 mm, 55 mm, 70 mm, 140 mm and finally 300 mm lenses. On the basis of this set of comparision photos posted by born2cruise I thought that a 300mm would meet my needs.

 

That was the source of my comment about looking into getting a camera with a 300mm for my trip.

 

Sorry. I mistakened that you used 300mm. I had a really inexpensive Canon 300mm lens that I bought a couple of years ago. Thinking about an upgrade. Not sure which one to go next.:confused:

[GRBlizz]

I almost never use my Canon 75-300 lens that I got along with my first Digital Rebel. For distance I use a 400MM (I got the Sigma to save money, and it has served me well for 5 years so far). And for mid-range shots, I use a Canon 85MM fixed-focus 1.8 lens. It gives amazing depth of field and I can't wait to try it in Alaska. I also have a 17-40 L-series for wide-angle, and those three lenses are all I usually need.

 

I wish I could carry a point-and-shoot for some uses, but I can't stand the shutter-lag after learning how to capture "the moment" with my SLR.

[Happy2Cruise4Fun]

I have a Canon XSI and will be using a 28-135 USM IS lens only. May not get those up close shots but I will have to deal with it this time. I feel better after seeing the sample pictures from post 18 about my decision now to stay with what i have.

 

With the crop factor I should get a little more depth out of it..

[robert32asp]

I bought a new Nikon coolpix L100 (just released in Mar) for our May trip. It has a 15x optical. It does not have a viewfinder (which seems standard with most non-SLRs). The display was bright enough but the biggest problem was that when I was waiting for a picture, the display would go into sleep mode and in the seconds it took to reawake it, I'd lost the picture. There probably is a way to change this but I didn't bring the manual. I lost a lot of whale flukes and glacier calving pictures this way. However, I did learn for the whale pictures if I used the sports-continuous mode when taking pictures of the whales...it took many pictures in succession and I got some good fluke pictures that way. I then had a lot of deleting to do, but a lot of people were complaining of missing the photo because of the delay from when they pushed the button and the pictures is actually taken.

 

After a lot of shopping around I too decided on the Nikon L100. My reasons were the 15x optics, its size, the used of AA batteries that I can purchase in an emergency, SD card (I prefer this memory format and have quite a few large SD cards), and the sports shutter feature that allows for a series of rapid fire pictures (for caving glaciers and whales breaching).

 

I would have preferrred a view finder, but after playing with it and recognizing for they were discounting it by $80 for fathers day and graduates, I decided I could live without the viewfinder to get all the other features.

 

The default "sleep mode" setting is 30 seconds, but you can change that to way too many minutes, just prior to getting set for whale or iceberg pictures. I also think that the sports mode rapid shot featuer (the book & demo show a series of soccer kicker shots) is a feature that I am going to enjoy.

 

Between the Nikon L100, my old Steiner 8X Military & Marine binoculars and my new Zen Ray Summit 8X binoculars, I am set for optics on my cruise this summer. My wife has claimed my old Kodak 3x point and shoot digital camera as her new camera, along with claiming my Steiner binoculars. So we are now each set.

[knorrisb07]

Ok the Zen-Ray 8x's showed up today. That was incredibly quick service. They included a 10x monocular, wide next strap and lens brush pen.

 

I took the Zen-Ray 8x Summits out on the back porch with my Steiner 8x Military & Marine. Wow, the Zen-Rays are very good optics. I am totally satisfied. The shape of the Zen-Ray summit is longer and the separation of the optics at the larger lense is less so there is a bit less stereoscopic effect, but wow. The Zen-Ray's have a very nice crisp clear image and the light gathering ability is just great.

 

I would strongly recommend them if your price range is in the slightly under $200 range. With the 20% off sale price they were a very good price and they got here in just a few business days. I purchased on the weekend, it was shipped on Monday and arrived US Postal Service Priority Mail today (Tuesday) I am amazed, it may take longer for the rest of you.

 

Now to take all the camera advise and figure out what to do. The side by side up to 300 mm (16x) shots of Mount Rainier were very thought provoking. For most things, I probably don't need the full 16 magnification, but it is interesting to see that level of magnification. I will need to check out the various brands including Nikon Canon and Kodak.

 

Thanks

 

the 8x zen-ray summit is my favorite as well. Another one to consider is Bushnell E2.

[bbwex]

One thing to note with digital SLRs. Since the image receptor is smaller than the old 35mm film, lenses are effectively 1.5 times more powerful. Hence a 300 mm lens on a digital camera equals a 450 mm lens on a 35 mm film camera.

[knorrisb07]

Ok the Zen-Ray 8x's showed up today. That was incredibly quick service. They included a 10x monocular, wide next strap and lens brush pen.

 

I took the Zen-Ray 8x Summits out on the back porch with my Steiner 8x Military & Marine. Wow, the Zen-Rays are very good optics. I am totally satisfied. The shape of the Zen-Ray summit is longer and the separation of the optics at the larger lense is less so there is a bit less stereoscopic effect, but wow. The Zen-Ray's have a very nice crisp clear image and the light gathering ability is just great.

 

I would strongly recommend them if your price range is in the slightly under $200 range. With the 20% off sale price they were a very good price and they got here in just a few business days. I purchased on the weekend, it was shipped on Monday and arrived US Postal Service Priority Mail today (Tuesday) I am amazed, it may take longer for the rest of you.

 

Now to take all the camera advise and figure out what to do. The side by side up to 300 mm (16x) shots of Mount Rainier were very thought provoking. For most things, I probably don't need the full 16 magnification, but it is interesting to see that level of magnification. I will need to check out the various brands including Nikon Canon and Kodak.

 

Thanks

 

 

I am a canon DSLR guy. But lately I found myself spendimg more time with the new Nikon camera I got as a christmas gift.