It’s Spring!
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Angus 1895
5 year old buck +
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Bszweda,
Generally use one of two cameras... both easy-to-use mega-zoom fixed lens cameras. One with the greatest zoom is the Nikon P1000, with it offering a CRAZY 125x optical zoom. Just as often grab my Canon SX60 (newer model now on market is SX70) which offers 65x optical zoom which in almost all circumstances is still plenty of enough reach.
Begging forgiveness if you're already a camera tech-head (and I'm honestly NOT that much of one), there are some real pros and cons going with fixed lens versus cameras with interchangeable lenses.
First the big PRO with the fixed lens mega zooms... price. You can get a Nikon P1000 in the $750 (factory refurb) to $1000 price range whereas piecemealing a removable lens capable of such reach on an interchangeable lens camera can cost tens of thousands.
That leads, though, to a big con and that is the fixed lens megazooms are a bit of a one-trick pony (taking decent long-distance shots) and don't do well with low light conditions / the lower the light the grainer the images get. That shared, I'm often taking pics from my bedroom window out into distant fields and they fit my needs about as perfectly as any camera can (without spending insane amounts of money). Will add, though, if going to use for really distant shots a tripod becomes invaluable as the tiniest bits of shake are amplified when shooting video zoomed in on very distant subjects.
As for why I grab the Canon superzoom as often as the Nikon, it's only because the Nikon is a real brick weight wise / noticeably more cumbersome to carry and hold when shooting whereas the Canon is pretty much normal-sized, so if out and about walking I tend to take the Canon and if capturing shots or videos from the house use the Nikon.
Few shots just to give an idea what 65x to 125x look like.
This first is a moon shot at just 65x taken with the Canon.
Here's a moon shot from the Nikon, and NOT zoomed in at max level as don't get whole moon in shot when zoomed all the way in.
Used the Nikon to get image of Mars next to moon recently when their paths were relatively close...
And series of shots from the beach... and, seriously, do take the camera out fishing as I can often identify boats approaching from quite a distance and if they anchor anywhere near me can even tell what they're using lure-wise, drinking, catching. In the first one below, towards the very center of the picture, there's a guy setting up his fishing gear.
You can see him a bit better in this pic...
Still decent quality photo zoomed in more...
Zoomed in to point that digital zoom (versus optical) kicks in and becomes bit grainy, but... can see the snap swivel connected to his spoon and if you knew him (I didn't) could ID him by his tattoos.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
And forgot to mention, dadgum PHONES are getting pretty darn impressive!
Samsung S23 Ultra has 10x zoom and up to 100x digital zoom which isn't a match quality-wise to true optical zoom, but still is amazing to be instantly produced by a PHONE!
Wife and I walk to a park with a pond near our office and here are shots I took of the snake with the S23 phone.
First one with no zoom...
Versus with zoom... crazy how far phone cameras have come.
Samsung S23 Ultra has 10x zoom and up to 100x digital zoom which isn't a match quality-wise to true optical zoom, but still is amazing to be instantly produced by a PHONE!
Wife and I walk to a park with a pond near our office and here are shots I took of the snake with the S23 phone.
First one with no zoom...
Versus with zoom... crazy how far phone cameras have come.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I was on the ocean the last 10 days, and I actually looked, and used a hand rail as reference, I know it's a handrail, not a straight edge but you could see the ark, on both siides of the ships hand rail it drops down. Quite noticeable, the further away from the rail you got. Being I was on one of the worlds largest ships, I was able to stand back plenty far.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
That is understandable. It sounds more like the circle on a flat surface governed by the limits of your eye. Check this out, its easier to understand with the diagrams. It's a 60-second vid.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Man you really got my attention. That zoom is amazing. So which one would recommend for a guy like me who has about a 650 yard view from my porch to the end of my fields. I see cool stuff all the time but can’t capture it worth a crap. I could easily mount it to a tripod and take pics from the porch. But it would also be nice to take on a walk and snap some pics.Bszweda,
Generally use one of two cameras... both easy-to-use mega-zoom fixed lens cameras. One with the greatest zoom is the Nikon P1000, with it offering a CRAZY 125x optical zoom. Just as often grab my Canon SX60 (newer model now on market is SX70) which offers 65x optical zoom which in almost all circumstances is still plenty of enough reach.
Begging forgiveness if you're already a camera tech-head (and I'm honestly NOT that much of one), there are some real pros and cons going with fixed lens versus cameras with interchangeable lenses.
First the big PRO with the fixed lens mega zooms... price. You can get a Nikon P1000 in the $750 (factory refurb) to $1000 price range whereas piecemealing a removable lens capable of such reach on an interchangeable lens camera can cost tens of thousands.
That leads, though, to a big con and that is the fixed lens megazooms are a bit of a one-trick pony (taking decent long-distance shots) and don't do well with low light conditions / the lower the light the grainer the images get. That shared, I'm often taking pics from my bedroom window out into distant fields and they fit my needs about as perfectly as any camera can (without spending insane amounts of money). Will add, though, if going to use for really distant shots a tripod becomes invaluable as the tiniest bits of shake are amplified when shooting video zoomed in on very distant subjects.
As for why I grab the Canon superzoom as often as the Nikon, it's only because the Nikon is a real brick weight wise / noticeably more cumbersome to carry and hold when shooting whereas the Canon is pretty much normal-sized, so if out and about walking I tend to take the Canon and if capturing shots or videos from the house use the Nikon.
Few shots just to give an idea what 65x to 125x look like.
This first is a moon shot at just 65x taken with the Canon.
View attachment 51556
Here's a moon shot from the Nikon, and NOT zoomed in at max level as don't get whole moon in shot when zoomed all the way in.
View attachment 51557
Used the Nikon to get image of Mars next to moon recently when their paths were relatively close...
View attachment 51558
And series of shots from the beach... and, seriously, do take the camera out fishing as I can often identify boats approaching from quite a distance and if they anchor anywhere near me can even tell what they're using lure-wise, drinking, catching. In the first one below, towards the very center of the picture, there's a guy setting up his fishing gear.
View attachment 51559
You can see him a bit better in this pic...
View attachment 51561
Still decent quality photo zoomed in more...
View attachment 51562
Zoomed in to point that digital zoom (versus optical) kicks in and becomes bit grainy, but... can see the snap swivel connected to his spoon and if you knew him (I didn't) could ID him by his tattoos.
View attachment 51563
Here’s what I get with my phone only about 300 yards away
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
I do have one view that goes out to about 600 yards from my house. At the risk of hijacking the spring nature of the thread (and truly apologize for doing so), when home with deecent daylight I'll try to take a pic with both cameras at that distance and share to compare them.
Will say that for carrying around and general use, you won't cry over getting the Canon... 65x is still a lot of zoom and it' WAY easier / more comfortable carrying around. It's not that the P1000 is heavy (though it's way heavier than the Canon) as much as the size makes it much more awkward to cart around... the Nikon is so lens-heavy it doesn't rest well on my chest when I have it on a strap around my neck whereas the Canon is very comfortable.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Not intentional, but still got me looks from the wife when she saw me post them on Facebook bragging about the zoom on the camera...
First the no zoom pic... ultimate target is on the crescent sliver of beach at the 1 o'clock position in the photo.
Zoomed in a bit...
And a bit more...
And max zoom, and again that's with the Canon... you can tell it's a bit grainy, but I probably zoomed beyond the optical zoom into the digital zoom. Still, compare that to the zoomed out photo and you can tell either camera would do the job for someone wanting to be a P.I., long as they have good daylight. That the svelte woman ended up in the center of the max zoom photo just was incredibly coincidental!
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4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Ok, so I think spring got skipped. We went from 40 for highs, to 80. I still have a foot of snow, temps are around 80 this week. I want to turn the ac on, but when I look out the window and see a foot of snow, it doesn’t seem right.
No worries, this weekend, back to 40’s, and more snow on the way.
No worries, this weekend, back to 40’s, and more snow on the way.
j-bird
Moderator
Over the holiday weekend I saw first hand how the spring creeps north....at least to the midwest. We traveled by car from central Indiana, thru KY, TN and stopping in Atlanta. It just got greener and greener as we went....and got more and more depressing as we came north toward home....but we are seeing signs of spring as well....just not a far as further south.
It's working on spring here as well. Turkeys are gobbling, folks are finding mushrooms, crappie are biting and farmers are prepping for planting....
It's working on spring here as well. Turkeys are gobbling, folks are finding mushrooms, crappie are biting and farmers are prepping for planting....
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
With all due respect, there’s no scenario where you should ever get more depressed the further you get from atlanta. It should definitely be the other way around
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
@Bszweda and @Howboutthemdawgs, going to post promised follow-up on Canon SX vs Nikon P1000 camera in a new thread. Will publish post shortly.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Thank you. I’m super interested but people I have mentioned long range lenses keep telling me it’s thousands upon thousands of dollars?@Bszweda and @Howboutthemdawgs, going to post promised follow-up on Canon SX vs Nikon P1000 camera in a new thread. Will publish post shortly.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
They're right if you are talking about using standard DSLR cameras that allow you to swap out lenses. Without going into too much detail, the sensor sizes on these cameras are larger so they offer a wider range of use with multiple different lenses and truthfully can give better/sharper image quality if you're a professional looking to get photos published in magazines or wanting to use a camera for lots of different applications such as macro, portrait, landscape, etc. The cost of good quality lenses to match the distance the $1,000 P1000 can cost from between $10,000 to $30,000 and you'll have a setup that looks more like this...
Versus this -- the actual P1000 when zoomed out.
Just have to go in knowing the P1000 will be a one-trick pony best used for taking long-distance photos of landscapes, cityscapes, and / or distant critters in daylight conditions... and the more light you have the better the photos will be. But you absolutely are giving up the ability to swap out lenses for different functions and in very low-light conditions will have a tougher time focusing and even when focused the shots/videos will be grainy due to the small sensor size.
With the cameras, I get GREAT photos and videos of deer that visit my plots throughout the day between sunrise and sunset, but don't even reach for the camera in those final 15 minutes of shooting light after the sun has set but there's still just enough ambient dusk light to legally fire a weapon). Thankfully I have lots of deer traffic that generall happens an hour or so before actual sunset, so again get lots of decent photos and videos, and truthfully since I live on my land that I hunt and have some long distant views I wanted a camera I could use to take quick pics from the house during daylight when not hunting and spotting animals from the house... and for that, it's been a great tool.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
That is great info, thank you. And my farm is very similar to what you’re describing. I get a ton of activity starting about an hour and a half before dark and it actually peters out the last 20 or so minutes. I may take your info and do a little looking and pick one up this summer. Unfortunately we are doing corn this years so I won’t get that awesome bean field activity I got last year but it will cool come fall once it’s cut.They're right if you are talking about using standard DSLR cameras that allow you to swap out lenses. Without going into too much detail, the sensor sizes on these cameras are larger so they offer a wider range of use with multiple different lenses and truthfully can give better/sharper image quality if you're a professional looking to get photos published in magazines or wanting to use a camera for lots of different applications such as macro, portrait, landscape, etc. The cost of good quality lenses to match the distance the $1,000 P1000 can cost from between $10,000 to $30,000 and you'll have a setup that looks more like this...
View attachment 51669
Versus this -- the actual P1000 when zoomed out.
View attachment 51671
Just have to go in knowing the P1000 will be a one-trick pony best used for taking long-distance photos of landscapes, cityscapes, and / or distant critters in daylight conditions... and the more light you have the better the photos will be. But you absolutely are giving up the ability to swap out lenses for different functions and in very low-light conditions will have a tougher time focusing and even when focused the shots/videos will be grainy due to the small sensor size.
With the cameras, I get GREAT photos and videos of deer that visit my plots throughout the day between sunrise and sunset, but don't even reach for the camera in those final 15 minutes of shooting light after the sun has set but there's still just enough ambient dusk light to legally fire a weapon). Thankfully I have lots of deer traffic that generall happens an hour or so before actual sunset, so again get lots of decent photos and videos, and truthfully since I live on my land that I hunt and have some long distant views I wanted a camera I could use to take quick pics from the house during daylight when not hunting and spotting animals from the house... and for that, it's been a great tool.
