Safari's best friend?

spookinet · Mar 1, 2014

Hi fellow photographer,

I am new in the world of photography.

I joined you because I recently came back from a trip in South Africa and fell in love with the african continent and more specifically with the wildlife and the safaris.
I went there with my Nex3-nl and it's very basic 18-55mm.
Luckily my girlfriend (now ex) was better equipped with the zoom as she had a 40× optical zoom cyber-shot which obviously was less good for sceneries but once it came to capture close-ups of the wildlife beat my very basic Nex3-nl.

Now I'm planning on buying something for myself as will go back very soon for observing the wildlife and having no access to my ex's camera need a better zoom.
Thinking maybe of buying a lens for my camera just thought that I can't invest massive cash for it and especially that the Nex3-nl is too basic to buy a 600-800 lens for (no viewfinder etc...)

Now comes the question:

Looking for the best and most affordable I found the lumix FZ200 from pana that would suits most of what I need. Obviously not giving the best rendering compared with a DSLR but having a good zoom and a wonderful f/2.8 constant.
Then found CANON's sx50 which battle's with the FZ200 for a place in my heart and shelves.
Greater zoom (impressive) bu5 lesser quality on non-optimal daylight pictures.
Read so many different review and match between the two I can't actually decide... None of the review help as some prefer FZ200 other SX50.

I would obviously want best quality possible (on printouts) while having a zoom that can catch the little extra detail might do the trick.

Any help to decide would so appreciated! :hail:

Looked at the Sony DSCHX300B as very interested on paper but quite "bad" review compared to the other two.

Would also like a DSLR like the CANON EOS 600D (which i found accompagnied with two lens with the second being 55-300mm) but seems like changing lens all the time or the 300 mm feature is a little short for the wildlife.

Now comes the actual question:

What to choose for main purpose Wildlife and scenery??

- 300mm lens for NEX-3NL (too expensive for a "low" category camera)
- Panasonic Lumix FZ200 (constant f/2.8)
- Canon SX50 (Zoom)
- Canon EOS 600D (quality but short in zoom)

Ho yeah until tomorrow 21% on all of them so any quick help is VERY much appreciated.:greenpbl:

Thanks in advance

And if you want me to share some safari pictures let me know.

Alexander... heu .. Spookinet

robbins.photo · Mar 1, 2014

spookinet said:
Hi fellow photographer,

I am new in the world of photography.

I joined you because I recently came back from a trip in South Africa and fell in love with the african continent and more specifically with the wildlife and the safaris.
I went there with my Nex3-nl and it's very basic 18-55mm.
Luckily my girlfriend (now ex) was better equipped with the zoom as she had a 40× optical zoom cyber-shot which obviously was less good for sceneries but once it came to capture close-ups of the wildlife beat my very basic Nex3-nl.

Now I'm planning on buying something for myself as will go back very soon for observing the wildlife and having no access to my ex's camera need a better zoom.
Thinking maybe of buying a lens for my camera just thought that I can't invest massive cash for it and especially that the Nex3-nl is too basic to buy a 600-800 lens for (no viewfinder etc...)

Now comes the question:

Looking for the best and most affordable I found the lumix FZ200 from pana that would suits most of what I need. Obviously not giving the best rendering compared with a DSLR but having a good zoom and a wonderful f/2.8 constant.
Then found CANON's sx50 which battle's with the FZ200 for a place in my heart and shelves.
Greater zoom (impressive) bu5 lesser quality on non-optimal daylight pictures.
Read so many different review and match between the two I can't actually decide... None of the review help as some prefer FZ200 other SX50.

I would obviously want best quality possible (on printouts) while having a zoom that can catch the little extra detail might do the trick.

Any help to decide would so appreciated! :hail:

Looked at the Sony DSCHX300B as very interested on paper but quite "bad" review compared to the other two.

Would also like a DSLR like the CANON EOS 600D (which i found accompagnied with two lens with the second being 55-300mm) but seems like changing lens all the time or the 300 mm feature is a little short for the wildlife.

Now comes the actual question:

What to choose for main purpose Wildlife and scenery??

- 300mm lens for NEX-3NL (too expensive for a "low" category camera)
- Panasonic Lumix FZ200 (constant f/2.8)
- Canon SX50 (Zoom)
- Canon EOS 600D (quality but short in zoom)

Ho yeah until tomorrow 21% on all of them so any quick help is VERY much appreciated.:greenpbl:

Thanks in advance

And if you want me to share some safari pictures let me know.

Alexander... heu .. Spookinet

Actually I can give you a first hand perspective, I've owned both the SX50 and the FZ200, and frankly of the two I'd recommend the FZ200. First the fixed F/2.8 is a lot more flexible than the variable aperture of the SX50. The zoom on the FZ200 doesn't give you quite the reach the SX50 does but the image quality I thought was much better on the FZ200, and honestly shooting handheld the zoom on the FZ200 is more than enough in about 99% of the situations I found myself in when carrying the camera. On the image quality, granted it is not on par with a DSLR but still capable of producing some very useable shots. The SX50 was a nice enough bridge camera, but overall I think you'll be happier with the FZ200.

As to the DSLR, it will give you the best overall image quality but the thing is if you really want to shoot wildlife and use a DSLR, you need to be prepared to spend a lot of money on lenses, so really to start with I think your best bet believe it or not will be the bridge camera. It will give you the zoom you need and acceptable IQ to start with and you can always look at going DSLR further down the road.

spookinet · Mar 1, 2014

Thanks man. I will go for the FZ200 if it fits right in my hand. I guess can't ask for everything just yet...
I can keep it for a few years and upgrade afterwards i guess.

Thanks for your input.

robbins.photo · Mar 1, 2014

spookinet said:
Thanks man. I will go for the FZ200 if it fits right in my hand. I guess can't ask for everything just yet...
I can keep it for a few years and upgrade afterwards i guess.

Thanks for your input.

No problem at all. As long as you have enough light the FZ200 really does take some decent pictures. The image size will be smaller than a DSLR but for viewing on a computer screen or smaller, say 8x10 prints it should do the job quite nicely. This is a shot I took quite some time ago with the FZ200:

P1030952 by robbins.photo, on Flickr

The SX50 had more zoom range but honestly I always thought the FZ200 had much better image quality.