Whatbird.com

Lyceel, absolutely not taking it personally. I asked for opinions and I was grateful to receive them- for both sides of the coin, it gave me a lot to think about and I'm glad you added your thoughts because it is helpful to future people that we can guarantee will have the same dilemma and let's face it, to have an SLR or not, is quite a nice problem to have :)

Kiwi's original answer took me back a little - because it was  that I either wanted a point or shoot OR I wanted more control and the potential for much better photos and the truth is, I wanted both but without the steep curve!!  It feels like I achieved that with this camera and I am still using basic settings - some of my mid-morning shots today were completely over-exposed, no question about it but I wasn't paying attention to the position of the sun or myself (I deliberately started out in the field at 7 am, so I could see what the lighting conditions would do throughout the morning.  I just wanted to pop the shots to see what happened (this morning I got a yellow warbler, juvenile gray catbird, a downy, a potential flycatcher (assuming grey, it's on the ID forum at the moment!). My first photo with the new one was taken when I was half asleep waking up outside, I spied a darker grey bird I had not seen before, zoomed in and just captured an Eastern Kingbird - that was huge for me and it was at the top of one of the tallest trees across the road.

I should clarify by saying, after a day, I knew it wasn't the camera for me "for now".  I will not rule it out in the future should I find myself with the patience to practice and learn more but I really did want to grab and go and get the best shots possible under those circumstances for the photography that compels me now.  I think I was also intimidated by the camera too - and the bar is set pretty high for some of the photos I see on this forum (some of them literally take my breath away).

Thanks again all of you, I really do appreciate not only the advice and opinions, but the encouragement too.

FB

I recently acquired a refurbished Pentax K20D and love it! Do I know how to use all the features - no! I considered a long learning curve when I purchased it, but I loved my old Pentax ME Super so much and remembered that it took a while to learn how to use that (in the dinosaur ages ago!). And, I can still use some of my old lenses - a bonus in my view.

I also have two P&S cameras and they truly come in handy when you can't carry the bulk of the DSLR. I believe they all have a place in a birder's life!

Spongebird:

Quite possibly my favorite picture with my P80 (of birds)

I wanted to share my Blue Jay taken this afternoon- I snuck up on him (with my zoom)

 

What a cool shot!  I might be getting a P90 soon as well. Either that or a Sony HX 1 - which is an extra hundred bucks and an extra half a pound to lug around. Can't decide if that quality will be that much different.

Anyway, any updates now that you've had it a few more days?

 Thanks!
Kate 

Thanks Kate!  I think the simplest way to explain it is to show you my latest shots :) I am so proud of these, for the Cardinal female I was quite far away and crouching under a canopy with very unsteady hands and not the clearest shot...... for the goldfinch,I was about 50 ft away and for the swan, I was at the top of the embankment and she was  right in the middle of the lake.  I wouldnt hesitate to recommend the camera, its very intuitive to use, easy to use and I just discovered a very cool feature. On the scene selection dial on the top, there are two user settings (U1 and U2) and you can save your preferred settings. At the moment, my shots are still on easiest automatic, then I hit the macro and it auto focuses in, so zooms and then focuses, it is amazingly reliable both really close up and very distant.  Another setting I love, is that it will capture the same shot in black & white and colour, with one twist of the dial!  It's also comfortable and not "bulky" to walk around with.  If I have missed or messed up any shots it's because the light has been stronger than I first thought, or the bird moved away too fast!

zoomed and sky cropped only no other enhancing going on

a little soft but I still love it

Swan in CT

Shows how far away I was

That's great! I love cardinals! Is the goldfinch shot on another post? <ETA - sorry I jumped the gun waiting for other pics :) >

I tried to ask you this in a separate post but it needed moderator approval for some reason (I included info /link from another website, perhaps it had to be approved first):

I read that the p90 took a pretty quick first shot, but that once you got going it took something like 22 seconds to shoot 5 shots (whereas other comparable cameras took anywhere from 8 - 12 for 5). Have you noticed any lag time when shooting pictures one after another? 

 I appreciate the input! I hope to be getting something in the next week or so. yippeee!

There's so much color on that female Cardinal, and the background complements her beautifully!  Nice work!

 

I hope you don't mind a minor critique...  The swans are beautiful, but if you look, you'll see they're a bit overexposed.  You can see this in the closer shot.  If it were properly exposed, you'd be able to see details in the plumage in the lower neck and body, instead of the flat white look that's there.  This happens because of the contrast of the bright white bird in direct sunlight against the darker water.  The camera's sensor can only handle a certain amount of difference between the brightest and the darkest part of the image (this is called dynamic range).  If the dynamic range is too high, you'll either get blown highlights like this, or totally black shadows.  Even the best cameras get fooled in this situation, so don't feel bad that it happened to you 

To fix this, look up "Exposure Compensation" in your manual (page 39), and set it to -1.0 (or even lower) for a shot like that.  The background will be darker, but the bird will be nicely detailed in the highlights.  You might also try "Active D-Lighting" (page 70), which lets the camera decide when the lighting is going to be tricky and adjust automatically (it will automatically reduce the exposure, and then boost the darker areas after the shot before it stores the image).

Hope you find this useful.  I can tell you're excited about the shots you're getting.  Keep it up!

I haven't noticed that long a lag time at all (but maybe I am not counting properly!) I've also been much more successful with this camera on getting the next shots quickly than the Coolpix L100 I had before.  I am so happy with this one and good luck with whichever one you choose.  I hope you'll update us when you can, I think these threads are really useful for other people.

 

 Gosh no, I thank you for the compliment and the advice!  I knew I screwed up the swan! I wanted to really just practise with the zoom and I was looking through a maybe 10 feet gap at the top of an embankment surrounded by tall trees and I was curious to see what kind of a shot I would get (it probably is a crime to take bad pictures of what us Brit's know to be the property of the Crown -yikes.  I  just made the same error today and I can't imagine how because it has been grey and overcast all day, so when I saw a duck coming into land in the pond, I took the shot as soon as he was swimming and his back is all washed out (although you can see his markings, including some gorgeous blue on the back end) and I have noticed that unless it is filled with algae- water never appears how my eye remembers it! I've just reviewed today's shots and found my mystery bird (on the id forum at the moment, my juvenile male goldfinch and a juvenile mockingbird are all soft and I wasn't too far away (approx 15-20 ft),so I have more work to do! But my flowers are wonderful (but then, they can't fly off anywhere:)

I am thrilled with the feedback on the Cardinal photo, I never imagined I'd take a photo like that

 

lyceel:

There's so much color on that female Cardinal, and the background complements her beautifully!  Nice work!

 

I hope you don't mind a minor critique...  The swans are beautiful, but if you look, you'll see they're a bit overexposed.  You can see this in the closer shot.  If it were properly exposed, you'd be able to see details in the plumage in the lower neck and body, instead of the flat white look that's there.  This happens because of the contrast of the bright white bird in direct sunlight against the darker water.  The camera's sensor can only handle a certain amount of difference between the brightest and the darkest part of the image (this is called dynamic range).  If the dynamic range is too high, you'll either get blown highlights like this, or totally black shadows.  Even the best cameras get fooled in this situation, so don't feel bad that it happened to you 

To fix this, look up "Exposure Compensation" in your manual (page 39), and set it to -1.0 (or even lower) for a shot like that.  The background will be darker, but the bird will be nicely detailed in the highlights.  You might also try "Active D-Lighting" (page 70), which lets the camera decide when the lighting is going to be tricky and adjust automatically (it will automatically reduce the exposure, and then boost the darker areas after the shot before it stores the image).

Hope you find this useful.  I can tell you're excited about the shots you're getting.  Keep it up!