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I currently have a Canon 450D but find that the supplied telephoto lens of 70-210 just is not bringing me close enough for nature shots, besides being rather bulky. So, am looking at Bridge camera such as Canon SX40, Sony HV100V as well as Fuji HS20 and Nikon P510.
Most usage will include travel shots and garden wildlife hence considering a 'superzoom' for flexibility and size. The ability to have high quality video is also attractive.
Everything I have read talks about quality of image not being as good as DSLR but any printing I do will not be bigger than A4 – so will I notice the difference?
Any advice/suggestions re best choice gratefully received please!!
Do you want a bridge camera to be about the same size as your 450D or do you want compact?
The Fuji XS-1 must be the best DSLR size DSLR quality out there with a super long lens, but if you want compact the choice is bigger. I also like the Panasonic bridge cameras.
There are many more so do your research and market survey to see which one fits your criterior.
The Fuji HS20 has been superceded by the HS30, but both have small compact size sensors. The XS-1 has a larger sensor and will give you superior picture quality. Check the XS-1 review on this Web site.
Pete
My son bought the Fuji XS-1 yesterday, after trying it out in Jacobs, we took a memory card and laptop, so that he could take some shots in the shop and outside and then have a look. The quality seems pretty good and the noise levels were acceptable, even at a shot taken at ISO 1000. Ok, it's not the same quality as a high end DSLR, but for someone starting out and wanting to get a bit more serious about their photography after using small compact cameras I think it works well.
He is on here as Pooks616 and I would imagine he will be uploading something later, or at least I will ask him to.
I had a Panasonic FZ50 and still prefer that for longer zoom range to the EOS450.
The IS works really well and very little CA. Now using a Samsung as a back-up, pocket cam.
There is some good advice coming on this thread, so take note.
The Panasonic FZ-100 and FZ-150 are excellent Bridge cameras but then so is the Sony HX-100V which got a gold award from What Camera magazine. Check the reviews.
Pete
An internet friend and myself both have Nikon DSLRs but last year we thought the Panasonic FZ100 had such good specs that we both invested in one as a second camera.
I can honestly say that both of us hardly ever take the Nikon out when we intend to be carrying a camera all day.
The results are excellent and the extra zoom is a Godsend.
It smaller and lighter and we don't have to lug two or three lenses around with us. The 400mm lens is handy for our bird shots too>
I've just added my Metz external flash gun as the weather has been so dull and my garden quite dark because of the high fence around it.
The camera and flashgun work well together and I am pleased with the results.
In my experience bridge cameras take photos that can be hard to distinguish from DSLRs a lot of the time - although a lot of people will almost certainly disagree. The main problem is that they can't use high ISOs without fairly aggressive noise reduction which loses detail. When you're using the longer telephoto lenses the ISO limitation can be a problem because you need faster exposure times with these lenses to avoid shake so it'll tend to be using a higher ISO. So don't expect a bridge camera shot at 500mm to match one taken with a DSLR at 500mm, unless the light is very good - and probably not even then because the super-zoom lenses lose sharpness at their extreme ends. For wildlife photography you can't beat a DSLR with a good prime telephoto lens, but they're very expensive, very big and very heavy.
Maybe a compromise would be a Micro 4/3 camera with, say, a 100-300mm lens (which is a 35mm equivalent of 200-600mm). This'll be reasonably compact and light and much better from the noise point of view - you could sell the DSLR equipment to pay for it. The main drawback with M4/3 is that there is a lack of really long telephoto lenses. When you start photographing wildlife you rapidly find that your lenses never have enough reach. I often find I need to use a 300mm lens plus 2XTC to get anywhere near the reach I want (which is a 35mm effective focal length of 900mm on my camera) and then it still needs cropping - so I now need more pixels. There are no easy answers.
Quote:
@Steppenwolf - I had been advised that there may be significant image deterioration when using TCs?
It depends. I'm using a Minolta 300mm f2.8 with a matching Minolta 2X TC - they were designed to work together so they work well. It's the same with the Sony G TCs that work with their G lenses (and nothing else). But, in general, if you use a good quality TC with a telephoto prime lens the results are pretty good. I've also used Kenko and Tamron TCs with prime lenses and they work well. The trouble starts when you put them on a zoom lens, although the Sony TCs work very well on the Sony 70-200mm, and 70-400mm leness - but these are very expensive combos. Just never use one on a wide angle zoom 
Quote: You may also have problems using tc on lenses designed for APS-C cameras due to the protruding rear element.
If you buy an OEM TC they tell you which lenses it fits. Most after market TCs (e.g. Kenko) are so-called "generic" and they're designed to fit a lot of lenses, but they usually come with a list of lenses that they fit in the instructions. Even if they fit there can be other problems though. For example Kenko TCs don't work with Sony SSM lenses (despite the fact that they say they do) because they haven't got the chip right - Tamron ones do provided they've got 8 pins. Sigma TCs (and quite a lot of their lenses also) don't work with Sony SLTs. When you buy a non-matched TC it's a minefield. A few years ago I bought a Kenko TC and found it didn't work on SSM lenses. I ebayed it and got back more than I paid for it - they'd gone up in the meantime.
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