Questions for my Mom (UZi)

Hey Everyone...

I'm from the STF area of dpreview myself, but my mom is an UZi owner. She just bought it about a month ago and really likes it.

I was hoping to help her out with some tips from the more experienced UZites.

My mom will be shooting LOTS of pictures of birds (she's a bird-watcher that wants to capture the experience on film). Her and I have been talking about the benefits of sticking with the optical zoom and using photoshop elements to crop and "zoom", but she also wants the ability to take advantage of the powerful digital zoom.

Do you have any quick-tips that would be helpful for her to get good clear focus shots, handheld or on a monopod, using both the full optical and digital? Are there benefits to turning image stabalization off when at full digital zoom? I know at 10X zoom she should try to shoot at a 1/400 shutter speed (if handheld), but what other settings are helpful for her to know?

Any tips would make mom's life easier!

Thanks!

Amy--beauty is really in the LCD/EVF of the beholder
http://www.something-fishy.com/photography

SFishy wrote:
I know at 10X zoom she

SFishy said:

should try to shoot at a 1/400 shutter speed (if handheld), but
what other settings are helpful for her to know?

Click to expand...

No, with image stabilization, she can handhold much slower than that. If she uses a tripod, you should turn the IS off.

SFishy said:

Any tips would make mom's life easier!

Thanks!

Amy
--
beauty is really in the LCD/EVF of the beholder
http://www.something-fishy.com/photography

Click to expand...

--21oo, B-3oo3o4oJuli

SFishy

As in all digital photography, filling the frame with as much of the subject as possible is the most important element in capturing detail. If the smallest detail covers a dozen pixels, odds are, she'll be happy with the resolution digital offers.

I've found that to get good shots of birds you gotta catch 'em soaring, sitting or swimming. ;-) I cheat a little...I feed many of them and use a teleconverter to extend the reach of my 2100uz. A little digital zoom is often acceptable if the subject already fills 1/5 of the frame at least. A little experimentation quickly reveals what works and when it works.

I have some bird shots that were taken with 3 different teleconverters(they are named in the info) and in one case, a stacked combo of the Oly C180 and the B300. Your mom could get an idea if something like this would be useful to her.

http://www.pbase.com/daff/birds

Hope this helps. Daff

-- http://www.pbase.com/daff/galleries

Wow! Those are some of the best bird pix I've seen. I assume you used a tripod, as handheld would be hard with stacked teleconverters I would imagine. Pat

Daff said:

SFishy

As in all digital photography, filling the frame with as much of
the subject as possible is the most important element in capturing
detail. If the smallest detail covers a dozen pixels, odds are,
she'll be happy with the resolution digital offers.

I've found that to get good shots of birds you gotta catch 'em
soaring, sitting or swimming. ;-) I cheat a little...I feed many of
them and use a teleconverter to extend the reach of my 2100uz. A
little digital zoom is often acceptable if the subject already
fills 1/5 of the frame at least. A little experimentation quickly
reveals what works and when it works.

I have some bird shots that were taken with 3 different
teleconverters(they are named in the info) and in one case, a
stacked combo of the Oly C180 and the B300. Your mom could get an
idea if something like this would be useful to her.

http://www.pbase.com/daff/birds

Hope this helps. Daff

--
http://www.pbase.com/daff/galleries

Click to expand...

--Pat

Thanks everyone for the comments thus far... I've already told my mom to log into here and check out the forums for herself too. I'm sure she can get a lot of tips of you all.

Amy--beauty is really in the LCD/EVF of the beholder http://www.something-fishy.com/photography

SFishy wrote:
[skip]

SFishy said:

She and
I have been talking about the benefits of sticking with the optical
zoom and using photoshop elements to crop and "zoom", but she also
wants the ability to take advantage of the powerful digital zoom.

Click to expand...

She should llisten to you. Cropping later with Photoshop Elements at max optical zoom is just as good as far as quality goes, and she won't risk the subject getting out of the picture.

With IS and max optical zoom, she can hand-hold a shutter speed as long as 1/100 (some say 1/50) for dim light situations, but in bright light she should use the max shutter speed possible to prevent blur due to subject motion.

SFishy said:

Thanks!

Amy
--
beauty is really in the LCD/EVF of the beholder
http://www.something-fishy.com/photography

Click to expand...

--Russell

Hi, Pat

I'm happy that you enjoyed them. I keep working at it.

Actually only one bird in the present gallery was shot with the stacked teleconverter, the rest were shot with different individual teleconverters. It's interesting that each has it's own advantages. For example; both the C180 and the A200 are sharper than the B300 under 12ft., but over that, the B300 really comes into it's own.

I avoid using a tripod because I need to be able to move around as quickly as the birds do. All the shots were handheld; mostly between 1/120s and 1/250s and always with the IS on.

Again, thanks for your interest. Daff

-- http://www.pbase.com/daff/galleries