To upgrade or not to upgrade?

[Azmodan]

Hi fellow photo enthusiatics,
with reference to thread
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=701

I will like to know is it feasible for me to purchase the tc in order to achieve my 10X digital zoom fetish or should I just upgrade from this coolpix 775 to a er... maybe a G2? G2 is around $1499 and if I get the TC from Nikon for my coolpix 775, it will cost $210 for a X2 zoom... if I interprete the website information correctly.. really feel I need more power in zooming..

 

[Blitz]

G2 offers 3x optical zoom, it's the same as your current camera.

If you really want the zoom, maybe u can go for Casio UX2900 (8x zoom), which cost around $650, or maybe the Oly C2100UZ/Oly C700UZ (10x zoom) price I'm not too sure.

Currently I'm quite the same situation as u too, stuck in 3x zoom but I still like my camera very much though

Hope this helps.....

 

[Azmodan]

I thought G2 offer 10X?

 

[Mystix]

thats digital zoom
optical only 3x

 

[Azmodan]

digital zoom cannot be increased? only optical can?

 

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Azmodan
digital zoom cannot be increased? only optical can?

Azmodan, never look at digital zoom to satisfy your zoom hunger, cos digital zoom is just a software enlargement of the image. As such, image will become pixelated and quality definitely suffers. Only optical zoom will give you real zoom with no or little loss in quality.

To reinforce my point, you can do even 16X digital zoom or more using Adobe Photoshop, just keep increasing the image size. That's the same thing the camera is doing when it is using digital zoom.

So, G2 is only 3X optical, which is same as your 775. For 8X optical, can look at QV2900UX. For 10X optical, can look at C700UZ, C2100UZ, Pro90IS. Cheers!

 

[Azmodan]

Originally posted by Tweek


Azmodan, never look at digital zoom to satisfy your zoom hunger, cos digital zoom is just a software enlargement of the image. As such, image will become pixelated and quality definitely suffers. Only optical zoom will give you real zoom with no or little loss in quality.

To reinforce my point, you can do even 16X digital zoom or more using Adobe Photoshop, just keep increasing the image size. That's the same thing the camera is doing when it is using digital zoom.

So, G2 is only 3X optical, which is same as your 775. For 8X optical, can look at QV2900UX. For 10X optical, can look at C700UZ, C2100UZ, Pro90IS. Cheers!

Hey thanks Tweek, you really cleared up the doubts in me... anyway, I am quite confused with the multiplication of the teleconverter... let's say if I buy a 2X teleconverter, doesn't that mean it will add to my original 3X making it 5X zoom or will it multiply up to 6X, if so does that mean if with the already 6X, I get another 2X, it will become 12X?

 

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Azmodan


Hey thanks Tweek, you really cleared up the doubts in me... anyway, I am quite confused with the multiplication of the teleconverter... let's say if I buy a 2X teleconverter, doesn't that mean it will add to my original 3X making it 5X zoom or will it multiply up to 6X, if so does that mean if with the already 6X, I get another 2X, it will become 12X?

a 2X teleconverter will make your 3X into 6X. But be careful though, that some teleconverters do not offer the amount of magnification that their specs claim. For e.g., a 2X Vitacon teleconverter is only about 1.3X actually. For more info on this, you might want to ask mpenza (KC), he did a lot of experimenting.

Yup, theoretically, if you stack another 2X TC on the 6X, you'll get 12X. But physically it's quite hard to achieve that, because of the dreaded vignetting. Vignetting is the occurence of dark corners in the picture, likened to when you look through a pipe. Thus, the smaller the diameter of the TC and the longer the length of the TC, the worse the vignetting will be. Sometimes the vignetting is so bad that you have to zoom (on your camera) all the way to make it disappear, and that restricts the range of zoom you can use already. Say your cam gives 35-105mm zoom. Adding a 2X TC will only give you 35-105mm and 210mm if full zoom is required to get rid of all vignetting. Therefore, the range of 105-210mm will be unusable, which defeats the point a little.

With that said, if you stack 2 TCs together, I think the vignetting will be so bad that you can't get rid of it at all even at full zoom.

Hope this helps!

 

[Klause]

C700uz cost 900 dollars now. Pretty affordable for a 10x optical zoom camera =) I'm using it =)

 

[megaweb]

I think Vignetting is not the main issue of using TC ... there are more factors like
- degrade your pic quality
- usually TCx2 will drop 2 f-stops

 

[ziploc]

Hi Azmodan,

The multipliers multiply, so if you add a 2x TC to your 3x DC, you will get 6x zoom. And the multipliers are based on the wideangle end of your dc, meaning for on a dc with 28mm eq wideangle end, then 3x zoom means the telephoto end is 85mm eq (eg. CP5000), but on a dc with 35mm eq wideangle end, then 3x zoom would mean the telephoto end is 105mm eq (eg G2). Also note that by adding TC to you dc you will not get the full zoom range, and vignetting will generally occurs at the wideangle end.

 

[Azmodan]

oh my god, sound like I really heading to a dead end, don't really have much options left.... also feel I kenna chop by the stupid photo shop.... sold me this coolpix 775 with 64Mb CF at $870....

 

[Tweek]

Originally posted by megaweb
I think Vignetting is not the main issue of using TC ... there are more factors like
- degrade your pic quality
- usually TCx2 will drop 2 f-stops

Yar still got those factors, but to me, vignetting is the main issue, cos that is what's stopping me from getting a TC until now.

mega, some TCs won't cause f-stop drop right? and 2 f-stops? The vitacon one ah?

 

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Azmodan
oh my god, sound like I really heading to a dead end, don't really have much options left.... also feel I kenna chop by the stupid photo shop.... sold me this coolpix 775 with 64Mb CF at $870....

Sorry to tell you, but you really kena chopped lor....I think your package can be gotten for $600++
but never mind lar, take it as a lesson learnt, don't think about it, just think about going out there and take good pictures!

 

[megaweb]

Originally posted by Tweek



mega, some TCs won't cause f-stop drop right? and 2 f-stops? The vitacon one ah?

yes it is ... if bright daylight , usually it is not affected .. but low light condition , u will see the different ..

 

[Galaa]

I posted some photos of my C2100uz camera with a 1.9TC C210 for a total of 19x zoom. vignetting is pretty visible though. But the C210 is a cheap TC(heard lowest price is $70). If U got the money, a better TC the B300(1.7X) has no vignetting but cost 4 times the price...
If u use a little digital zoom U can get pass the vignetting, but of cos U'll lose a little picture quality if U used digital zoom...or u can just use the optical zoom then crop the picture from the vignetting

http://www.pbase.com/galaa/uzizoom