Superzoom or Mirrorless

[Audris]

Been on hiatus mode for nearly 3 years and I haven't touched my DSLR for a year or so. Used to be lugging my 500D to school almost everyday and shoot any object when I felt like it, go back to edit the image and upload but it died down due to busy schedule and such. And of course, the technology that comes along when it's so convenient to just capture an image and upload onto Facebook, Twitter or Instagram instantly.

Due to weight and bulky factors, I'd been using either P&S camera or phone camera to do convenient shots for the recent years but thought that I want more than that. Especially when I found out there is this thing called the eye-fi SD card in the market. Still not keen to pick up my DSLR again though.

Decided to sell my DSLR away and get a mid-range which is either a superzoom or mirrorless. Been out of the camera world for years and the range of new camera models are too broad and confusing. Just need a breakdown of recommended models before I go into more research. Ideally the brands of Canon, Nikon, Olympus or, Sony or Panasonic and budget of below 800.

Any recommendation?
Also indecisive between a superzoom and mirrorless.
Subject wise will be food and cats.

 

[fullerms]

Mirror less will set you back by atleast $1.5k. And that's not counting the lenses you will bbw tempted to buy.

 

[Audris]

Mirror less will set you back by atleast $1.5k. And that's not counting the lenses you will bbw tempted to buy.

Agree. The price of mirrorless is steep and additional zoom range will not add on to the price but to the bulk and weight too.

I'm leaning more towards superzoom, something which I wanted to get before my 500D. Checking out on models like Panasonic FZ200, Canon SX50 etc.

 

[fullerms]

Agree. The price of mirrorless is steep and additional zoom range will not add on to the price but to the bulk and weight too.

I'm leaning more towards superzoom, something which I wanted to get before my 500D. Checking out on models like Panasonic FZ200, Canon SX50 etc.

But will you be happy with the image quality of a super zoom? If you have a few DSLR lenses, get a mirrorless and an adapter for those lenses.

Happy OM-D owner here

 

[mrsun18]

@Audris

So far I have used 4 superzooms from Canon, Fuji and Panasonic. The latest being the FZ200. I use them mainly for birds because they are far away and I don't want the bulk & weight of camera and interchangeable lens.

But they are slow and not good in low light condition.

Since your subjects are mainly food and cats, you don't need the long focal length of superzoom.

If you want pic quality without the bulk and weight, perhaps you can consider the prosumer compact which I think give better pic quality than superzoom and may be faster also.

 

[Audris]

@Audris

So far I have used 4 superzooms from Canon, Fuji and Panasonic. The latest being the FZ200. I use them mainly for birds because they are far away and I don't want the bulk & weight of camera and interchangeable lens.

But they are slow and not good in low light condition.

Since your subjects are mainly food and cats, you don't need the long focal length of superzoom.

If you want pic quality without the bulk and weight, perhaps you can consider the prosumer compact which I think give better pic quality than superzoom and may be faster also.

hmm sounds convincing. I just thought the zooming in from far is a fun feature to have. Will have to see the quality to judge if it's deemed as acceptable to me. Mind showing me some images?

 

[ZarakiKPC]

if you want to get a mirrorless, i rather you didn't sell your dslr...a superzoom's quality will no doubt be lower than a mirrorless/dslr. but if u have the "just incase i need it " mentality like i do, go for a superzoom. the new canon sx280 seems nice

 

[ronnie]

If you are mainly shooting food and cats, then a mirrorless will be the better choice.

 

[xonix]

Unless you really need the superzoom's focal length, I would suggest Fuji X10, X20 (28-112mm equivalent) for a compact with very good OOC JPEGS.

 

[robolee]

Unless you really need the superzoom's focal length, I would suggest Fuji X10, X20 (28-112mm equivalent) for a compact with very good OOC JPEGS.

For price to performance avoid X10 and get X20 if you are aiming for fuji.

 

[mrsun18]

hmm sounds convincing. I just thought the zooming in from far is a fun feature to have. Will have to see the quality to judge if it's deemed as acceptable to me. Mind showing me some images?

Hmm...the easy ones first...some of my best shots...beautiful lighting, subjects do not fly away, have time to look for the best looking and best angle...overkill tripod and timer...no photoshop, just use ZoomBrowser (Canon software) to auto improve (one touch) and crop...shot with FZ150 whose quality is same as FZ200...pic info available against each pic:
Flickr: Sunch28's Photostream

You should be able to find more from Flickr search for FZ200.

Some samples for SX50HS (not mine) at Clupsnap (may be photoshoped):
Common birds at JP (with SX50HS)

Should be able to find more from Flickr.

Remeber people tend to showcase their best.

Now come the hard part, how to show a not so flattering pic? Ok, this one of a Purple Heron(unretouched) was taken just 2 days ago at Bishan Park. Time 7.08pm f2.8 1/25 ISO 400 zoomed to 24x handheld. You have to get a few shots under such condition. At least Heron keeps still most of the time. So pic quality will range from the best to something like this one and worst:

[img=http://s21.postimg.org/jivwp15yb/P1000970.jpg]

Edit: Here is a more flattering one (unretouched)...Time 11.40am f4 1/250 ISO 100 zoomed to 48x handheld:
[img=http://s12.postimg.org/m2y5ucmk9/P1000289.jpg]

For videos I recorded with this camera from beginning of this year:
sunch28's channel - YouTube

Do bear in mind that YT videos are heavily compressed. Actual quality is better.