Hi Aidrian Thanks again. It is becoming clearer now. If I had a 300mm lens on the Sony would I be able to get as close-in to distant birds as I would with the Panasonic fz38 Ian
The Panasonic would show the birds closer but the image will be on a smaller sensor. If you want distant birds, I'd go for the Sony attached to a scope. There are some excellent examples of images obtained this way at this link. http://sonyalphanex.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/sony-nex-5-digiscoping-with-kowa-tsn.html
Hi Aidrian Thanks again. It is becoming clearer now. If I had a 300mm lens on the Sony would I be able to get as close-in to distant birds as I would with the Panasonic fz38 Ian
Thanks Aidrian=what is that equivilent to in terms of optical zoom do you know please
Optical zoom of a lens depends on the initial focal length to the full focal length. e.g. a 70 to 300 mm zoom has 300/70 = 4.28 times zoom, the Lumix 27 - 486mm (35mm equiv) has 486/27 = 18 times zoom. Don't get confused about that because it's just a guide to the zoom effect of the lens. With these two cameras, the Sony has a Sensor which measures 23.4 x 15.6 mm, the Lumix is 6.12 x 4.51 mm. A 300mm lens on the Sony would give a much better quality image than the 27 - 486mm (35mm equiv) of the Lumix.
Hi Aidrian Thanks for clearing up the info about the sensors. Can I clarify though in regard to getting zoom: did you recommend a 300mm lens or some other size Ian
Hi Aidrian Thank you for the kind advice. I will look at the forums you mentioned too.
I noticed you mentioned there are interchangeable lenses available for the Sony. Could I please ask; do you know whether one would be able to get a lens that would work with this camera, giving the equivalent of about 40x optical zoom and would one be able to get such a lens reasonably cheaply please Yours with thanks Ian
Here is a good review of the Sony http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/SonyNex5N/2 I wouldn't worry too much about the optical zoom as both cameras have different size sensors. (Where the image is captured) The Sony is much bigger and will give better results. For birds with this camera you might get away with a 300mm lens but I'd opt more for the 300mm range. It all depends on how good a result you want. Obviously it won't be cheap as good glass costs money. If you just want record shots, then you could go for a shorter lens and blow up the image in whatever software you have.
Hi Aidrian Thank you for the kind advice. I will look at the forums you mentioned too.
I noticed you mentioned there are interchangeable lenses available for the Sony. Could I please ask; do you know whether one would be able to get a lens that would work with this camera, giving the equivalent of about 40x optical zoom and would one be able to get such a lens reasonably cheaply please Yours with thanks Ian
Sorry for the late reply but I've just noticed this post. Looking at the two cameras, I would go for the Sony as it has interchangeable lenses. You should be able to get some acceptable images with this camera but they will not be as good as a full blown DSLR. You could get some more advice from a digiscoping forum, where there are many experts who attach these types of cameras to their spotting scopes and get fair results. I'm try somewhere like http://www.digiscoping.co.uk/
I am not very knowledgeable about cameras, and would be grateful for any advice please. I have a choice between 2 cameras to acquire, and I wish to do some bird photo's
One is the Panasonic Lumix FZ38 (12.1 megapixels 18X optical zoom) Leica lens. The other is the Sony NEX 5 14.1 megapixels
With the Panasonic one can get an add-on lens that will double the optical zoom
However with the sony one can get strong add-on lenses about 7 inches long.
Could anyone please advise which of the two would be best for me to do birding eg from hides etc
