Thread: Best zoom camera for hunting trips

Originally Posted by littlemorepork

I have a mint Swaro scope, CTS 85. That weighs almost 2 kg. My Nikon weighs 600 gramm.
For the scope I would need a cellphone adapter which costs around 500 Kiwi-Dollar
and it cant take immages.So all in all a spotting scope is not an option for me anymore.
I‘m definately looking into a new camera.

Not trying to change your mind, but in my situation I'm already carrying a spotter and phone.
Magview adaptor is $400, or less if sourced offshore.
An extra six or so hundred grams for a camera doesn't make sense to me. Especially with the quality of most phone cameras now.
One really good feature of the Mag view is it is a very good lense cover. Way better than the crappy little rubber cup that comes with the spotter.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Not trying to change your mind, but in my situation I'm already carrying a spotter and phone.
Magview adaptor is $400, or less if sourced offshore.
An extra six or so hundred grams for a camera doesn't make sense to me. Especially with the quality of most phone cameras now.
One really good feature of the Mag view is it is a very good lense cover. Way better than the crappy little rubber cup that comes with the spotter.

@7mmwsm
Thanks for your input. I never carried both. It was either the spotter or the camera. A spotter is too heavy for me to carry around all day. A camera is much lighter and smaller and can still be used as kind of spotter. So the idea was to go for a camera with higher magnification.

The Nikon p950 is good. Can find it on special from time to time from the likes of Noel Leeming. A few extra batteries from Ali and a charge pack powered off a battery bank.
I’ve moved to a magview on a Swaro similar to 7mmwsm above. One thing that I have noticed is when the magview is put on the Swaro ATC is makes viewing through the spotter a bit awkward. It prevents my eyeball from properly “getting in”, restricting the available field of view. I’ve not found a solution for that yet, but with an iPhone, fantastic.

Yes the P900 does have an image stabiliser built in. It was a spotter or camera I was looking it - the camera won out for great animal pics up to 250 metres out of the heat (heat shimmy ruins many pics). Distance viewing to check size of animal - pic is secondary for max zoom. Photographs submitted to most hunting magazines or competitions - doubt many cellphones pics make the grade - so one of the magazine editors told me.
My older Canon SX60 was doing the hard yards but at its limit for zoom (got me placings in competitions & in a few magazine publications).
What I did forget to check on the P900 was that you cannot fit a remote audio mic on them - just have to use the in built one for recordings - very average. As always, I carry two spare batteries. Aside the P900 has taken great video from a heli when chasing deer in the alps. Again doubt a cellphone could zoom in and provide descent field of view while keeping steady. Those that know me have seen my pics/vids.

Thanks guys for you further contributions.
Seems like a Nikon 900 or a 950 might be a good upgrade from my Nikon 600.
@Hunteast
I still have a Nikon D200. Me and my wife took many fly fishing pictures over the years. Some of them made it into magazines and books.
We love that camera. But for the same reason (weight issue) we switched to a Z50 which makes good pictures too and weighs 500 gramm less. Thats a lot! The D200 is simply too bulky and heavy in comparison.

Cheers Littlemorepork

Problem with the "just use a spotter" mindset is you are then stuck in one place, on a tripod, to take a photo or video of anything. Funny how everything has done a complete 180 a few years back if you looked on the forum everybody would tell you not to waste money on a spotter and buy a sx50. Camera has its place, so does a spotter.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Problem with the "just use a spotter" mindset is you are then stuck in one place, on a tripod, to take a photo or video of anything. Funny how everything has done a complete 180 a few years back if you looked on the forum everybody would tell you not to waste money on a spotter and buy a sx50. Camera has its place, so does a spotter.

yep, everybody has to find out, what suits him/her best. There‘s no right or wrong!

I have an SX60 to try out, its not mine but if it does what I need it can be.

I’ve been using a SX60 for about 5 - 6 years now. Still does the trick. The only time I prefer a spotter is tahr hunting where evaluating horns just can’t be done the same with the camera. I’m a hunter though not a photography guru.