Cameras I have used for this blog

I've been asked what camera I use for my photos and videos so here is a post dedicated to them and my reviews of them.

I've used four cameras actually. I started out by using a Panasonic Lumix ZS5. It is a small point and shoot camera with good video-taking abilities. It doesn't have much zoom but it is a good pocket-sized camera to use for candid snaps. I will continue to use this camera for random pics since it is so reliable and takes sharp images quickly. I do recommend this camera for walks about town and video in a pinch. Examples of photos taken with the Lumix:

Pip on the right, Violet or Bobby on the left:

Because I needed extra zoom to photograph the red-tailed hawks, I upgraded to the Canon PowerShot SX30 IS. I was very fond of this camera but I heard it's being discontinued. It had great zoom for a point and shoot and had remarkable image stabilization in photos and video. It had its limitations of course. Because images at full zoom were not razor sharp and colors were muted, I had to do a fair amount of post-editing to make the colors stand out, etc. That is typical for a non DSLR camera. I used it from about late May to September. Examples from the PowerShot:

The Canon PowerShot got damaged (my fault) so for the following couple of months I used the Nikon Coolpix P500. It took very good photos (comparable to the Canon PowerShot) with similar zoom but unfortunately, the image stabilization during video was worse than the PowerShot so my videos were only decent when zoomed out. Like the Canon PowerShot, images of subjects at full zoom were not very sharp but were decent enough for a non DSLR point and shoot camera. I used this camera from mid-September to the first week of November. I still tote it with me to take after-work photos of the roost and neighborhood. Examples:

Because some of the limitations of the Nikon were becoming increasingly frustrating and I had been considering graduating to a proper SLR camera with interchangeable lenses for some time, after much research into what camera would satisfy my zooming and active wildlife photo-taking needs, I settled on the Canon EOS 7D with the 28-135mm kit lens. For zoom, I bought the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens. I'm still learning how to use the new camera (SLR is a different world than automatic point-and-shoots) but I'm very satisfied with the results so far and will stick with this combo for some time. I used it for the first time last weekend in auto mode and for such a simple setting, it performed exceptionally well. I had to do practically zero post-editing on the images after I downloaded them. I'm excited to see how much I can do with this new combo. Photos from my first outing with the new kit: