[Philip Spogard]

I am looking at buying two good digital cameras for golf course photographing - a more 'professional' camera and a pocket sized camera. I am not a camera-wiz to be honest but keen to learn!

I was wondering if anyone had ideas, experience, recommendations, etc. about good cameras, filters and lenses.

If you have any references to websites that show the final picture quality it would be appreciated.

[DMoriarty]

dpreview.com

I'd look for high quality lenses at the wider ranges.  Many good choices. 

[Doug Bolls]

Philip - Here is what I did:
Small camera to carry in the bag and shoot on-the-go and during the round = Canon Elph SD800 IS.  I like the flexible shooting modes, reasonable 3x zoom, great screen and a viewfinder.  It takes wonderful pictures at 7.1 megapixels.  It's been in my bag for the last 3 years and never let me down.  Only downside is it does not have a battery meter - so, I always go out with a fully charged battery.  I would think anything small with 7+++ megapixels is just fine - I would opt for a viewfinder vs one with just a screen.

For the more serious work I chose a Nikon D40X with the Nikon 18-200mm lens.  The most important part of this is putting money into a very good lens.  The camera bodies are changing so rapidly, it's impossible to be ahead of the technology curve for very long.
I chose the D40X after looking seriously at the D80 and the D200.  The 3 cameras are technologically very similar if you look at a side by side comparison on dpreview.  I finally settled on the D40X because it was lighter to carry - that may sound superficial, but the D80 and D200 are all metal and quite heavy.
I have always had Nikon equipment and am especially partial to their zoom lenses - not to say their prime lenses aren't excellent.  I just like the versitility of a zoom - the 18-200 is the best I could find at this time - see www.kenrockwell.com for an extensive review.
Hope this heads you in the right direction - I am sure you could do equally well with all Canon DSLR's - I just prefer Nikon.

[John Mayhugh]

For the pocket sized one, ask Tim Bert what he uses.  Those Pacific Dunes photos are great.

[David Stamm]

The Nikon D series is excellent. I'm still trying to talk my wife into letting me take it to the course.

[J_ Crisham]

David, I think you need to chirp in on McBride's golf dreams! Jack

[Philip Spogard]

Doug,

Thank you for the very good advice.

Have you posted any photos on the site (or on the internet) that shows the result/quality of photos?

Philip

[Wayne_Freedman]

Nikon D-200 with the 18-200 lens for a larger camera. 10+ megs, and the ability to shoot raw files.

Sony DSC-w-150 (8.1 megs) is excellent for throwing into the bag. It has the 35mm equivalent of a 28mm wide angle lens, and has an optical viewfinder that, unlike the Canon, does not suffer from parallax.


Link, here, to photos taken with both.

http://picasaweb.google.com/wayne.freedman/FavoriteGolfPhotos

[wsmorrison]

I highly recommend the Leica D-Lux 3 (10mp) for a small camera (not quite pocket sized) with a nice combination of auto and manual settings.  It has a long list of outstanding features and an excellent viewscreen.  Especially nice for golf course photography and other large scale photographs is the ability to photograph in 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios.  You can stand quite close to a large green and capture the entire image.  It has a great lens system (so I'm told).

[Wayne_Freedman]

Wayne,

That's a lot of money for a small camera. My little Sony also goes 16x9,  although if you shoot full frame, you can always crop later. The Lumix also uses a Leica lens, but does not have an optical viewfinder. If you can't shoot raw, then what is the point? Most cameras are pretty clean, by now. 

Interesting how many of the people who post photos on this site never crop. 4x3 gets old.

Someday, I will throw some 35mm film into my older Nikon, mount a 20mm on front, scan the negs, and Photoshop them to perfection. That might really be the way to go.

[DMoriarty]

I highly recommend the Leica D-Lux 3 (10mp) for a small camera (not quite pocket sized) with a nice combination of auto and manual settings.  It has a long list of outstanding features and an excellent viewscreen.  Especially nice for golf course photography and other large scale photographs is the ability to photograph in 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios.  You can stand quite close to a large green and capture the entire image.  It has a great lens system (so I'm told).

Low and behold, Wayne and I agree!  The Leica has a great lens for a small camera, vivid details and a little wider angle (28 mm) than most small cameras.  In the right setting it takes incredible photos.   Other advantages are that it is relatively easy to operate manually, and it shoots in RAW (without conversion) which gives a wider range of editing options and allows for some reset of settings without losing quality.    The different size formats are nice, but know that in all but 16 X 9 the camera is not using the full sensor, therefor you are losing megapixels.

The disadvantages are that the internal jpg processor (panasonic or contracted out) is not great, and has a noise issue at anything above 100 ISO.  Also, because of this problem in the earlier model (the D-Lux 2, which I have) the newer model (D-Lux 3) has strong noise reduction built in and that reduces the advantage of the great lens and it cannot be turned off.    One can get around this by shooting in RAW and converting to jpeg using a quality conversion program after downloading.  It is a bit of a hassle, but I like to shoot in RAW anyway so it doesn't bother me much.

Last thing.  The camera was produced through a joint venture between Leica and Panasonic.  Both Leica and Panasonic Limux sell essentially the same camera (same lens, same internals) with different branding and a slightly different look.  If you don't care about the Leica logo, then buy the Panasonic which is much cheaper.    I do not know the model number of the comparable Panasonic, but a reputable camera shop will know.

_________________

Wayne Freedman.  Saw your post after typing.  You can shoot in RAW with both the Leica and the Limux.  No viewfinder on either camera.  They are the same camera with a slightly different look.
 

[Philip Spogard]

I understand why it is good to shoot in RAW for maximum detail and edit options (I have experienced with that as well) - but do anyone have advice on using filters or adjusting e.g. the white balance or saturation settings to create better/more dramatic contrasts when shooting in JPG?

[Philip Spogard]

- And thank you all for the great comments and general discussion. Very helpful to someone who doesn't know too much about it!

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