• DD Eletronics: http://www.ddelectronics.com.sg/?islocated=Yes
  • (tons of cheap Sigma lens, like 150-500mm, and some camera body)
• ArtworkFoto: http://www.artworkfoto.com/index.html
  • (60 SGD ring flash;12 SGD Portable and lightweight Mini Travel Tripod)
• Old manual lens: http://lens.sg
• Samyang manual lens and mirror lens: http://www.sgcamerastore.com/
  • (got cheap 20+ SGD 1.2kg-holding Flexible Pod, and 8 SGD small one; 10SGD lens pounch; 54 SGD wireless flash trigger set)
  • 35 SGD fotomate monopod, 40 SGD steadepod
• Adapter rings and flash cables: http://www.mymonstercamera.com/
  • (got 40 SGD off-flash cable and 10 SGD shutter remote)
• Chiif Camera: http://www.chiifcameras.com/
• Alan Photo: http://www.alanphoto.com.sg/
• Tin Cheung camera: http://www.tincheungcamera.com.hk/

Bangkok, Thailand

• World Camera: http://shop.worldcamera.co.th/
• Fotofile: http://www.fotofile.net/
• CameraCollection: http://www.cameracollection.net/

Interesting Reading

Film and Digital camera value through years

Bird photography and high zoom FAQs (How much zoom power you need?)

Lens and Works

• food photography
• jewelry photography site01
• product photography
• landscape photography (large format) example
• portrait photography
• sport photography long prime pro speed Pro kit
• macro photography
• bird and safari photography safari guide
• aero photography
• others event based: sports, wedding

Primes

Wide-angle lens

• Full frame advantage on wide-angle lens: example compare on 16-35mm
• tilt-shift lens, a photo demo study: example on 17mm TS lens

for 18-55mm, all kit lens has this range, so no need to talk about it.

note: one lens may be bad for a landscape photographer, but may actually be good enough for portrait photographer.

Because,

1. for landscape and nature scene shot, corner to corner sharpness is more important,
   • fast aperture like f2.8 is not that important, as the scene is not moving
   • shallow depth of field of f2.8 is no use, as landscape scene shot need deep sharp view to the infinity
   • background blur is no use for landscape, as your subject is the background, and you don't want to blur it
2. for portrait shot, corner sharpness is not that important while blurry background is more important
   • fast aperture like f2.8 is important, as people can move fast
   • shallow depth of field of f2.8 is important, as you need blurry background to pop the portrait more
   • corner sharpness is not important as long as your portrait is in the center of lens
3. for close-up shot, like flower or birds, f4 is enough to blur out the background
   • fast aperture like f2.8 is optional, as f4 is enough to blur out the background because of that close object distance of long zoom focus length
   • corner sharpness is not that important, as long as your object is in the center part of lens.

Conclusion on 70-200mm range:

• f2.8 is priority consideration when shooting center-framed portrait is your main goal with lens at this range.
• corner sharpness is priority consideration when shooting landscape is your main goal with lens at this range
• cheap price is priority consideration when you are on a budget,
  • for landscape photographer, choose Canon 70-200mm f4L no-IS version
  • for portrait photographer, choose Sigma f2.8 (fast focus) or Tamron f2.8 (bit slow focus)version
  • for mixed photographer, choose Sigma f2.8, you can always stop aperture down to f5.6 to get corner sharpness back for landscape
• quality is priority consideration when money is no-issue to you and you can earn the money back out from your photos
  • get Canon f2.8 for the flexibility and sharp all the way and blur all the way as you like
• IS (image stabilize) is priority consideration when you shoot in the evening or indoor at most time and don't want to carry a tripod

on a 1.6x crop factor Canon DSLR, it means 44-112mm range.

on 1.6x crop factor Canon DSLR, it means 80mm and 136mm.

that means, on crop factor of 1.6, 12.8mm-38mm. (<35mm)

Generally, 14mm (135 format), that is 22mm(1.6crop), which is quite wide for very close portrait+environment shot and indoor.
10mm (135 format), that 16mm (1.6 crop), which is extreme wide for city,
8mm (12mm), which is amazing for nature wide angle shot.

Note: on a 1.6x or 1.5 crop DSLR,those non-full-frame one, as most DSLR, loses the 17mm -35mm wide angle with the so-called kit lens (17-55mm equ. 27-88mm).

Thus, the actual 17-28 range is missing from most DSLR cameras starting from the Kit lens.
and a extra wide lens is required to capture that wide angle.

On a 1.6x crop factor Canon DSLR, it means 480mm to 800mm range,
which finally match today's super zoom compact's 840mm (Canon SX30IS)

note: long focus length zoom lens has advantage of flexibility for unpredictable situation, while long focus length prime lens has better image quality in term of sharpness and fast aperture.

Thus,

1. when object is predictable, Prime is preferred, like locational sports
2. when critical fast reaction speed and superior quality are priority, Prime is preferred
3. when object is hard to track and moving in various distance, Zoom is preferred, like widelife shots
4. fast super-telephoto prime lens with f2.8 or f4 or f5.6 at 400-800mm range can be extremely heavy and expensive (more than 5000 SGD), so not discussed here. (600mm f4 in use)
5. Image Stabilize feature is a key feature for this super-telephoto range, with so-called “IS OS VR”, it greatly stops the shake

Flexibility of Prime super-telephoto lens,

1. fast prime super-telephoto lens can use 1.4x extension or 2.0x to get extra reach,
   • 300mm F4 prime with 2.0x extension becomes 600mm F8, still maintaining good image quality but manual focus on general DLSR.
   • 400mm f5.6 prime with 2.0x extension becomes 800mm F11, still maintain good image quality but manual focus or every slow auto focus

Flexibility of fast telephoto zoom lens,

1. fast and high quality telephoto lens can use 1.4x extension or 2.0x to become super-telephoto zoom
   • 70-200mm f2.8 zoom lens with 2.0x extension becomes 140-400mm f5.6 zoom lens. still maintaining good image quality and auto focus
   • 70-200mm f4 with 2.0x produce 140-400mm f8, with certain degree of “auto focus”
   • 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 with 1.4x to become 140-560mm f6.3-7.8 with autofocus gallery compare result with 1.4x and 2x ext (200-800mm f9-f11) and both (280-1120mm f12.6-f15.3)

Quality of general super-telephoto zoom lens,

1. general and slow super-telephoto zoom lens with f6.3 and lower can still use extension, but image quality will decrease quite a bit, and manual focus only.
2. extension generally designed for high quality fast primes and zooms that can afford the light decrease through extension.

ref: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-90mm-f-2.8-Di-Macro-Lens-Review.aspx

The important research artcile on this Question:

• What “Mega Pixel war race” bring to us: MP resolution vs print test.
• Standard photo 4R size need just 2M (all size listed): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_print_sizes
• resolution to size theoretically without resize: http://www.unlikelymoose.com/more/cameras/megapixel_converter.html

Check these 2 images

Note:

• The 100% view of them on screen are all not-perfect
• the compact HS10: the image quality is not sharp, color fringing on lines, smearing on surface
• the DSLR Pentax kx: the image is not shot steady, and bit blur on flower details.
• A850 image is not sharp in the central wood as well at 100% because of focus is not set precisely on the wood
• the 5D shot is a little better at noise clearness, but seems the focus is not shift to eye precisely.
• Leica is famous for its optical quality, while generally, people who spend so much on that kind of camera, normally has a steady hand and sharp eye to focus right.

Note 2:

• use Browser's “Ctrl+” “Ctrl-” key to zoom out the images into 50%,
• both images looks sharp and detail now, sharp clear fur from HS10, and contrasty flower from Kx

Conclusion:

• why zooming to 50% gives you good result from either Compact or DSLR,
• Why zooming to 100% hardly gives you perfection
• Because
  1. simply human is not good at achieving 100% perfection, even with good camers
  2. nowadays camera all got around 14MP or 16MP high resolution sensor, they are designed to provide with enough resolution even at 50% scale
  3. you can get good perfect 50% scaled image at 7-8MP from any camera with relatively good steady hand
• for printing, based on this MegaPixel Myth
  1. 7-8MP can print out good How-big-photo, a simple guide is
     1. How big the Photo looks at 50% on your standard Computer Monitor, put a paper on monitor, then you got the idea
• How sharp my photo can be, check this article
  • Maximum Sharpness is all about your steady hand when holding the camera,
    • Camera tiny hand-shake can ruin the images. and motion blur out the image,
    • so, next time, use a tripod and camera not moving and your targets not moving within at least 1 second
    • With a Huge MegaPixel, that means, at 100% view, that large resolution will record clearly your even-tiny-hand-shaking caused exposure bluriness.
    • The last key factor is focusing on the right spot, as Digital Compacts generally don't have a lens barrel ring to do precise mannual focus, DSLR with all the full manual focus lens gives advantage, but FujiFilm bridge camera series and Sony new HX100v, these compact cameras also features a manual focus ring.

• panasonic Lumix DMC FZ30: king of super zoom 2005(review)
  • 1/1.8 CCD sensor, 8MP, RAW capable, 640×480 video, 12x manual zoom and focus capable super zoom (35-420mm IS), 720g, Lithium Ion battery
• Sony H1: 2005 - my first super zoom and my 2nd digital camera, everything is good except precise tune of focus for bird shot
  • 1/2.5 CCD sensor, 5MP, no RAW, VGA video, 12x optic zoom, (36-432mm IS),438g, AA battery
• other as bellow

"Megazoom camera history and advangtage" moves to a new page.

Check list for mounts capability:

1. aperture control capability, as some lens may not have a aperture ring;
2. check whether the lens can focus infinity on mounts;
3. check whether mounts have Focus Confirmation Chip built-in

As high quality lens can get extremely expensive, renting one becomes more reasonable and affortable than buying one,

as some extreme heavy and expensive lenses are not used that often.

• Camera Rental - http://sg.camerarental.biz/

• since 2011, my research result on cheapest solution to DSLR is
  1. buy 2nd hand 2 year old technology for best price, it is almost 1/3 of original launch price or current lastest
  2. buy old manual focus lens, they are good enough for family use
  3. buy very cheap, and sell it cheap for slight better thing.
• in electronics age, things get cheaper every day, better buy what you need and use it fully for its value
• dont waste money on buying expensive, and never use