photography and rarity documentation (long)

GREGORY.B.MILLER@bge.com
Sat, 17 Jan 1998 14:29:27 -0500 

     I read with interest the recent thread on lenses.  I once spent a bit
     of time photographing birds but gave up after much frustration.  Maybe
     I was expecting too much too quickly, but I soon found it required a
     *GREAT* amount of patience to get a great shot (and if you're lucky,
     two).  I found myself more preoccupied with photography than with
     birding.  So I chunked the photography stuff and let that to others
     who had the time/money to invest in good shots.  I figured I could
     enjoy them in magazines and publications.

     This was OK as long as I was not being a wild and crazy birder.  Last
     year I did quite a bit of traveling and birding and consequently saw
     quite a few rarities.  Unfortunately, I was by myself, out of state,
     an unknown birder, and sans photo equipment.  AAAAAAARGH!

     I am yet unwilling to lug around bags of camera and/or sound equipment
     in addition to my binoculars, telescope, and tripod.  Ooof!  So I'm
     looking for a reasonable alternative.  I just returned from a birding
     trip to South Texas in December and carried an inexepensive 8mm video
     camera.  I ended up with some decent coverage of some common birds
     there (Green Jays, Great Kiskadees, Altamira Oriole, Chachalaca,
     Whooping Cranes, etc).  Sizewize it was easy enough to tote around
     with my binoculars.  However, when I tried trekking around with a
     scope, too, I found myself too immobilized.

     I've spent the last couple of months eyeing digital cameras.  While
     digital cameras (under $1000) don't offer the same resolution as
     conventional cameras, they do offer much more than last year's models.
      My favorite selection right now is the Sony Mavica FD-7.  It offers
     VGA resolutiion (640x480 pixels) and has excellent color depth.  It
     also has a built in 10x optical zoom lens.  The biggest advantage with
     this camera is that it uses normal diskettes (yes! the kind you use in
     your PC).  It stores pictures in JPEG format (a common format on the
     Web) on the diskette.  The diskette will hold up to 40 pics at low res
     and 20 pics at high res.  Write time to diskette is between 5-7
     seconds.  The camera is small, compact, and light.

     In other words, if you were out in the field (with a laptop in your
     car or at your hotel), you could take a picture of a bird and look at
     the pics as soon as you fired up your laptop (or home PC).  While this
     all sounds good, I don't have any field experience with this camera.
     And the only shots I've seen were taken indoors...

     Does anyone out there have experience with this camera?  Is there
     anything else like it available?  Would the 640x480 be enough for rare
     bird documentation?  For some birds but maybe not others?  Better than
     nothing or forget it?

     --------------------------------
     Greg Miller
     Lusby, MD
     Home: gregorym@erols.com
     Work: Gregory.B.Miller@bge.com
     --------------------------------