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I am looking in the 400-600 dollar value. I was looking at the Nikon Coolpix 8700. Im looking for CRISP color and very clear photos, with decent macro. Any ideas?

David
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David and Kevin

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>>I am looking in the 400-600 dollar value. I was looking at the Nikon Coolpix 8700. Im looking for CRISP color and very clear photos, with decent macro. Any ideas?
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>>David

David,

The Coolpix 8700 would make a good camera for photographing herps as it has good macro capabilities, however it would not be a good bird photography camera. For bird photography, you want a lens that is at least 400mm or even 600mm long. The 280mm lens on the 8700 would be inadequate. You could always take pics at that low magnification and then crop, but you could do that with macro pictures as well so if you are willing to crop, any camera will do as long as it has enough resolution.
I would look at the cameras that have lenses of at least 400mm focal length. There are only a few and many of those don't take good macros. It is a tough choice.

There is also the option of those 1.5X magnifiers you can get for the Nikon. That will get you over 400mm which will allow some bird shots. Those magnifiers do diminish the image quality somewhat however.

The real answer is to buy a DSLR and a good macro lens and a good 400mm lens or a decent 28-300 lens. On a DSLR, the 300 mm lens would become 450mm or more, depending on the camera.
But that would run you about $1000.

Tough choice, either way.
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Chris Harrison

Check out the new Coolpix 8800. Go to www.steves-digicams.com for a reveiw, and then to www.bizrate.com to see who has it cheapest on the net. If I didn't already have my Sony, this would be my choice for a digital camera. It has a 35-350mm zoom, with vibration reduction technology.
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Lamar, Debbie, Nathaniel and Iggi :>~

>>Check out the new Coolpix 8800. Go to www.steves-digicams.com for a reveiw, and then to www.bizrate.com to see who has it cheapest on the net. If I didn't already have my Sony, this would be my choice for a digital camera. It has a 35-350mm zoom, with vibration reduction technology.
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>>Lamar, Debbie, Nathaniel and Iggi :>~
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Chris Harrison

Yes, long ago (last year! LOL!) When I bought the Sony, No 8 Mpixel cameras had a 10X zoom. The Sony is only a 7X. I almost bought the Olympus C-8080, but that has only a 5X zoom, but a better lens. The Nikon 8800 sounds like a much improved 8700.
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Lamar, Debbie, Nathaniel and Iggi :>~