‘Telescopick lens for a smart phone

[The Dotties]

Bought an “all singing all dancing“ telescopic lens to fit a Samsung S20 as a Christmas prezzie.
Paid a reasonable price for it and guess what? Absolute c**p doesn’t cover it!
Does anybody have first hand knowledge of a decent lens to fit.
I appreciate I’m not going to get canon/Nokia performance but Mrs Dottie wants to be able to carry it with her for occasional opportunities to get bird or wildlife snaps.
All suggestions gratefully received

 

[Otter Spotter]

Not really going to work, most people use a spotting scope and attachment for wildlife, but not compact by any means.

 

[The Dotties]

Dave, What is the best way to go about wildlife style photos.
Small lightweight camera download over WiFi preferred must be easy to use, point and shoot

 

[SpeedyDux]

Something like my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 compact camera with its Leica 30x optical zoom lens? (There are updated models available with the kind of download facility you want). It can't provide the resolution you get with a full digital SLR, but the zoom pics are still pretty impressive for such a small gizmo that fits into a pocket or handbag.

Warning - when I lent it to Duxette she complained the controls are too complicated. Battery life between charges can be a bit short. I don't know if there is a quality point-and-shoot compact digital camera that ticks all the boxes.

 

[pappajohn]

I bought this one for Shirl... Also total pile of crap
It will be returned as not fit for purpose.
Telephoto works in a fashion but that's it.

Amazon product ASIN B07K8CRWJK

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[Lenny HB]

Something like my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 compact camera with its Leica 30x optical zoom lens? (There are updated models available with the kind of download facility you want). It can't provide the resolution you get with a full digital SLR, but the zoom pics are still pretty impressive for such a small gizmo that fits into a pocket or handbag.

Warning - when I lent it to Duxette she complained the controls are too complicated. Battery life between charges can be a bit short. I don't know if there is a quality point-and-shoot compact digital camera that ticks all the boxes.

Agree the Lumix TZ's are good we have a TZ60 bought a mint secondhand one last year to replace our 5/6 year old one that was playing up. Couldn't find any new compacts that would give the same facilities with the quality.

 

[Realist]

I've also tried and tested so called phone lens attachments and yes they are all crap.

Stick to a proper camera cant go wrong.

 

[The Dotties]

I bought this one for Shirl... Also total pile of crap
It will be returned as not fit for purpose.
Telephoto works in a fashion but that's it.

Amazon product ASIN B07K8CRWJK

The nice man at Amazon said send it back, here’s a sticky label.
FOC. The old adage of if it’s too good to be true……

 

[Otter Spotter]

Dave, What is the best way to go about wildlife style photos.
Small lightweight camera download over WiFi preferred must be easy to use, point and shoot

I am afraid your asking the wrong person, as I go the whole hog and spend £1000’s on Mirrorless cameras and zooms reaching 500mm. For the occasional wildlife shots I believe there a one or 2 mobile phones with zooms, then consider bridge cameras with 20 to 30x zooms, after that you can get a good 2nd setup of a Canon Body say 7d2 and a 100 to 400mm zoom from MPB.com or Wex. It really depends on how much wildlife you want to chase and how much you want to spend.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Or,
Amazon product ASIN B07216C4V6Sneak up on the little feathered feckers.
Anoter vote for the LUMIX DMC TZ. I have the 70, and it has the sight glass, an essential as the mincers start to wane.
Mike.

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[Spriddler]

Stick to a proper camera cant go wrong.

Agreed. I use a proper camera but it's useless for making phone calls.

 

[The Dotties]

Thanks all for the replies and suggestions, I’ll look into the TZ series.
Geoff

 

[Langtoftlad]

No personal experience of this but if you want telefoto on a phone camera ... have a look at Samsung S20 Ultra... 100x zoom apparently.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Something like my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 compact camera with its Leica 30x optical zoom lens? (There are updated models available with the kind of download facility you want). It can't provide the resolution you get with a full digital SLR, but the zoom pics are still pretty impressive for such a small gizmo that fits into a pocket or handbag.

Warning - when I lent it to Duxette she complained the controls are too complicated. Battery life between charges can be a bit short. I don't know if there is a quality point-and-shoot compact digital camera that ticks all the boxes.

I still have a Panasonic GF2 micro 4/3rds camera. Interchangeable lenses so can be a pocket camera or not. Having said that, the digital processing on an IPhone (other inferior brands are available ) is superb and takes wonderful photos both at long range and in low light

it is old so many superior versions are available nowadays

 

[kevenh]

When I saw how ridiculously large the optical zooms were getting on compact cameras I researched it - probably at DPReview.com

I found Canon were well thought of and had released a new superzoom compact that I fancied, but I realised “last year’s model” also ticked a lot of boxes and with sellers dropping prices to make way for the new model it was a no brainier.
Oh! I got a Canon Powershot sx620 hs*

I get photos as good as a top of range smart camera but with a huge optical zoom.
*- That camera model was a few years ago so I’d have to do the “current_model” minus one formula again

My usage is for grabbing pics of bands at gigs and festivals

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[Realist]

Agreed. I use a proper camera but it's useless for making phone calls.

That why we humans also buy a phone and they are small enough to fit in one’s pocket these’s days.

 

[Minxy]

No personal experience of this but if you want telefoto on a phone camera ... have a look at Samsung S20 Ultra... 100x zoom apparently.

Its actually 10x optical zoom, the rest is digital zoom however this is partly compensated for by the high megapixel size.

 

[kevenh]

Its actually 10x optical zoom, the rest is digital zoom however this is partly compensated for by the high megapixel size.

Handy to know the range of optical zoom v digital zoom.

I haven’t heard of a change in how it’s done so expect this initial method of digital zoom is still true: in camera digital zoom is just resolution cropping.

My preference is to disable or ignore a camera’s digital zoom and only use optical zoom.
Then, if needed, any further zoom can be done later on a computer with simple photo editing apps/programs.

 

[Minxy]

Handy to know the range of optical zoom v digital zoom.

I haven’t heard of a change in how it’s done so expect this initial method of digital zoom is still true: in camera digital zoom is just resolution cropping.

My preference is to disable or ignore a camera’s digital zoom and only use optical zoom.
Then, if needed, any further zoom can be done later on a computer with simple photo editing apps/programs.

Exactly, you simply cannot beat optical zoom which keeps the same quality of images at 1x or 30x ... depending on how steady the person holding the camera is of course!

 

[cyberyacht]

I've got a Canon SX30 iS (35x zoom) which I've had for about 12 years. Newer versions have even more powerful zooms and more pixels. The real limitation of this is the user.

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[kevenh]

I've got a Canon SX30 iS (35x zoom) which I've had for about 12 years. Newer versions have even more powerful zooms and more pixels. The real limitation of this is the user.

a newer model in that Canon SX range, theSX70, has this zoom range: -
Focal length (equiv.) 21–1365 mm
Optical zoom 65×