Alaska Camera Recommendation
View on Amazon
View on Amazon
Getting to the point quick, I recommend a Canon Powershot SX70. But really most decent to higher end "Bridge" cameras will be good. I listed some on the top of the page.
Now what is a bridge camera you may ask. They are typically a middle ground or "bridge" between a basic small point and shoot camera, and a higher end DSLR/Mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses.
These camera tend to also have what they would consider a "Super Zoom" type lense system. These tend to be compared to anything from a 400mm to 1300mm zoom is compared to a full frame 35mm camera.
For the wide angle shots it can be near 18 to 25mm for very wide views. So with one of these style cameras, you can take the large landscape shots then if you see something great, you can quickly zoom
in to get the Bald Eagle shot! You do not need to change or buy a wide variety of lenses with the nicer DSLR style cameras. So yes some of these are still pricy, but you have
something that is very flexible to take every type of photo you may like to do.
I do like canon myself and have owned now 3 of their bridge cameras. The S2 IS, SX30, SX60. The SX70 was still newer and was able to get the SX60 used in great shape. There is not
a lot of differences in the 60 vs 70, except some slightly newer tech, and one thing I wished for is the ability to also take RAW images that the SX70 now has. Below I will show some unedited (I am lazy and not good at editing)
from my last Alaska trip!
We did not have time to get close to the falls or glacier itself, so with this camera I was able to seem like we were much closer than we were. These were just taken hand held with no tripod or anything. The camera has excellent image stabilization which is really needed in those super zoomed in shots. As any little shake would move the image greatly!
The eagle was in Sitka on our way back to the ship, just sitting in someones front yard across the street from us. Not a full zoom, but enough to get the eagle and the vibrant green grass around it.
A raven in sitka also, again not a full zoom, but you can see it being in focus and the background being slightly blurry to him him stand out. If this was a high end camera that blue effect may be more.
The next is a silhouette of my daughter in Sitka. With this, I did edit to just have her arms make up the frame width, and turned it into a 16"x20" wrapped canvas print. Even which a pretty large crop in and blowing it up to that large size the image still looks great where people compliment the print every time they see it!
I do not remember how far away the whale was when I took it, but the zoom was pretty far. On a boat bobbing in the water, still able with the image stabilization get a good shot like this. Yea I didnt frame it properly, but you have little time to get the shot, and I could edit it to make it look better, but again no edits on these. ***PRO TIP*** Dont be stupid like me, and forget all about burst shooting mode! I would have gotten much better shots! But totally slipped my mind at the time! The Canon SX60 can do about 5 shots per second if I remember right. Not crazy fast, but fast enough for most things.
The last is of Haines from the back of the ship while eating lunch of just the snow capped mountains there, just a beautify shot while enjoying lunch with the glory of nature every where you could see!
Below is 2 shots taken at 9 PM with very low light. Both did not get a great shot, but I did need to take more shots with the SX60 while hand holding to get a mostly clear shot. On a tripod this wouldnt be much of an issue. But just to say the higher end R100 camera was easier to get the shot. Can you guess which is which though? The fist one is the SX60. As you can see it actually has a higher zoom than the R100 with the 400mm zoom lens.
The R100 View On Amazon $499
RF 100mm to 400mm lens View On Amazon $599
SX70 View On Amazon $649
So to get similar range of shooting with the Canon Powershot SX70 , The entry level R100 and entry level RF100mm to 400mm lens it would cost $1098
and still not have as much zoom compared to the SX70. To be fair though, the R100 beats the SX70 in performance, but if you never used one, you would not even know!
My daughter was happy with how my SX60 shot and could zoom and get birds and other things in my back yard. However when I got my R100 she was surprised with how fast
it would focus and the image stabilization taking advantage of that fast focus!
I still plan to use my SX60 as when I need to wider view the 100mm minimal length of the big lens just does not work for wide landscape shots. So it is more versatile,
without having to fumble around and change out lenses or buy even more expenses lenses to get a large range of options. Let along the SX70 being about 1.4 pounds,
vs the R100 with zoom lens setup being a lil more than 2.5 pounds. That extra weight does make a difference esp when the lens is fully out and wanting to tip down.
At the top of the page I included some other brands. I have only used a Panasonic bridge in that line up, and older FZ80. This shot just as well as the Canon SX60,
and had a number of extra features that made it better. However the Canon had better image stabilization, which made it win out for me. However one thing I
wanted being RAW image support, it had, and the canon did not, the new SX70 has this support! The Sony camera looks like a beast in specs and basically is a very
high end camera that just has a large zoom. The Nikon looks to get great reviews as well, as the Minolta looks to be loved also, but again never touched them so I do not know.