Canon lenses

As a long standing SLR user, Kristen, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're all fans of the types of cameras we have but a Bridge Camera is just that.......a bridge between several types of cameras and as Woo says they are getting better and better. The Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, Lumix DMC-FZ200, Fujifilm FinePix X-S1, Nikon Coolpix P510, Olympus SP-820UZ, and Sony Cybershot HX300 have been voted the best Bridge Camera of 2013 and are great cameras.
Most of the Bridge cameras have smaller sensors than DSLRs. don't have interchangeable lens [hence the zoom], and if the Bridge Camera does have a Electronic View Finder they're never 100% of what the lens is seeing and I am a fan of Optical View Finders and only use the screen monitor for tripod held fine focusing and hate holding a camera at arms length to take a shot, plus they have more problems due to image noise because of the small size of the sensor. Having said that, a Bridge Camera is much more flexible as a complete single unit because it has the inbuilt zoom in the lens so you don't have to carry several lenses [as I do!!] although a DSLR lens will deliver a better image in resolution than a Bridge Camera. But I think technology has now got to the stage where if you were shown two images, one taken by a Bridge Camera and one taken by a DSLR, of the same scene you would be hard put to tell the difference..........as seen by the standard of pics taken by everyone on GC. So each to their own, but I'll stick to my good old DSLR Pentax K5

 

I shall stick to both My Nikon DSLR and at the moment my Canon SX50 for comfort and dexterity and for wildlife shots as the equivalent Lens for my Nikon would cost a wing and a leg

 

So true, so true

 

What about CSC's???? I think of them, I guess, in the same terms as I do Bridge Cameras, meant by the manufacturers as a lead in to the enthusiast pic taker to the DSLR....not that that works so well as a lot of people like and stay with a CSC, which is as it should be. I think it's great that each system has it's own fans. Although CSC's now use a APS-C sensor equivalent to a DSLR, and have many of the functions of a DSLR but designed into a smaller more compact body. The trouble, for me, is that in doing so some of the more things that I like in a DSLR are stripped away in order to get that more compact body......such as the Optical View Finder. But again, just like the Bridge Camera which has forged it's own market and fans the CSC has done the same and there are some great ones out there like the Sony NEX-3N, Lumix GM1 etc. I have tried and used both Bridge and CSC and they are really good but somehow there wasn't enough there to keep me and I gravitated to the DSLR and found what I wanted. Those who use and are fans of CSC's and Bridge Cameras have done the same and found what satisfies them.

 

Yes, you have!! But the majority of CSCs don't!! I guess I've always been brought up on Optical View Finders. I tried cameras with Electronic View Finders and screens, and for me, they just don't do the job. I can't seem to connect my eye to my brain when using them as I can when peering though an Optical View Finder.

 

Hi Kristen, I guess it all about personal likes and tastes. Some people like sugar in their tea...I don't!! The EVF doesn't give you all of the image that you're taking a pic of and while there are some good ones out there they're not up to the abilities of an Optical View Finder. The Optical View Finder on my K5 gives me 100% of what I'm looking at.
If you're just using the camera in automatic mode an EVF will, I sure, be great for that but I tend to shoot completely in Manual Mode which gives me more control over a shot and, hopefully, how it will turn out. As I've said previously I've always used Cameras with Optical View Finders and possibly you can't teach an old Dinosaur to eat vegetables!!