Sport Pilot Talk

I 'd rather not use my cellphone to take pictures through the cockpit window. Has anyone had found a simple compact 5x or 8x zoom Point & Shoot camera that takes good pictures of runways from around 500' above Traffic Pattern Altitude through the window?

Yes, but it's not cheap and quite a bit more versatile than the cheapies.

I replaced a stolen Casio point-and-shoot with a Sony DSC-HX-80. It's now my "go to" camera for just about everything. 30x optical zoom, Zeiss lens, 21 Megapixels. Price is around $370. HD video.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/121744227 ... ravel-zoom

JJ Campbell wrote:. . . . Has anyone had found a simple compact 5x or 8x zoom Point & Shoot camera that takes good pictures of runways from around 500' above Traffic Pattern Altitude through the window?

Kodak Instamatic. Pics are not as crisp as an iPhone though.

Scooper wrote:Yes, but it's not cheap and quite a bit more versatile than the cheapies.

I replaced a stolen Casio point-and-shoot with a Sony DSC-HX-80. It's now my "go to" camera for just about everything. 30x optical zoom, Zeiss lens, 21 Megapixels. Price is around $370. HD video.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/121744227 ... ravel-zoom

That is more than I am willing to pay and is too feature-rich for me. Please tell me more about the Casio.

JJ Campbell wrote:That is more than I am willing to pay and is too feature-rich for me. Please tell me more about the Casio.

The Casio was a 5 Megapixel Exilim EX-Z55 with a 3x optical zoom. Sadly, Casio got out of the digital camera business so the only ones I can find online are used but priced in the $50 - $100 range. It was a good, basic zoom "point and shoot" digital camera.

JJ Campbell wrote:I 'd rather not use my cellphone to take pictures through the cockpit window. Has anyone had found a simple compact 5x or 8x zoom Point & Shoot camera that takes good pictures of runways from around 500' above Traffic Pattern Altitude through the window?

I’m in the same boat. My iPhone is on a RAM mount running ForeFlight, so removing it every time I want to take a pic is a PITA. I’m gonna follow Stans lead and take a look at the Sony. I was going to look at digital SLR’s, but the Sony is so compact and feature rich, I think it will fit the bill.

Sling 2 Pilot wrote:

JJ Campbell wrote:I 'd rather not use my cellphone to take pictures through the cockpit window. Has anyone had found a simple compact 5x or 8x zoom Point & Shoot camera that takes good pictures of runways from around 500' above Traffic Pattern Altitude through the window?

I’m in the same boat. My iPhone is on a RAM mount running ForeFlight, so removing it every time I want to take a pic is a PITA. I’m gonna follow Stans lead and take a look at the Sony. I was going to look at digital SLR’s, but the Sony is so compact and feature rich, I think it will fit the bill.

Get them while they are still available - soon there won't be any consumer oriented cameras left -we will end up with high end, professional equipment on one side and consumer personal phones and then nothing in between.

I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W50 that is a 6 megapixel camera with a Zeiss lens that took great pics and videos. It has a 3X optical zoom and a 2.5" LCD display on the back that is easy to see. It's a great point and shoot camera and they can be had very cheap on eBay. It uses a rechargeable battery and comes with a charger. I loved this camera for what it did.

Here's the specs from Amazon and there are used ones left.
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cybershot-D ... B000EGLXTW

Here's one on eBay for $13
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Cyber-sho ... SwESZe-6Qb

Maybe something like this? Kodak - about $80.

https://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Friendly-F ... 058&sr=8-6

chicagorandy wrote:Maybe something like this? Kodak - about $80.

That does look interesting with the 5x optical zoom.

chicagorandy wrote:Maybe something like this? Kodak - about $80.

https://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Friendly-F ... 058&sr=8-6

I decided on this Kodak PIXPRO $79 + $8 for a disk. It arrives before 9 PM today. Fingers crossed!

Brand new 5x optical zoom for $87 sounds like a no brainer. I'm interested in a PIREP after you've had a chance to use it.