Hi,
While I had both telephoto cameras out yesterday evening, this Yellow-rump obligingly perched in a tree close by, and even more obligingly stayed in 1 spot long enough to take a pic with each.
The first is with the Sony DSC-H5 12X optical zoom, with a DSC-1758 1.7X extender added on, shot at jpeg fine. The second is with the Nikon D70s dSLR with Tamron 200-500mm. lens, shot in Raw (Nef) and processed in Raw Shooter Premium 2006. Both were hand-held.
Both were cropped and resized, and then sharpened and NeatImaged, in Elements 3, to get the best final result I could.
In these web-sized pics I think the image quality is perhaps slightly better in the D70 pic, but this clearly shows in the full sized jpeg before downsizing for the web. In that version, the D70 pic is disctinctly less pixelated, more detail, subtler and richer colors, and I suspect that would also the case if making a 8 X 10 or larger print.
The H5 at 12 X zoom, with the 1.7X extender, is supposed to be the equivalent of a 734mm. lens on a 35mm., and the Tamron at 500mm. is supposed to be the equivalent of a 700mm. with the D70, on a 35mm. The D70/ Tamron combo is about twice the price and many times the length and weight of the H5 combo, but much quicker to get onto the bird and much more fun to use as long as I don't have to carry it too far!. The H5 is certainly adequate for most purposes as long as you don't have to crop too severely, and makes a great travelling camera.
Richard
Richard