Help on deciding on camera

[Lewie]

I would like to buy a point and shoot digital camera for general use and probably some digiscoping with a pentax 80 scope with a 20-60X eyepiece.

I am now considering the following cameras:
-Casio Z750
-Casio P700
-Fuji F10
-Nikon Coolpix 7900

I am heavily leaning toward the Casio Z750 because it has the least amount of shutter lag. Also the Casio has aperture and shuttery priorty besides all the programs, and the Fuji and Nikon do not.

Any one used any of these, especially Casio Z750?

[didnotbat]

Lewie

My wife has the P700 and uses it mainly for macrophotography of wildflowers, bugs etc. It is a super little camera and the only negatives I have found is the time taken to write to disc (particularly when utilising any of the numerous burst modes) and shutter lag both of which are more noticeable than my with FZ-20.

I am still experimenting with somewhat basic digiscoping with mixed results. My scope is a Swaro ATS 65 with the 20/60 zoom but I do not, as yet, have any dedicated means of attaching the P700. However my wife uses the Canon wide angle lens converter for which you need the corresponding Casio/Canon lens adapter. This has a 49mm body thread and a 58mm 'filter thread' - it also limits the camera zoom to 2X. What I have found is that the diameter of the adapter allows it to be squeezed onto the scope eyepiece to give a tight fit - no hands required to hold it and no lens-to-lens contact. Minimum vignetting occurs at 20X scope zoom giving (at 2X camera zoom = 66mm) a 1300mm equivalent 'lens' . There is still some vignetting but, with 7MP to play with, can be cropped with no discernible loss of quality - generally I crop to leave about 75-80% of original area (leaving about 5.2 MP). Most of my trials to date have been with this set up.

I have experimented also with the teleconverter adapter which comes as part of the adapter package. Winding out the eyecup by various amounts before squeezing on the adapter (also 58mm) allows full use of the scope zoom and the camera zoom can now go up to 4X. Vignetting minimises around 25X scope and 3X camera zoom but deteriorates as lens 'power' increases to maximum (leaving about 60% of original area after cropping) but I doubt whether I am ever going to use an 8000mm 'lens'.

It is therefore not perfect for digiscoping due to what others more expert than I may regard as excessive vignetting. However, with 7MP to play with, I feel I can live with this but may consider the Swaro 30X eyepiece with its greater eye relief. In the meantime, I continue to experiment with the camera - it takes me about 5-10 seconds to attach and line it up and a similar time to focus the scope. Camera is set on Macro/aperture priority and one BIG advantage of the P700 is the IR remote control.

Not sure what the diameter of the Pentax eyepieces are and they are unlikely to be as massive as the Swaro zoom but it should not be a problem to make up a suitable lens adapter.

Finally does anyone have a means of quantifying the degree of vignetting ?

david



david