[Nick Leech]

Dear friends

Do people think the Canon S95 or the Nikon P300 would be better for digiscoping with a Swarovski ATM80HD with 25-50 zoom?

I would be initially using a Swaro DCA adapter. Would it be worthwhile moving to the Swaro UCA? Does this affect choice of camera between the above two models?

Any advice gratefully received !

[Neil]

Nick,
The S95 is a better camera but slow. For distance digiscoping , over water and mudflats always go for the best quality lens, which would be the S95.
For less than 50 meters and garden shooting the P300/310 is much faster for capturing action. It's lens is not Nikon ED glass though.
I would still prefer the Nikon P6000 on the UCA adapter for the 25 - 50 zoom ,over the S95 though. It's got the Nikon ED glass lens which is great for distance work.
Neil

[ianreid]

Nick,

I agonised about this question for some time, with my musings and results in the P300 forum. I now use a P300 with my Swarovski AT80HD (old) with the 20-60S zoom (new).

Not sure how you would attach the DCA to the P300, but I can't comment further on the choice of adaptor since I use a zero cost custom made plastic job that works quite well for me (also see P300 forum for pics).

Neil has already mentioned the lower quality glass in the P300 and I definitely notice this, especially as I have to zoom in beyond halfway to eliminate vignetting with the 20-60 eyepiece. In high contrast scenes purple fringing can be quite extreme.

However on the plus side the P300 is cheaper (about 2/3 price), the screen is big and bright, and (the clincher for me) it can shoot full 1080p HD and zoom during video, while the S95 is "only" 720p and you can't zoom while videoing.

Cheers, Ian