[roadrunner]

Where's Pentax? Where's Rollei? Two cameras I own next to my primary Nikons.

Maybe this forum would be better served without the discussion subdivisions? Just pondering while I wander the BF topics as a newbie...

[KCFoggin]

Ponder away roadrunner. Believe it or not, the Admin does a pretty good job of listening to member's wants. So you never know.

[Andy Bright]

Rollei? you'll be wanting a 'blad forum next? :-) Hardly cameras you see out in the field for bird phtography are they?
You do have a valid point about Pentax though..... we'll see what we can do.
If you do wish to post about slightly more esoteric cameras/formats, this general section (i.e. where you've posted this) should be fine.
Andy

[roadrunner]

LOL, Andy, it's true about Rollei, but cameras come in all shapes and sizes. Mine is a 'baby-rollei', not the exalted twin-reflex. I love it for its travelocity, even though it's a range-finder and forces me to guess exposure and focus distance. I've heard that the newest Rollei's, particularly their digital, have features that make it a good birding camera. And the quality and compactness of my baby-rollei has had me thinking seriously of trying digiscoping.

[normjackson]

I agree with you K C. Admin created a new forum for Panasonic when there seemed a bit of interest (feel guilty now that things have gone quiet...)

I suppose the feasibility (new found technical proficiency of some members and of course the time of year in Northern hemisphere) has meant that we're seeing a lot of interest in insect photography at the moment on BirdForum. I'm reminded that in a thread by Carlos GY about starting out in nature photography someone mentioned Heather Angel; I think she used a 'blad and (maybe still does) for her close-up work. So you never know, Andy.

BTW I'm currently polishing my article for BirdForum on the safest way to remove albatross excrement from the brass on Gandolphi cameras.

[Tannin]

Believe it or not, in my dreams I have found myself thinking about a sort of "Twin Reflex ATS80" lately.

And you know what? If Swarovski (or Leica, or whoever) brought one out - a "double-barrel scope" with one lens for viewing and focussing, the other lens for the camera to go on - I'd order one at 9:00AM tomorrow morning!

(Well, maybe 9:15AM. It would take me 15 minutes to sell my car, wedding ring, and possibly mother in order to raise the money.)

[normjackson]

Hold on to your dreams, Tony.
It wouldn't do to embarrass yourself in public

For some reason your post immediately made me think of William Dobell's caricature of Snowdon? You know the one, where Snowdon has a long tom on the camera round his neck and the camera strap is quite unnecessarily long? Now would this have had half or double the impact with the device of your invention?

[Tannin]

I ain't sayin nuffin!

[normjackson]

Sorry Tony. Put my last post down to a case of heat exhaustion (have had a lie down now).
This takes me back to my response to your very first post where I mentioned the Kowa TD-1 and rambled on about the idea of standards which might encourage more competition between manufacturers, allow upgrade paths for consumers etc etc. You've bought the best there is as far as digiscoping goes, but I guess you can't help your imagination in seeing how things could be better. Maybe you should go ahead and start the thread you said you were going to (with a pseudonym of "Mel" perhaps if you enjoy ridicule) called "What Digiscoper's Want"

[normjackson]

Tony, there's an article on the new "Four Thirds" standard at :

http://www.megapixel.net/html/issueindex.php?lang=en

Click on the red "Articles" on the right to find it.

[Tannin]

sob

[Tannin]

Thankyou, Norm. That looks like a really attractive system. I can see myself buying ... er ... a camera for US $2199, a 600mm equivalent lens for US $7,999. That's ... er .. only .... what is it, 65 Australian cents to the US dollar, plus 10% GST? That's ....

Lots!

No matter. If the format takes off, it will only get cheaper over time, especially if many manufacturers take part and competition sets in.

Interesting reading, real "watch this space" stuff. Thanks for the link.

Tony

[Geoff Brown]

Normjackson & Tannin,

You can pretty well bet that this system will take off especially with the big names in photography and electronics backing it. As you state initially prices will be steep but in a few years time will fall as more and more manufacturers jump onto the next money spinning band wagon. But such is progress another rival system will also come along (probably orchestrated by Sony and a rival consortium) that will be in direct competition to this 4:3 system. It had happened many times in the past and human nature and the spirit of competition will ensure it will still happen again in the foreseeable future.