Experience with Nikon S7c or S4? (1 Viewer)

P

paxtonm

Member

• Dec 28, 2006

• #1

Hello all,

Shopping for a camera to mate with my 85 mm Zeiss and 20-60x eyepiece. The Nikon S4 looks attractive, primarily because of its articulating screen. The newer S7c also intrigues due to its compactness, image stabilization and what appears to be pretty robust construction.

Anyone have experience with either of these?

THanks,
Mark

 

rka

ttbirds

• Dec 29, 2006

• #2

paxtonm said:

Hello all,

Shopping for a camera to mate with my 85 mm Zeiss and 20-60x eyepiece. The Nikon S4 looks attractive, primarily because of its articulating screen. The newer S7c also intrigues due to its compactness, image stabilization and what appears to be pretty robust construction.

Anyone have experience with either of these?

THanks,
Mark

Click to expand...

From the initial 7c reviews, I think it would be frustrating for digiscoping. Still waiting for a good new digiscoping camera from Nikon.

 

A

aussiechick

Member

• Dec 29, 2006

• #3

hi paxtonm i have Nikon S4 and it's a great little camera but i haven't had any success with digiscoping with it. All the internal lenses are a problem. It's fine for taking piks of birds sitting still(without the scope) but hopeless for tracking if they are in flight. Good Luck!

 

mports

Well-known member

• Jan 21, 2007

• #4

Nikon seem to think that the S1, S3, S5, S6, S7c, S8 & S9 cameras are suitable for digiscoping as they have just launched a new bracket for the Nikon fieldscopes - The FSB-5.

I managed to pick up a S9 at the right price and I've just been playing around hand holding the camera and the results are promising, zero vignetting, however plenty of camera shake becuase I don't have the bracket yet.

Nothing interesting enough to post as a sample yet 8-P

 

Last edited: Jan 21, 2007

mports

Well-known member

• Jan 24, 2007

• #5

Just to follow up on my last post, I like to add the following information / findings:

Just about all of the S Series camera's listed in my last post for use with the FSB-5 bracket seem to be basic point and shot, with no manual controls, in fact the only thing you can change is the ISO rating.


The S9 has a fixed aperture of f3 (at the wide end of the zoom) and uses a grey electronic ND filter to control the exposure. However I have found that this appears to be crudely implemented, causing the camera to automatically select a slow shutter speed, sometimes resulting in images blurred by camera shake even in bright sunlight. The lens also exhibits a bit of vignetting, or light fall-off at the corners.


Even more worrying if the flash placement, whilst it's fine for general photography, but if you're planning to play with any of the S Series for digiscoping MAKE SURE YOU DISABLE THE FLASH. I found the flash to be so powerful that it'll melt rubber eyecups with ease !!


On reflection I'd have to say that none of the S series camera's would appear to be suitable for digiscoping.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2007