BIIIGGGG Zoom...

Hi folks

I'm currently the vey happy owner of an Olympus E-10 (oy, stop that booing!). Anyway, the E-10 is a nice enough camera with a 4x zoom lense. And now the 995 is here, also with a 4x zoom lense.

A friend of mine recently got a Crystal Vue 8x32 monocular to fit on his Nikon 800, and I was impressed with the results. So, I'm thinking about a 995 as a 2nd camera... (if my bank will let me!). But, I'm concerned about a couple of things...

1) How is the sharpness? (ie. the infamous battary shot!)

2) CCD degradation time before hot pixels (my friend's Nikon 800 is currently back at Nikon for 30+ hot pixels)

So, my questions I guess are really...

a) Is the Nikon 900 actually better quality than the 995?
b) What other cameras have a small lense (ie. around 20mm diameter)?

Thanks
Excal

Excal said:

Hi folks

I'm currently the vey happy owner of an Olympus E-10 (oy, stop that
booing!). Anyway, the E-10 is a nice enough camera with a 4x zoom
lense. And now the 995 is here, also with a 4x zoom lense.

A friend of mine recently got a Crystal Vue 8x32 monocular to fit
on his Nikon 800, and I was impressed with the results. So, I'm
thinking about a 995 as a 2nd camera... (if my bank will let me!).
But, I'm concerned about a couple of things...

1) How is the sharpness? (ie. the infamous battary shot!)

2) CCD degradation time before hot pixels (my friend's Nikon 800 is
currently back at Nikon for 30+ hot pixels)

So, my questions I guess are really...

a) Is the Nikon 900 actually better quality than the 995?
b) What other cameras have a small lense (ie. around 20mm diameter)?

Thanks
Excal

Click to expand...

I bought the TCON300 for the E-10. I also, bought the Kenko lens some time ago for the Nikon 990.

The E-10 TCON300 is far better. Ok, it costs a lot more too.

The difficulty with focussing on the Nikon 990 is also a problem. You need an LCD shade/cover with eyepiece. The advantage of the Nikon 990/995 is that you can interface it to a telescope (real big lens) quite easily.

You might want to see what the new Oly C-4040 is going to be like. It should be able to take a monocular or telescope. Its also 4 Megapixel, unlike the Nikon 995.

Paul

Paul Hurditch said:

I bought the TCON300 for the E-10. I also, bought the Kenko lens
some time ago for the Nikon 990.

The E-10 TCON300 is far better. Ok, it costs a lot more too.

Click to expand...

How do you mean "better"? Image quality? Light gathering? I'm particularly interested in the use of the Crystal Vue 8x32 monocular (very nice optics, but small, so small camera required to start with, ie. not an E-10!), which would give 8x*4x=32x zoom. The TCON300 can't compete that far surely? Or do you mean the Kenko VC-200Hi, which yes, won't compete with the TCON by any stretch of the imagination!

Paul Hurditch said:

The difficulty with focussing on the Nikon 990 is also a problem.
You need an LCD shade/cover with eyepiece. The advantage of the
Nikon 990/995 is that you can interface it to a telescope (real
big lens) quite easily.

Click to expand...

Hmm, yeah I guess not be TTL could be a problem here (esp. in bright sun light).

Paul Hurditch said:

You might want to see what the new Oly C-4040 is going to be like.
It should be able to take a monocular or telescope. Its also 4
Megapixel, unlike the Nikon 995.

Click to expand...

Nice idea, but it seems it's the same lense as before, so a very nice quick 3x, but a little too large for the Crystal Vue 8x32 (37mm thread, 20mm final optic).

Comments / suggestions anyone? What's the best digi-cam for use with a CV8x32?

Excal

Excal,

Depends on how you are going to use the lens and btw all of the Nikon's do a good job. The small 28mm lens is perfect for use with other devices such as telescopes and tele converters. I still use the 950 but the 995 would be better if you are using a scope. The higher resolution allows for more cropping of the original image and it also has a 4x zoom.

The power of the Crystal Vue makes for a low cost monocular for bird watching. Some limitations are quality, focus, and light. But the price is right for the added power and limited use. I've seen some great shots taken with it using a tripod in daylight conditions. Remember the Crystal Vue is not a quality camera lens or even a "scope" and it will take some work to get good shots.

If you want some additional power without loss of quality, focus, or light then consider the TC-E2 TCON-14B Combo. For action shots this is the way to go. Do a search on the forum for TCON-14B and Crystal Vue and you will find a lot of posts.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=1077067

If you have an real interest in "digiscoping" you should consider a quality high power scope. Search the Internet for digiscoping and you will find some photo quality scopes.
http://www.md.ucl.ac.be/peca/test/tech.html

Excal said:

Hi folks

I'm currently the vey happy owner of an Olympus E-10 (oy, stop that
booing!). Anyway, the E-10 is a nice enough camera with a 4x zoom
lense. And now the 995 is here, also with a 4x zoom lense.

A friend of mine recently got a Crystal Vue 8x32 monocular to fit
on his Nikon 800, and I was impressed with the results. So, I'm
thinking about a 995 as a 2nd camera... (if my bank will let me!).
But, I'm concerned about a couple of things...

1) How is the sharpness? (ie. the infamous battary shot!)

2) CCD degradation time before hot pixels (my friend's Nikon 800 is
currently back at Nikon for 30+ hot pixels)

So, my questions I guess are really...

a) Is the Nikon 900 actually better quality than the 995?
b) What other cameras have a small lense (ie. around 20mm diameter)?

Thanks
Excal

Click to expand...

I too have the Crystal Vue lens and I can't say enough about it. It's a great monocular for those who maybe don't have the cash for something a lot bigger.

--
Dave Glick
http://www.glickcreative.com/

Excal said:

Hi folks

I'm currently the vey happy owner of an Olympus E-10 (oy, stop that
booing!). Anyway, the E-10 is a nice enough camera with a 4x zoom
lense. And now the 995 is here, also with a 4x zoom lense.

A friend of mine recently got a Crystal Vue 8x32 monocular to fit
on his Nikon 800, and I was impressed with the results. So, I'm
thinking about a 995 as a 2nd camera... (if my bank will let me!).
But, I'm concerned about a couple of things...

1) How is the sharpness? (ie. the infamous battary shot!)

2) CCD degradation time before hot pixels (my friend's Nikon 800 is
currently back at Nikon for 30+ hot pixels)

So, my questions I guess are really...

a) Is the Nikon 900 actually better quality than the 995?
b) What other cameras have a small lense (ie. around 20mm diameter)?

Thanks
Excal

Click to expand...

Excal,

BTW, the TCON-14B is made for your E-10 and with the added TC-E2 it also fits the Nikon 950-995 cameras.

Dave B said:

The power of the Crystal Vue makes for a low cost monocular for
bird watching. Some limitations are quality, focus, and light.
But the price is right for the added power and limited use. I've
seen some great shots taken with it using a tripod in daylight
conditions. Remember the Crystal Vue is not a quality camera lens
or even a "scope" and it will take some work to get good shots.

If you want some additional power without loss of quality, focus,
or light then consider the TC-E2 TCON-14B Combo. For action shots
this is the way to go. Do a search on the forum for TCON-14B and
Crystal Vue and you will find a lot of posts.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=1077067

If you have an real interest in "digiscoping" you should consider a
quality high power scope. Search the Internet for digiscoping and
you will find some photo quality scopes.
http://www.md.ucl.ac.be/peca/test/tech.html

Excal said:

Hi folks

I'm currently the vey happy owner of an Olympus E-10 (oy, stop that
booing!). Anyway, the E-10 is a nice enough camera with a 4x zoom
lense. And now the 995 is here, also with a 4x zoom lense.

A friend of mine recently got a Crystal Vue 8x32 monocular to fit
on his Nikon 800, and I was impressed with the results. So, I'm
thinking about a 995 as a 2nd camera... (if my bank will let me!).
But, I'm concerned about a couple of things...

1) How is the sharpness? (ie. the infamous battary shot!)

2) CCD degradation time before hot pixels (my friend's Nikon 800 is
currently back at Nikon for 30+ hot pixels)

So, my questions I guess are really...

a) Is the Nikon 900 actually better quality than the 995?
b) What other cameras have a small lense (ie. around 20mm diameter)?

Thanks
Excal

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Please don't get the 995 before trying it on the monocular/scope first. It is not the same [but better] as the 990

Dave50000 said:

Dave50000 said:

So, I'm thinking about a 995 as a 2nd camera...

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