Hi Tweeters,

Well, this might be a mega digiscoping advancement. I bought a
Panasonic DMC-FX3 6-mp digital camera at Costco for $150.00. Here
are the reasons it is better than the Olympus Camedia C-60 camera I
have been using:

1) It has as 2 1/2-inch LCD screen. The brightness of the screen
can be increased when shooting outdoors. I will be able to focus the
scope while looking at the screen to get a very sharp focus.
2) It is much smaller than the Olympus (and most other digital
cameras), which adds less weight to the end of the scope when the
camera is attached to it and will, hopefully, cause less movement of the scope.
3) It has optical image stabilization. I can just hold the camera
up to the eyepiece of the scope and take the photo.
4) #3 means that I won't have to attach the camera to the
scope. That means the process will be much faster, so I will be able
to get photos of birds that normally would have flown away before I
was able to get their photo.
5) It has a 2-second timer, so if I do attach the camera to the
scope, any movement caused by pushing the shutter release button will
have ended when the timer goes off. Two seconds is a lot quicker
than the normal 10-second timer, so the bird might still be
there. Of course I won't have to attach the scope to the
camera. See #3 above.
6) The battery is supposed to last for 320 photos taken with the
flash on. That is much longer battery life than my other digital cameras.

This camera just might bring digiscoping to the masses: low cost,
ease of use, great photo quality, compact size, etc. Of course, any
digital camera with optical image stabilization should be a good
digiscoping camera. Digital image stabilization isn't nearly as good
as optical. Stay away from cameras that have it.

I took a photo of a Mourning Dove yesterday with the new camera. The
dove was sitting on the power line over our back fence. The photo is
in the new photos folder on my website. I have not field-tested this
camera, though. Saturday is the Yakima Valley Audubon Birdathon. I
hopefully come home with a camera full of photos.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/