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Normal Topic Why I still use a Fuji F30 (Read 1727 times)
DavidPennington
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Why I still use a Fuji F30
10/31/10 at 16:53:39
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I know very little about digiscoping with a DSLR, so all the following applies only to compact cameras/point & shoots/whatever you want to call them. Generally, cameras with 3-4x optical zoom tend to be the most suitable. With a few exceptions, ones with a wider zoom range run into various difficulties, eg heavy vignetting (ie a black circle around the image or, at best, dark corners) and problems with autofocus. I still use a Fuji Finepix F30. It's only about 4 yrs old but for a digiscoping camera that's considered way out of date and there probably aren't many digiscopers still using one. You can't buy them new anymore, either.

Things to like about the F30:
1) It's got a sharp lens, even at full zoom.
2) You can use the 2 second self-timer in conjunction with 3-frame continuous shooting - excellent if your subject isn't moving around.
3) As well as 'first 3' continuous shooting, it's also got 'last 3'. This means that it's possible to hold the shutter down for as long as you want, until the bird appears in view as you want it, and once you release the shutter only the last 3 frames will be recorded. To be honest I don't use this very often, but it's a nice function to have.
4) Autofocus, if it manages to get it, is generally reliable, if not super-fast.
5) When it came out it was considered to be the low-light king. No doubt it's been superceded in that now but the principle remains that cameras which give decent images in low light are always worth looking at.
6) It's only got 6.3 Mp. Unless you're making big prints, anything over that is wasted and leads to problems in itself. Some might say that that applies to all cameras, not just ones for digiscoping. The megapixel race has mostly been driven by marketing concerns rather than image quality. Says me. One of the problems with an increase in megapixels is that, generally, increased pixel density leads to increased digital noise, ie horrible multicoloured graininess. This gets a lot worse as you increase the ISO level to increase the 'gain' when working in low light. To counterract noise, most cameras utilise an internal software noise filter which not only gets rid of some of the noise but also smears detail. Cameras are generally getting better at noise filtration but in most cases the problem wouldn't really be there in the first place if the camera's sensor had fewer megapixels. To be fair, the F30 also smears detail at high ISO, causing a kind of watercolour effect. It probably has been usurped as the low-light king but then the newer low-light kings all seem to have other problems of their own, too.
6) It's fairly small and light and it just 'works'. Some cameras do, some don't.
7) I quite like the idea of using supposedly outdated technology.

Things which could be better on the F30
1) It's got no accessory attachment thread. Most of the better digiscoping cameras nowadays have a thread on the body around the base of the lens where you can screw on a tube which has a thread on the other end for attaching to a digiscoping adapter. Much safer than just sitting the camera in a wooden thing.
2) Autofocus can be a bit slow and sometimes fails to settle on anything at all. If I ever replace the F30 it'll be with one that's got very fast reliable autofocus that works every time.
3) Continuous shooting at full resolution runs to a maximum of only 3 frames and isn't particularly fast in terms of frames per second. Then again, it's still faster than eg the new Canon S95 (which is the camera now being used by most of the top Japanese digiscopers).
4) It uses xD memory cards, which corrupt fairly easily and seem to be getting phased out.

More on digiscoping cameras later.
  
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