I'm looking for a digital 1024x768 digital camera with the ability to focus down to about a 2x2 in. area. I'm leaning toward the Olympus D-320L, but macro focus is only about 5x7 in. (8 in. focus). Are add-on diopter lenses adaptable to this camera to enhance macro focus. I'm also considering the Agfa ephoto 780 and the Fuji DX-7 (640x480, but good macro focus). Does anyone know the macro focus for the 780?

-- Gene Whitten (gene.whitten@dnr.state.oh.us), August 14, 1998

Answers

I don't know about macro adapter lenses for the Oly 320 - it doesn't have filter threads on the lens, and the sliding front cover could make it tricky to add an adapter. You might check the Tiffen folks to see if they have adapters. (I think they're at www.dcpro.com) Ricky Lo at BugEye Digital (http://www.bugeyedigital.com/) seems to be developing a fairly broad range of adapters for various cameras.

Depending on how often you're going to be doing macro, you could just hack something together by taping diopter lenses from a 35mm camera onto the front of the 320L. A little experimenting would determine the focus ranges for each.

Another option, albeit for more money is the Oly D-500L - it gets *real* close, with it's telephoto zoom, and it's a SLR to boot, so adding diopters to the front is easy, and you can always see through the viewfinder what the camera is actually looking at. Since Oly dropped the price on the D-500, it's not that much more money than some of the other options you're looking at, and is a super camera. (The D-500 often gets overlooked in the shadow of its big brother the D-600, which is too bad, as it's a fantastic camera.)

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), August 20, 1998.