I would like to buy a digital camera to photograph wildlife, but need a telephoto in the 8X range (400mm). Does anyone make a lens or lens adapter with this power that can be used with a digital camera? If so, which cameras?

Thanks, Sid (Bouwer@AOL.com)

-- Sid Bouwer (Bouwer@AOL.com), October 24, 1999

Answers

There aren't many options for long lenses. The Sony Mavica 91 has a 14:1 zoom which tops out at an equivalent of 500mm. The Casio QV8000 is 8:1 and goes to 340, the Sony DSC-505 is 5:1, good for 190 mm. That's it. Nikon makes some add on lenses for the 950, there might be a good telephoto, but I suspect it is a maximum of 2x, which would bring it to about 240mm. The rest are just 'magnifying glasses' which screw on to the ones which allow that (less than half the remainder), 1.6x is ok, but 2x starts geting distortion prone. I saw a report of somebody who added one of those to the Nikon telephoto and got to about 300 mm. Good luck - look at the Sony FD-91.

-- JKHOffman (johnhoff@incom.net), October 24, 1999.

Go look at the CKCPOWER site (WWW.CKCPOWER.COM). You might find what you are looking for.

-- Bob Benson (benson@gbasin.com), October 24, 1999.

The Kodak DCS series cameras fit all Nikon and Cannon lenses. the minimum Investment for one of these cameras is 6 grand.

-- Sean Quinn (Sean.quinn@allin.com), October 25, 1999.

You may also want to check out spotting scopes. Many allow you to attach camera's with a standard t-ring. Orion Telescope in California also sells a short tube refractor that you can get universal t-adaptor's and also use a t-ring with it. The 80mm has a focal length around 500mm and costs around $200. It can also serve as a terrestial/astronomical telescope (the latter being it's primary purpose). A 90mm version is also availiable.

Celestron and Mead also make Mak-style spotting scopes that have around a 1200mm focal length. The drawback - cost.

They can be found at www.telescope.com/default.asp. They have telescopes, spotting scopes, monoculars, and most of the equipment you need to attach a camera to a telescope. Most of the t-rings are made for standard 35mm SLR camera's, so check at CKC for a t-ring for your camera.

-- Dale R Dankulich (daled01@mindspring.com), October 25, 1999.