Optical view finding on a P&S

I've just gotten a Mustek MDC-830Z 8.1 MegaPixel camera. It's my first
digital camera. It seems nice enough but I really run through that
little Li-ion battery pretty rapidly and I think that using the LCD to
set up every shot is a big part of the power drain.

It has an optical range finder with a diopter adjustment wheel on the
optical range finder that lets you focus with it. But when I use the
optical range finder it seems pretty small and I'm not sure that I'm
getting the range right through it.

So my question is when I use that little range finding deal does that
dictate to the camera what the range is? Or will the camera use its
own means to determine the focus? I'm hoping that the camera will
correct my fuzzy range finding.

On 2007-08-14, noone@invalid.invalid <noone@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> I've just gotten a Mustek MDC-830Z 8.1 MegaPixel camera. It's my first
> digital camera. It seems nice enough but I really run through that
> little Li-ion battery pretty rapidly and I think that using the LCD to
> set up every shot is a big part of the power drain.

That is a common feature of compact digital cameras. Very few seem to
have both LCD and optical viewfinder.

> It has an optical range finder with a diopter adjustment wheel on the
> optical range finder that lets you focus with it. But when I use the
> optical range finder it seems pretty small and I'm not sure that I'm
> getting the range right through it.

Are you sure you have the correct make and model information? Mustek
don't mention an optical rangefinder in their information for that model
< * w w w .mustek . com /index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.fly
page&product_id=40&category_id=&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Ite
mid=%3Cbr%3E> or < * qurl . net /1Xi> for short. Such a feature would be
very unusual and note-worthy on any compact digital camera.

> So my question is when I use that little range finding deal does that
> dictate to the camera what the range is? Or will the camera use its
> own means to determine the focus? I'm hoping that the camera will
> correct my fuzzy range finding.

What does the manual have to say about focus?

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