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Hi, all

Went to fire up my DCS330 today. It has 3 battery trays and has always been very finicky about which one works and having to have it in just the right spot, etc. Now none are working. Maybe it has died from lack of use, or maybe it has just become slightly more finicky. I would like to try an AC adapter as a test. The socket on the camera makes it clear that the AC adapter must have output DC, since it indicates polarity, and it looks to me like one of the standard adapter tips will fit it, but I cannot find anywhere in the documentation where it states what voltage and amperage the "official" AC adapter put out. On the bottom of the camera it says 9V 2.5A, so I suppose I could try 9 volts, but I am a bit loathe to plug something in without knowing what the official adapter put out. Anyone with an official AC adapter that could measure its output?

(Added later -- I got brave and tried it. 9 volts, tip positive, worked. It really does want 2.5 amps, too. I was using a 1.5A power supply, and the camera comes on, menus work, etc, but if you try to fire the shutter, it overloads the supply, voltage drops, and it shuts down and restarts. Fiddled some more with the batteries once I knew it is alive, and got it working on batteries. Very impressive power draw at the moment of exposure...)

Thanks,
Ross

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Ross Alford
http://www.pbase.com/northqueenslandphotos

i've received a very nice DSC 330 recently,

I have also a DCS 315 which never worked because of contact failures inside the camera. the trays have contacts which must be cleaned as well as the contacts inside.

the 330 has problems with the fire wire connector as well as some (few) problems with the main menu wheel. it seems the 3xx line has more contact problems than the 4xx and 7xx.

I shall take it apart one day and clean and rub all the small plugs and things. that brought the 315 back to life.

I do have the 330 charger too, it seems it's marked 8v, but it's not here actually.

one great thing about the 3xx series :

you can mount the original nikon IX zooms 20-60mm, 24-70mm, 30-60mm and 60-180mm which you find very cheap on ebay as these were made only for the pronea line and do not mount on any other nikon body.

so i've bought the 20-60mm, the very small 30-60mm and the 60-180mm for less than $100.

it has a built in flash which is very practical up to 5m if I don't have the big sb28 around which works very well with the 330.

the 330 has a big crop factor which is ok for telephoto.

the files are really great out of the box if you open them with photo desk.

with photoshop I get very bad results.

the 330 is somehow lighter than the 6 and 7 series, smaller, has a built in flash, fire wire, and the ix lenses are small and very lightweight. it accepts 2 pcmcia cards. you can store in tif and jpg, but it's very slow.

Can you post sample images taken with 330? It has sensor about the same size as 4/3 dslr's so maybe it was some kind of public protoype for that system?

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D1X, DCS PRO SLR/n, DCS 760, DCS 420c & Canon Pro70