I just ordered a (refurb) Nikon P1000 superzoom point-and-shoot camera - 24mm to 3000mm equivalent focal length.
My intended uses for the camera include capturing distant bird photos, aircraft in flight, the Moon, etc.
I discovered that Nikon sells a dot sight that has a fitting that mounts in the flash hot shoe - but AFAIK, it does not electronically mate with the host camera, rather it simply uses the hot shoe as a physical mounting point. There's also a 1/4" tripod threaded mounting option underneath the flash shoe bracket. It apparently supports both a red and a green dot.
Nikon's offering is the DF-M1 Dot Sight:
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/miscellaneous/df-m1-dot-sight.htmlDF-M1 manual:
https://crossgate.nikonimglib.com/dsd_redirect/redirect.do?P=JXWYC44&R=1lJPR20&L=a2Ux504&O=IidF200 (Could they possibly have made the instruction text any tinier? Yeah, it's a PDF so you can zoom in, but the English text is separated from the callout diagrams by the Japanese text, and even though I can read some Japanese, it's a tough slog for me to do that, LOL. I've opened two copies of the PDF in adjacent browser tabs so that I can rapidly switch between the text and the illustrations.)
I see that other camera and camera accessory mfgs. also offer dot sights intended for photo use.
It occurs to me that since I already have a few inexpensive dot sight optics for my firearms (which I have not yet mounted or experimented with - yeah, I have too many toys for my own good), maybe I could consider either fashioning a bracket holder with picatinny mount or a hot shoe adapter that I could use to mount one of my sights for use with my camera. I haven't yet checked printables or thingiverse, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are already 3D-printable models available for just that purpose that I could grab and print.
What I haven't yet examined is usability - things such as field of view (including matching the reticle view with the lens focal length and field of view) and other ergonomics, eye relief considerations, reticles, overall brightness and contrast, placement and usability of illumination and other adjustments or controls, dot size, 'shake awake', battery life, convenience of installation and removal, bore alignment and/or alignment repeatability issues, minimum usable target distance, or whatever.
Is anyone here using such a tool for speeding up rough (or fine) aiming of their long telephotos to help with rapid target acquisition or tracking of moving targets?
If so, what are you using, and what has been your experience with it? Likes? Dislikes?