Digiscoping

[clydebirder]

I have posted some of my better digiscoped images in my gallery, just to show what is possible (link: Digiscoping ). It does take practice and perseverance but can be worth it, I must emphasize that even with digiscoping, the closer you are to your subject the better the images will be. It won’t turn a distant speck in to a top class image, we sometimes ask the impossible from our equipment but it usually just shows up our own short comings rather than the equipment we use. Be prepared to delete hundreds of blurred shots in between really good ones.

It’s a technique that definitely has its place in wildlife photography and with practice can give good results. I started digiscoping because I often go birding on my own and when I find a rare bird I can take some record shots (just in case no one else manages see the bird and I have to write a description for the local rarities committee) which have proved invaluable in the past for bird records being accepted.

I still use my 7 year old Nikon Coolpix 995 which is only 3.34 megapixels but is a very good camera for digiscoping. I get the best result with the 20xWA eyepiece on my Leica APO-Televid 77 scope ( a superb scope but can be get a bit heavy after a long day out)

Happy digiscoping, John

[Twitcheruth]

Originally Posted by clydebirder

Happy digiscoping, John

Some useful tips there John and your digiscoped images are amazing.......I love the Little Ringed Plover pic!
This image was the best from a rainy afternoon in a bird hide from about 50 attempts to capture the rain drops as well as the Gull!
Definitely worth persevering!

[clydebirder]

Originally Posted by Twitcheruth

Some useful tips there John and your digiscoped images are amazing.......I love the Little Ringed Plover pic!
This image was the best from a rainy afternoon in a bird hide from about 50 attempts to capture the rain drops as well as the Gull!
Definitely worth persevering!

I like that photo, sums up most of the days off I've had recently

[clydebirder]

When visiting Baron's Haugh on Saturday I tried hand holding my Canon 40D with the 28-55mm lens on it up to the 32xW eyepiece on my Leica APO-Televid 77 scope and taking photo's of Lapwings, it actually worked quite well. The first image was taken using that method and the one below that of the same bird was taken with the 300mm f2.8 Sigma lens with a 1.4x converter giving 420mm.





The 300 lens image is definately sharper bit the digiscoped image isn't too bad at all, will try out this method further

cheers, John

[Twitcheruth]

Originally Posted by clydebirder

I like that photo, sums up most of the days off I've had recently

Thanks John.
Your new methods worked well didn't they?
Image 2 is definitely the sharper one......well worth experimenting though!

[bassist]

My dad has got a rather long long garden........!When the weather is fine im going to have a go at taking pics with my sony dslr......using my scope!If they come out anything like the quality of yours i will be well impressed...!Peace.!

[Twitcheruth]

Originally Posted by bassist

My dad has got a rather long long garden........!When the weather is fine im going to have a go at taking pics with my sony dslr......using my scope!If they come out anything like the quality of yours i will be well impressed...!Peace.!

Good idea Bassist.....as with most things practise really does pay off.....good luck!

[Callander1]

So. First question. Is there a book, "Digiscoping for dummies"?
Ideally, I would like to fit a compact camera to my scope, that could, possibly, be flicked out of the way. I don't really want to go to all the bother of fitting a DSLR body.

[paul2009]

Take a look here . there are a few cheap options to have a go with .digiscoping, digital camera fitted to spotting scope
cheers Paul

[paul2009]

Also take a look here. YouTube - Bushnell Universal Digiscoping Adapter
cheers Paul