Digiscoping

[JimTx]

I am an avid photographer who is very interested in digiscoping. Would like to see a setup in action .. and am wondering if anyone on this site is using this method of photographing the birds.

Thanks in Advance,

Jim

[Ron]

Jim, I did a lot of digiscoping in the past and had nice results. I have since gone to prime focus photography: Using a telescope as a telephoto lens with a digital SLR camera. I prefer the latter method as what you see in the viewfinder is the correct image. Using a 560mm scope is like using an 840mm lens on a film camera and with a 10.2 megapixel SLR, small crops of an image produce even greater apparent magnifications with little loss of detail. Send me a private message if you need more info.

[Tom]

Some digiscoping tips:

Use a BIG tripod as everything gets pretty jittery when digiscoping.

Use a low power wide field eyepiece to minimize vignetting and keep the equiv. focal length at a reasonable level.

Use a camera with a 4x zoom or so as the superzooms usually don't work well at all. The Canon A5XX series works well for many including myself.

Use a fluorite or ED scope as others color fringe too much.

Don't expect to consistantly get publication quality images, and be prepared for a lot of missed and out-of-focus images.

Digiscoping works well for getting a record shot when you are out birding with your scope, but it really takes a lot of care and fiddling around to get first rate pictures. Most people simply don't have the patience for digiscoping.