Digiscoping Equipment, Cameras, Scopes and Binocular Advice

[Caitie]

I took the leap and purchased A Nikon ED82 Fieldscope. It came as a package  so I have a tripod, eyepiece is 20-45X and the case  Im sooo excited. Can ya tell? Does anyone have any advice on what would be the best stuff to add to the scope so I can take cool pictures with it or just get the most out of its features?  I have a Nikon D70 SLR too use and I can't wait

Caitie

[Bonnie]

Call or email Nikon about the camera mount.  I have a Nikon P5100 now.  I went through 4 cameras and three camera mounts before I settled on something.  You can also google Nikon digiscoping.  I think there are a few forums that discuss equipment.  I never did try a camera mount for an SLR.  The camera fits right up to the lens and you have to remove the scope eyepiece.  So I would have to choose between digiscoping or using the scope. 

I have a Swarovski scope (80 HD) and binoculars (8X32).  But the planets have to be aligned before I can get really clear sharp digiscoped pictures.   Now I think I have about 10 good ones and 5,000 bad ones.  But I go more for documentation and choose interesting.  My best catch of all time is a video of an eagle attacking a coyote that is carrying a piece of deer meat across our frozen reservoir.  It was at least 3,000 feet away.  The quality is terrible.  But you can tell what is happening.

Good luck.  You will have a lot of fun with your new equipment.

[Aafke]

Congratulations with buying a scope.
I'm not an expert so I can only tell you how I use my camera in combination with my scope, I also have a Swarovski.
I hold the camera right to the telescope, (in the beginning it's really difficult, but move the camera a little bit to the left/right, up, down etc. but keep it close to the scope) Than I play with the zoom from the scope and the camera until I have the best view. Most of the time I make pictures with a lot of black around, but I cut the right piece out.
The best you can do is practise, take pictures with all possibilities from scope and camera, zoom in, take a new picture, zoom in more take a picture. At home you can see what's the best.
For the combination of my scope and camera it's the best not to zoom in a lot with the scope. 
When it is an extremely sunny day it will be very hard to look on your camera, so start with a darker day.
I started with a wooden bird in my garden  and took pictures with all kind of combinations, it's easy because this bird didn't move.

When I bought my new camera I took my scope with me to the shop and I tried different camera's in combination with the scope. The  best combination is when you can see the view in your camera without a piece of black.
I took the picture of the spoonbill (here on the left) with my camera and scope.
Enjoy and show us your pictures!
greetings Aafke

[Caitie]

Thank you both for the great advice. I guess it will take practice practice practice

[Lord G]

I assume you got the straight eyepiece version of the scope, which is a bit better for digiscoping.  You'll need an attachment such as the Nikon FSA-L1 in order to attach your D70 to the scope.  Keep in mind though that using an attachment like this basically turns your scope into a long telephoto lens that is rigidly attached to your camera.  It's focal length is something like 1500mm with an equivalent F-stop of f/13.  In photographic terms that means very high magnification, but a pretty dim image unless you have good lighting. 

The good news is that Nikon D-SLRs handle low light shooting pretty well, but even so you may end up with some longer shutter speeds, which will increase the tendency to get blurry pictures.  This is a common problem with digiscoping that is best solved by shooting in good light, from a solid platform.

Speaking of which... plunking a relatively heavy camera body on the end of the spotting scope will, at the very least, throw off the center of balance on the scope/camera combination.  Some light-weight tripods are not up to the task of supporting that kind of weight imbalance.  There are some solutions such as special brackets that support both the camera and the scope, but these can cost several hundred dollars.  If you're handy you can buy the hardware to make your own bracket-- I did that for my Canon camera and Kowa scope; it cost me about $30USD instead of the $300 I'd have paid for Kowa's custom bracket, but that kind of work isn't everyone's cup of tea.

You may actually want to consider using a smaller point/shoot camera for your digiscoping activity.  A lightweight digital camera with none-to-moderate zoom capability (say 3x or so) can work very well.  There are lightweight brackets that align the camera with the scope's eyepiece so you don't have to hold it yourself.  Some brackets are even set up so that the camera can be swung into place for a digiscoped shot then quickly swung out of the way when you want to view your target through the scope's eyepiece.  Another advantage to this setup is that you don't need to remove the scope's eyepiece in order to attach the camera.  When using the D-SLR setup the camera basically replaces the eyepiece, so you can't really use the scope as just a scope while the camera is attached; it really is more like having a camera with a long telephoto lens at that point.

Here's a nice digiscoping setup for the ED82 using a Nikon Coolpix camera (widely regarded as an excellent digiscoping camera). You can see the author's results using this setup in his Flikr photostream

Regardless of what options you choose, the most important thing for digiscoping is practice practice practice!  As Aafke and Bonnie have both noted, it takes some experience to develop good digiscoping technique.  The good news is that you can shoot as many pictures as you want with the digital camera and just delete the bad ones.

Good luck!

[hawkwatcher]

Here's how I get pretty good digiscoped images without a permanent setup. I have a Zeiss 85mm straight birding scope with a varied (15-45x) lens. On a sturdy tripod, view the image through the scope using the lowest zomm. I use an inexpensive (@Costco) Lumix DMCT Z3 camera set at the highest zoom (in this camera it is 10X--but it's worked well at lower zoom with another lightweight camera) and hold it (very carefully) against the lens of the Zeiss. Most images have little or no vignetting. Here's one of some bighorn ewes I took last month. I had to re-size it to reduce the file size but you get the idea.

Grace/Southern California

[Bonnie]

I guess it might be worth the $200 investment to get the Nikon P5100.  It really is an excellent camera and one that most digiscopers recommend.  You also have to get the mount which is another chunk of change, but worth it.  The Nikon people are really helpful.  Give them a call.

Trust me, you will want to use the scope as a scope AND be able to quickly get a picture.

[Caitie]

I assume you got the straight eyepiece version of the scope, which is a bit better for digiscoping. 
 
It is the straight eyepiece.

Wow thanks for all the great advice! I took alot of what you spoke about and went back to the Audubon  Center where I purchased the set up from and spoke at length to the Centers Director about what I wanted to do with the digiscoping. He wasn't there when I did my purchase so we  had a nice chat. His wife actually participates in the banding of the JC eyasses so he got an ear full about what all you guys in Rochester do with the falcons. He was impressed 

He suggested another tri pod though because this one is a bit light for the SLR. However I quite like the idea of the point and shoot camera with the swing mount feature. The camera attachment was quite pricey so I might rather invest in the set up where I can use the scope and swing the camera in when I want to take pictures. Im still deciding which way to go. I have an older coolpix digital point and shoot model 880 then I went to the Sony T200 which is shaped like the newer coolpix cameras, very compact.. Im wondering if that 880 will be good for the time being. Im going to take Bonnies advice and give Nikon a call.

thanks again

[Caitie]

Here's how I get pretty good digiscoped images without a permanent setup. I have a Zeiss 85mm straight birding scope with a varied (15-45x) lens. On a sturdy tripod, view the image through the scope using the lowest zomm. I use an inexpensive (@Costco) Lumix DMCT Z3 camera set at the highest zoom (in this camera it is 10X--but it's worked well at lower zoom with another lightweight camera) and hold it (very carefully) against the lens of the Zeiss. Most images have little or no vignetting. Here's one of some bighorn ewes I took last month. I had to re-size it to reduce the file size but you get the idea.

Grace/Southern California

Very nice picture of the bighorns. You don't see any of those here in NJ ! Thanks Grace for your advice.

[Dumpsterkitty]

I have no personal advice to add...don't own a scope & most likely won't for many moons...but one of my favorite blogs is Birdchick and she does a lot of digiscoping (disclaimer-I believe she is also a Swarovski rep)...she has a section of her blog devoted to digiscoping...perhaps you can find something useful there...

http://www.birdchick.com/wp/digiscoping/

Ei

[Bonnie]

Oh I went to her workshop last year at Cape May Autumn Weekend.  Yes, she has the Swarovski 80 HD and uses a Fuji Finepix ....  forgot.  She has it on her site.  But the Nikon P5100 is easier to get.

Caitie, your point and shoots will be just fine.  I would also get the camera mount with the sleeve.  You just put it on the scope and screw the other part onto the camera.  Oh, wait, you have to have threads on the  camera lens.  But people adapt tin cans to use as a camera mount!!

[Caitie]

I have no personal advice to add...don't own a scope & most likely won't for many moons...but one of my favorite blogs is Birdchick and she does a lot of digiscoping (disclaimer-I believe she is also a Swarovski rep)...she has a section of her blog devoted to digiscoping...perhaps you can find something useful there...

http://www.birdchick.com/wp/digiscoping/

Ei

Great site Thanks!