What is DIGISCOPING?
Spotting scope: A device that can be considered as mini-version of telescopes. Usually used by birdwatchers.
Birdwatchers: Set of people birds are wary about. Birds feel uncomfortable or made to feel uncomfortable in their presence.
Birds: Come in two varieties. Salim Ali describes one as "Feathered Bipeds". It is humanly impossible to clearly define the other. I limit myself to the former.
Digiscoping is all about clicking a digital camera while keeping it against the eye-piece of a spotting scope. Replace digital camera with a camera mobile, and call it Mobi-scoping.I managed to get a a Swarovski spotting scope, I have been able to take some good pictures and few of the birding and photo enthusiast friends have asked how could I manage such images. This write-up is my confession to this respect.
The model I have is ATS-65-HD. ATS stands for "AngledTeleScope" where eyepiece is at 45 degree angle to the main body. 65 is the aperture size of the objective (front) lens in "mm". HD stands for "HighDensity", which gives better results than "Swarovski" made ordinary lenses. And I have an eye-piece which has a magnification of 30x. This means, an object placed 900 feet away, appears as though it is just 30 feet away. Let the technicalities end here. Explaining how I digi-scope will be of much interest.
It is difficult to hand-hold a camera against eyepiece of the scope. So, you need some kind of stand where you can put a camera aligned to the scope. One such accessory provided by Swarovski is "DCB" - Digital Camera Base. It is a plastic piece, which can be moved around the eye-piece.
Position 1
Position 2
All you need is to put a digital camera base and put it in axis with the spotting scope. Using DCB, you can bring it in position as and when required.
Which camera suits well?
Any camera will do. But, going through reviews available on the internet, among the non-SLR cameras, Nikon Coolpix 8400 suits well. And I have this camera. (Update as on 30-July-2016: Now I am finding this camera out of date. Have to search for a better alternative).
Why Nikon Coolpix 8400?
1. Girth of the camera lens fits well with the inner-edge of the cup-of-the-eyepiece. See the pictures below.
2. Has 8 Mega Pixels.
3. Has movable LCD panel, which helps at times when you find it difficult to view through the view finder.
4. Has macro-facility of 3-cms minimum distance.
4. Of course, because, it is Nikon. (Yes, I am a Nikon fanatic).
Given below is the picture of my 8400 placed on the DCB. See, LCD panel is movable.
I keep my camera like this and then bring up the eye-cup to avoid light entering from the gap between the eye-piece and the camera lens.
Important: Click your photo graphs with the camera set to "macro" mode. I refused to believe this when my friend, Srik (all credits given ;), told this out of intuition. It is simple! Your camera is focusing on the image formed on the eye-piece of the spotting scope.And, always have one hand on the focussing ring of the scope. Once you half-click the camera, you need to manually focus the scope to get a sharper image.
Plus and Minus with Digi-Scoping:
1. Difficult to take flight pictures of birds (Correction as on 30-July-2016: I have not succeeded in this endeavour. However, there are lot many experts who have done this).
2. Though 30x provides good magnification, there is a limit. Image becomes hazy as the distance increases. In fact if you see through the scope on a hot-sunny day, you can see the layers of air blurring the image.
3. Be careful of Vignetting. Coolpix 8400 has an optical zoom of 3x and I keep it at 3x, to ensure that I don't get dark and rounded edges in the photo. So, you in fact photograph a smaller area of the image on the eye-piece.
4. If you are shooting in RAW, Coolpix 8400 takes 8 seconds to save an image, at 8 megapix. If you are shooting in "EXTRA", it takes 2 seconds to save an image at 8 megapix. So, you have just one chance when it comes to animals and birds. At times you feel jealous when you see your friend happily clicking using his DLSR :-)
5. Success rate is less compared to D-SLRs. But, will tell you, DIGISCOPING is FUN. It teaches "patience" in life.
6. Another friend tells me that the there is a delay of few milli-seconds when you click the button, after which the shutter opens, unlike the D-SLRs which are instantaneous. If this is true, all super images I have got are just co-incidental.
Now, the question comes: Can't you fit a DSLR to the scope?Yes, You can. There are D-SLR adapters available, using which you can fit the camera directly on to the scope. I do not know much about this. If this works out well, you need not envy your D-SLR brothers.I have plans to go for a D-SLR. But, this needs good research to find out what equipments suit better.
Hope this helps some in appreciating what DIGISCOPING is. I will attempt to write more as I get more experience.
To watch some of my digiscoped pictures: https://facebook.com/digiscoping.in
A sample picture is here:
And another:
Birdwatchers: Set of people birds are wary about. Birds feel uncomfortable or made to feel uncomfortable in their presence.
Birds: Come in two varieties. Salim Ali describes one as "Feathered Bipeds". It is humanly impossible to clearly define the other. I limit myself to the former.
Digiscoping is all about clicking a digital camera while keeping it against the eye-piece of a spotting scope. Replace digital camera with a camera mobile, and call it Mobi-scoping.I managed to get a a Swarovski spotting scope, I have been able to take some good pictures and few of the birding and photo enthusiast friends have asked how could I manage such images. This write-up is my confession to this respect.
The model I have is ATS-65-HD. ATS stands for "AngledTeleScope" where eyepiece is at 45 degree angle to the main body. 65 is the aperture size of the objective (front) lens in "mm". HD stands for "HighDensity", which gives better results than "Swarovski" made ordinary lenses. And I have an eye-piece which has a magnification of 30x. This means, an object placed 900 feet away, appears as though it is just 30 feet away. Let the technicalities end here. Explaining how I digi-scope will be of much interest.
It is difficult to hand-hold a camera against eyepiece of the scope. So, you need some kind of stand where you can put a camera aligned to the scope. One such accessory provided by Swarovski is "DCB" - Digital Camera Base. It is a plastic piece, which can be moved around the eye-piece.
Position 1
Position 2
All you need is to put a digital camera base and put it in axis with the spotting scope. Using DCB, you can bring it in position as and when required.
Which camera suits well?
Any camera will do. But, going through reviews available on the internet, among the non-SLR cameras, Nikon Coolpix 8400 suits well. And I have this camera. (Update as on 30-July-2016: Now I am finding this camera out of date. Have to search for a better alternative).
Why Nikon Coolpix 8400?
1. Girth of the camera lens fits well with the inner-edge of the cup-of-the-eyepiece. See the pictures below.
2. Has 8 Mega Pixels.
3. Has movable LCD panel, which helps at times when you find it difficult to view through the view finder.
4. Has macro-facility of 3-cms minimum distance.
4. Of course, because, it is Nikon. (Yes, I am a Nikon fanatic).
Given below is the picture of my 8400 placed on the DCB. See, LCD panel is movable.
I keep my camera like this and then bring up the eye-cup to avoid light entering from the gap between the eye-piece and the camera lens.
Important: Click your photo graphs with the camera set to "macro" mode. I refused to believe this when my friend, Srik (all credits given ;), told this out of intuition. It is simple! Your camera is focusing on the image formed on the eye-piece of the spotting scope.And, always have one hand on the focussing ring of the scope. Once you half-click the camera, you need to manually focus the scope to get a sharper image.
Plus and Minus with Digi-Scoping:
1. Difficult to take flight pictures of birds (Correction as on 30-July-2016: I have not succeeded in this endeavour. However, there are lot many experts who have done this).
2. Though 30x provides good magnification, there is a limit. Image becomes hazy as the distance increases. In fact if you see through the scope on a hot-sunny day, you can see the layers of air blurring the image.
3. Be careful of Vignetting. Coolpix 8400 has an optical zoom of 3x and I keep it at 3x, to ensure that I don't get dark and rounded edges in the photo. So, you in fact photograph a smaller area of the image on the eye-piece.
4. If you are shooting in RAW, Coolpix 8400 takes 8 seconds to save an image, at 8 megapix. If you are shooting in "EXTRA", it takes 2 seconds to save an image at 8 megapix. So, you have just one chance when it comes to animals and birds. At times you feel jealous when you see your friend happily clicking using his DLSR :-)
5. Success rate is less compared to D-SLRs. But, will tell you, DIGISCOPING is FUN. It teaches "patience" in life.
6. Another friend tells me that the there is a delay of few milli-seconds when you click the button, after which the shutter opens, unlike the D-SLRs which are instantaneous. If this is true, all super images I have got are just co-incidental.
Now, the question comes: Can't you fit a DSLR to the scope?Yes, You can. There are D-SLR adapters available, using which you can fit the camera directly on to the scope. I do not know much about this. If this works out well, you need not envy your D-SLR brothers.I have plans to go for a D-SLR. But, this needs good research to find out what equipments suit better.
Hope this helps some in appreciating what DIGISCOPING is. I will attempt to write more as I get more experience.
To watch some of my digiscoped pictures: https://facebook.com/digiscoping.in
A sample picture is here:
And another:
Hey, Welcome to the world of Bloggers!! The equipment pics are appreciable.
ReplyDeleteA good start, you have been rightly inspired. ;-)
Any idea where one can buy this Scope in India?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Information. Quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteGreat information. tfs.
ReplyDeleteI have seen several of your images on inw and they are incredible.
one Q. How much time does it take for you to focus on a bird once you spot it? follow up... how often has it happened that that before you could turn around the digiscope..the bird flew away..or moved.
thanks,