Knight: How did your digiscoping setup turn out?

[mjs1973]

Hey Knight,

I have been thinking about digiscoping this past week, and I'm curious to know how your digiscoping set up turned out.

[Knight]

Not to good , i dont have a good camera for digiscoping. I use a kodak Z 740 with a 10x optical zoom and its to much zoom . Good digiscoping cameras must only have 2 to 3 x optical Zoom so they can get into the scope so to speak .
Oh i can still digiscope with my setup but like i have to take pictures of something a thousand feet away lol makes no sense hehe. Im looking into getting a Refurb Canon A95 Many are using it to digiscope.
Ill tell you another thing it takes plenty of patience to digiscope , setting up is a pain and then you have to find a subject thats gonna stay still for you to get a Capture But i have not given up on it yet ( its to darn cold up here to be fooling around with this kind of setup )

[mjs1973]

Sorry to hear things aren't working out so great. I was just curious after spending some time this weekend looking at some birding/digiscoping sites on the web. Keep us posted on your progress!

[paulnj]

try going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digiscopingbirds

read the archives and a few recent posts that suggest the sony W series and a few canon A series amoung a number of others. Also the coolpix 8400 (if you can find one) is a hot camera too.

I am thinking this summer I may get a Pentax scope and a digi and start digiscoping too My friend and uncle already own that scope, so I can get a camera to test out before investing myself ;)

[almo]

I was thing about getting a digiscope setup i saw on eBay that has an EOS mount on it. I think it would make a neat addition to my photo tools, but its a bit pricy for me. I dunno yet. Well shall see.

I have an A60, maybe i can get a friend to let me borrow his scope.

[mjs1973]

Digiscoping sure is a very appealing idea. I would love the Canon 600mm f/4L, but I could set up one heck of a nice digiscoping kit for a small fraction of the price, and have a much longer reach. I got all the adapters I need last week to mount my telescope to my EOS, but the weather hasn't cooperated with me so I haven't been able to test it much yet. I hope to get my tripod mount figured out this week so I can take it out and see if it's going to work.

[paulnj]

I hope to get my tripod mount figured out this week so I can take it out and see if it's going to work.

Drop me an email at paulnjmich(AT)rcn(DOT)com and explain your needs. I have a few images I kept from emails over the years that may help and depending on your needs , I may have a suggestion

[mjs1973]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the offer! I think I have it all figured out, but if I need help, I will be sure to contact you. A buddy of mine helped build a craddle to hold everything together and we put a threaded insert in the bottom of the craddle. The insert is the 1/4", just like the tripod socket on my camera. The way the insert is screwed into the craddle, the threads start about a 1/4" up inside of it so the screw on my mounting plate doesn't reach the threads. All I have to do is take the insert out, and put it upside down and I should be in business. I'll try to get it done tonight and post a pic of the entire set up.

[mjs1973]

Paul,

Here is the design we came up with for mouting my telescope (700mm) and DRebel to my tripod. The black lines that wrap around the front of the scope and craddle are rubber bands, well, hair ties to be exact, to hold the scope onto the craddle, and still allow it to be focused. When fully exteneded it is about 42" long. Due to the length, (focal length & actual length) I think it's going to be difficult to keep it steady, but I'm looking forward to experimenting with it. I still need to stain and varnish it, but that's pretty minor.

In this pic there is a 3x barlow lens mounted between the scope and the camera. I can take that lens out, and mount the camera directly to the scope, and secure it to the craddle with the thumb screw that is in front of the camera body.

[paulnj]

My god!

I had no idea you were using a telescope

I can only suggest a few things to add ..

Add felt to the craddle to protect the telescope finish

If you have a monopod you might use that in the from to steady the rig a bit more(plus add a bag of rice midway between the mono and tripod) for land based creatures.

Keep the tripod as low as you can and the legs sped wide. Use the 2 second timer or a release and I see no reason , with calm winds and decent light, why you can't get images without blur. FOCUS will be you main issue

You may pick up heat shimmer or atmospheric haze from using the 3x barlow to make a 40X telescope with a 1.6x camera ;) Even a swarovski, pentax, leica and kowa scope degrades at 50-60x from haze!

[Knight]

mjs1973 one thing i dont C in your setup is a shutter release , with your setup your sure to need one it`s gonna be a must to minimize movement. Very creative setup Looking forward to Cing your results

[mjs1973]

The shutter release is in the camera bag. Just didn't dig it out for this pic. I do have a couple rice bags in my truck and I plan on using them to help stabilize the rig. In my original plan, I was going to add felt to the craddle, but opted not to once I saw how perfectly the scope fit in the craddle. I will reconsider that tho, or another option would be to have my GF sew a camo cover for the lens. I don't have a monopod yet, but plan on purchasing one, someday. I do have an old POS tripod I could use in the front, but the whole reason for this craddle was so I would only need 1 tripod. The monopod would be much easier. When the weather clears up, (been drizzling and rainy and foggy here for a week) I will give it a good test drive and see what else I need to do.

Thanks for looking and for your suggestions!

[paulnj]

Remember that winter will have very minimal haze too ;) It's the heat of summer that usually makes haze far worse .