Advice wanted on what to buy

[Jack Haggis]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some sensible advice; I've decided on buying the new Kowa 883 Scope with the 20-60x zoom and want to update my digiscoping kit. I currently hand hold a Coolpix 4500 to my Opticron scope with mixed results.

Now I'm no made keen digiscoper but that's mainly due to never really giving it a go.

So question is what's the best camera for the job and is there a quick and easy mount for the lens? I'm more of a birder than a digiscoper so I want something easy to get on and off.

Thanks

[kevindurose]

Try a 30x fixed eye piece, zooms only give moderate results. A lot of people reakon the nikon p5000 is good, I personally use a canon A95 and a fuji E900 both give good results. I rarely fix to the eyepiece, I just use a spacer. Cost me a quid!

Most of the shots besides the flight shots on my blog are taken with one of these two combos

Kev

http://www.kevindurose.co.uk

[john-henry]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some sensible advice; I've decided on buying the new Kowa 883 Scope with the 20-60x zoom and want to update my digiscoping kit. I currently hand hold a Coolpix 4500 to my Opticron scope with mixed results.

Now I'm no made keen digiscoper but that's mainly due to never really giving it a go.

So question is what's the best camera for the job and is there a quick and easy mount for the lens? I'm more of a birder than a digiscoper so I want something easy to get on and off.

Thanks


Jack,
Sounds like you need something like the SRB-griturn swing-out adapter, leave your camera on it when you're out birding and just swing it into place to take a pic.
Regarding cameras, at the moment the Nikon P5000 and P5100 seem to be about the best around for easy digiscoping.

Regards

John

[Neil]

The Nikon P5100 will work well with your zoom eyepiece and you can get the DA adapter from Kowa which is easy to setup. You will also need the adapter for the camera which is easy to find from most camera stores. I use a third party one which gives a 52 mm thread for the scope adapter (the Nikon one is 28mm ).
If you choose a camera without filter threads for an adapter the SRB-Griturn adapter is the way to go as John suggests.
The Kowa solution is quicker to use in the field though.
Neil.

[kevindurose]

Jack,

My advise would be if you are primarily a birder, go for a spacer for hand holding or an easy to attach adapter. Not being a beginer to this you must be well aware that birds are seldom still and its often crucial to get the camera in place as quick as possible.

As you can see I'm firmly in favour of hand holding the camera, this works 98% of the time, however when shutter speeds do get below 100/th of a sec I used to use an elastic band and the self timer to prevent camera shake. I now actually use the cameras strap for hold the camera still. Let me know if you want to know the best way of doing this. But remember this will only work if the bird is still, as no steadying is going to prevent blurr if the bird is moving. This is why i use the hand holding technique because you only need to get around 100 to 125 of a sec shutter speed to eliminate camera shake. Any less than this probably means bird movement would blurr the pic anyway.

The other thing I can say for sure is that it is possible to get sharp pictures at much slower shutter speeds than for DSLR cameras.

Have a look on my friends site he uses hand holding technique and a kowa 823 with a canon A95. You mihght need to scroll down or look in the archives for bird portraits. make sure you click on them for a detailed look.

Kev

http://wrightswanderings.blogspot.com/

[Jack Haggis]

Thanks Guys, I'll have a look around at some of the ideas. I quite like you hand held ideas Kev which is what I do now but without spacers.

[Jack Haggis]

Jack,

My advise would be if you are primarily a birder, go for a spacer for hand holding or an easy to attach adapter. Not being a beginer to this you must be well aware that birds are seldom still and its often crucial to get the camera in place as quick as possible.

As you can see I'm firmly in favour of hand holding the camera, this works 98% of the time, however when shutter speeds do get below 100/th of a sec I used to use an elastic band and the self timer to prevent camera shake. I now actually use the cameras strap for hold the camera still. Let me know if you want to know the best way of doing this. But remember this will only work if the bird is still, as no steadying is going to prevent blurr if the bird is moving. This is why i use the hand holding technique because you only need to get around 100 to 125 of a sec shutter speed to eliminate camera shake. Any less than this probably means bird movement would blurr the pic anyway.

The other thing I can say for sure is that it is possible to get sharp pictures at much slower shutter speeds than for DSLR cameras.

Have a look on my friends site he uses hand holding technique and a kowa 823 with a canon A95. You mihght need to scroll down or look in the archives for bird portraits. make sure you click on them for a detailed look.

Kev

http://wrightswanderings.blogspot.com/

Thanks Kevin,

I've pm'd you off topic. My new Kowa arrives today so I need to know about spacers, where to buy etc. I'm going for the P5100.

John

[nick the grief]

Thanks Kevin,

I've pm'd you off topic. My new Kowa arrives today so I need to know about spacers, where to buy etc. I'm going for the P5100.

John

Good Choice John :t: I've just got a P5100 to use with my Kowa 824 and it is really easy to use ... I've just got to get better now :-O

[Darren Pearce]

I 've just bought the P5100 with the DCB for my Swaro and it is easy to use. I just need to practice,practice and practice