Nikon D70s + Nikon Fieldscope 82mmED

[pacolazett]

Nice to be part of this community. I consider myself an amateur photographer whose major interests are bird and astro photography. Have the luck to live in a true paradise of birds, Peru. I´ve been using my Nikon D70s with a TAMRON 70-300 AF and an OPTEKA 500mm mirror lens (only in very very sunny days).I´m planning to change to digiscoping using a Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED. Does anybody has experience using this combo (Nikon D70s+Nikon 82ED)? Any other scope you´ll like me to consider?

[phoenixwtc]

I also tried the D70 along with a lower cost scope just to see how it worked. We recently upgraded our scope to a Nikon fieldscope 82 mm ED. There is an excellent web site managed by Nikon for digiscoping that goes through all of the Nikon scopes (fieldscopes and spotting) along with the nikon cameras (point and shoot and DSLR) and the adapters necessary to connect the cameras to the scopes.

From the research that we did, what we found was that using the D70 with the fieldscope required removing the eye piece and using the DSLR adapter. The net effect was about a 1000mm lens as it did not allow for using any of the D70 lens or the magnification of the scope's eye piece.

From what we read, and we are not experts in this area, was that we would be better off combining the fieldscope with a point and shoot camera, so we purchased the Nikon P5100 to use for digiscoping. The biggest problem today has been finding the adapter for the P5100. I ended up calling Nikon to find any store in the US that would have this adapter. I finally found one on ebay and just received it yesterday. Besides the one I bought on ebay the only other ones I could find were in Europe.

The combination of the P5100, the 25-75x eye piece on the fieldscope, and the proper adapter should give us better overall magnification for shooting distance than we could have gotten from the scope and the D70.

Bill

[revs45]

I also tried the D70 along with a lower cost scope just to see how it worked. We recently upgraded our scope to a Nikon fieldscope 82 mm ED. There is an excellent web site managed by Nikon for digiscoping that goes through all of the Nikon scopes (fieldscopes and spotting) along with the nikon cameras (point and shoot and DSLR) and the adapters necessary to connect the cameras to the scopes.

From the research that we did, what we found was that using the D70 with the fieldscope required removing the eye piece and using the DSLR adapter. The net effect was about a 1000mm lens as it did not allow for using any of the D70 lens or the magnification of the scope's eye piece.

From what we read, and we are not experts in this area, was that we would be better off combining the fieldscope with a point and shoot camera, so we purchased the Nikon P5100 to use for digiscoping. The biggest problem today has been finding the adapter for the P5100. I ended up calling Nikon to find any store in the US that would have this adapter. I finally found one on ebay and just received it yesterday. Besides the one I bought on ebay the only other ones I could find were in Europe.

The combination of the P5100, the 25-75x eye piece on the fieldscope, and the proper adapter should give us better overall magnification for shooting distance than we could have gotten from the scope and the D70.

Bill

for even better results i would recommend sticking to a 30X DS wide eyepiece with the P5100, i have a 50X as well but find vignetting a problem. from what i've heard zoom eyepieces don't work very well for digiscoping.
does this still hold true? i'm only going by what i've read..

the FSB-6 bracket can be picked up on ebay, that's where i got mine.

cheers.

[phoenixwtc]

Yesterday was the first day we had the entire package to try shooting. We tried late inthe day, but the light wasn't all that great so the pics weren't as good as I would have liked.

We were able to get past teh vignetting by uzing the zoom on the P5100. By zooming in, right up to the start of the macro zoom and then slightly backing off, the pics were fine.

We need to work on the focusing a bit as some of the pics weren't in focus as much as I would like.

We set the zoom on the eyepiece to the max magnification before putting the adapter/camera on the scope.

As far as getting an adapter, as of this afternoon, there wasn't one for sale on ebay. I admit to being a bit surprised that when I was bidding on the adapter a week ago, there was only one other bidder and they stopped pretty early. the list price on line for the adapter in the stores is $129.99 and I was able to get it from ebay for $107.5 plus shipping which brought the total to slightly under the store price without shipping.

Bill

[averity]

Nice to be part of this community. I consider myself an amateur photographer whose major interests are bird and astro photography. Have the luck to live in a true paradise of birds, Peru. I´ve been using my Nikon D70s with a TAMRON 70-300 AF and an OPTEKA 500mm mirror lens (only in very very sunny days).I´m planning to change to digiscoping using a Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED. Does anybody has experience using this combo (Nikon D70s+Nikon 82ED)? Any other scope you´ll like me to consider?
Hi Paco, I have used the Nikon D200 with the ED82 (more or less the same as the setup you want) and find it good in bright conditions, when birds are close its best, but on my tripod (I don’t have the Nikon adapter) I find the whole setup very heavy and the camera end.
I am quite tempted to get the digiscoping mount that moves the centre of gravity back towards the camera as the set up have at the moment is quite awkward to use. Please let me know how you get on saludos Calvin

have a look at the NIKON UNIVERSAL DIGIMOUNT on the link below

http://www.at-infocus.co.uk/digiscoping.html

[pacolazett]

Hola Calvin, I have also considered the KOWA TSN-BP Balance Plate, specially since I'm also have in mind the straight scope instead of the angled (think I read this is more suitable for SLRs). I know since the f would be about 13 I'll need tons of light to get nice pictures. Another good choice (they say) is the KOWA TSN 664 which is lighter (1kg) and cheaper (USD 800.00) than the ED82. Of course I think I'll need more light though.

[Neil]

We need to work on the focusing a bit as some of the pics weren't in focus as much as I would like.

We set the zoom on the eyepiece to the max magnification before putting the adapter/camera on the scope.

Bill,
I assume from this that you set the zoom eyepiece to 75x magnification.
It will be very difficult to get sharp images at this magnification. You need good light, a very rigid tripod/head,no wind/floor vibration and the self-timer remote, and no subject movement.
I would suggest you back off the zoom to 20x or 30x and you'll get more light,faster shutter speeds and the cameras AF will have an easier time.
Neil.

[Chato]

Digiscoping has one serious disadvantage over a conventional lens - The lack of speed - Meaning for example, that with my Swarovski, and the 800mm camera adapter, my f stop is f 10.

If I was using the eye piece and one of those digicam adapters, my f stop would be, what? f22? f40? :)

There is a story that if you shoot with a scope you must use a tripod. Well, I use a light weight carbon monopode and often shoot handheld. The scope is clumsy, but it's also quite light. While it took two or three months of blurry shots to get used to, I now routinly shoot handheld at speeds as low as 200. True, I'm using ISO 800 to allow me to overcome the f 10 speed of the scope. In bright light, I often shoot at 1200 or for White birds like Egrets, as high as 2000.

Being a glutton for punishment has paid off. (one of the few times)

Dave

[Bill The Cat]

I am a newcomer to digiscoping. I have been doing some research as to the best equipment and have decided to buy the Nikon 82 mm fieldscope. My understanding is that you cannot use the Digital SLR adapter (FSA-L1) with the angled scope. I have a Nikon D90 and was planning on using it to digiscope but will have to abandon that route if I cannot us an angled scope. Also focusing and light issues would indicate that the point and shoot P5100 is the best choice. Right?, Wrong? or somewhere in between?.

[RJM]

Bill, no problem using the FSA-L1 adapter on the angled scope. But you should also get the Nikon UBK for support. If you choose to use a compact digicam, I would get one of the universal swing-out adapters (http://www.alpineastro.com/digital_photography/digital_photography.htm#Micro Stage) (Nikon makes one too but I don't like it) or a fixed adapter (http://www.optcorp.com/ProductList.aspx?uid=105-182-220-186-440) and choose a more modern, digiscoping friendly camera like the Pansonic FX150.

good luck,
Rick