Beginners help for scope with FZ18

[chipmunksky]

Hi,

I'm new to birding and digiscoping. A friend of my intoduced me in the world of birding. I was immediately amazed by the beauty of these animals. (Sorry for my bad english...)
I now would like to try to shoot some pictures. I own a Panasonic FZ18 with & Olympus 1,7x teleconvertor which gives already some decent shots but most of the time the little creature are too far away.
My friend owns a Swarovski scope which has beautifull results but which was very expensive. I don't want this high level scopes but if somebody could give me some advise on which scope could work with my camera and this for a decent price. I don't have to win Pulzer prices with my photo's but they should be good enough to show to my friends and family.

Thanks in advance for the help and advice !!

[J. Moore]

Hello,

Welcome to the forum. I am afraid the FZ18, like all the ultra-zoom cameras I am aware of, does not work well as a digiscoping camera. You get what is called "vignetting", i.e. a black frame around the photo. You would need to get a different camera with less zoom.

That said, I am a bit surprised that you say that you find the birds are too far away most of the time with your teleconverter. Using the teleconverter, your set up is the 35mm equivalent of an 850 mm lens, and should give approximately 15x magnification compared to what your eyes sees. I have the same setup, and find the birds are close enough most of the time (my main problem is that they do not pose long enough!), and it is more versatile and easier to use than a digiscoping set up. Make sure you have the camera at maximum zoom when you use the teleconverter.

Hope this helps,
Jim

[chipmunksky]

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that somebody had some good experience with either digiscoping with the FZ18 or by direct use with that teleconvertor. What are your settings on the FZ18 with which you have the best results. Do you shoot at 8MP or do you use the EZ on 5 or 3 MP. I guess you don't touch the digital zoom.
Which settings do you use for e.g. contrast , sharpness, stability, aperture, etc...? Any help would be great for me as I'm also quit new to photograpy.

[Cristian Mihai]

Hi chipmunsky,

About your camera settings - I think you'll find good advices if you start a new thread here (or read some old ones):http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=375

[erniehatt]

Walter, I am not up on the Fz18, but I do own and use the FZ50 for digiscoping. I use an astonomical type scope, with a special type eyepiece and I have had some excellent results. Ernie

[arichard]

Walter, I am not up on the Fz18, but I do own and use the FZ50 for digiscoping. I use an astonomical type scope, with a special type eyepiece and I have had some excellent results. Ernie

Hi Ernie,

I own a panasonic FZ7, and I have several questions about if I can adapt this camera for digiscoping.

I pretend to buy a spotting scope and then use my FZ7 for taking pictures of wild life. I have 2 questions:
1. This special eyepiece you refer is for the T2 adapters? My greatest doubt is how will I attach my camera to the scope? with an special T-ring for my camera? or do I have to acquire those digiscoping kits?
2. Another question is about a cable release system for this kind of cameras. Do you know any kind of cable release system that fits my camera?

Thanks in advance,

Best Regards

Richard

[pilsman]

I use a FZ18 and find it very sufficient for almost any birding situation in good light. And with a 1.7x teleconverter, one can get even closer.

But, honestly, I would have to say trying to add a digiscope on top of that is, at best, needless overkill, and at worst, just plain counterproductive.

[Curre32]

Try too stack two tcon 1.7 . You can have good results in good light