digibinning!

[Surreybirder]

I was interested to see a photo taken by someone on this forum using his/her digital camera and binoculars.

Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd give it a try. I focussed my bins on the bird and then held the camera in my other hand, using the screen to get the bird in the middle of the pic. The result wouldn't win any prizes but at least it's recognizable.

Clearly digibinning doesn't have a great future! (though it might be more feasible with bins that have a screw-socket for a tripod). But it struck me that there may be occasions when you want a record shot of, say, a butterfly or dragonfly for identification purposes when this technique might be better than nothing.

PS sorry if this is in the wrong forum!

[pauco]

hi surreybirder.
thats one hell of a photo through bins. what camera? i have just
bought a nikon cool pix 775. plus use minolta 404si with 400mm
lens still a 35 mil man at heart. all the best bert.

[Ashley beolens]

The waxwing on my gallery page is taken through bins, I think the biggest problem is the shake you get with bins its very hard to steady them without support.

Nice sparrow shot by the way!

[el_supremo]

Nice shot Ken.
I bought a binocular clamp for my old Bushnell 7x50 and got some reasonable photos with my G1 camera but since I replaced it with a G2 (long, boring story involving Future Shop omitted) I've had no luck whatsoever.

[ivewalmer]

Hi,

Incidentally I have been trying this a little in the last couple of weeks with my Swarovski 8.5x42ELs and Nikon CP4500. Not had a proper chance to test it out but it seems to be useable for close to birds. Incidentally with the pop up eyecup out the lens casing of the 4500 fits nicely onto the bins with all vignetting disappearing with only a little zoom on the camera. Here is a picture of a (lowly I know) Collared Dove. Want to try it with some smaller stuff once the weather improves!

Ivan

[Surreybirder]

Hi, Bert. My camera is a Fujifinepix 2400. It's 3.1 megapixels so that gives good resolution but it only has a 3x optical zoom. (the digital cameras with the higher zooms might not need the 'help' of the bins!)
As Ashley says, the main problem is holding camera and bins steady enough to avoid camera shake.
Nice shot, Ivan... good luck on the smaller birds. I guess the main problem is finding ones that stay still long enough to focus the bins and then find them with the camera!

[paclett]

I have recently found that the use of a 6x25 monocular gives some fair to middling results.
the rubber eyecup fits nice and tight enough to not worry about it falling of.
Vignetting is minimal and as it as a small moncular you get good f stop values. wonder if anyone else is using a similar setup?

[Surreybirder]

Any chance of posting an example, paclett?

[Andy Bright]

Originally posted by paclett
I have recently found that the use of a 6x25 monocular gives some fair to middling results.
the rubber eyecup fits nice and tight enough to not worry about it falling of.
Vignetting is minimal and as it as a small moncular you get good f stop values. wonder if anyone else is using a similar setup?

Converting monoculars (on a commercial scale) was very popular a few years ago, and got many people started on the road to digiscoping.... unfortunately they were often cheap and cheerful far-eastern monoculars with rather poor optics (Kenko 8x32!). I've often wondered about using monoculars from more traditional manufacturers, like Zeiss.
Andy

[paclett]

Hi Ken and Andy,
There are a lot of Cheapies on the market at this size, but fortunatley the optics on this little beasty are made by Ziess, originally for the eastern european market.
It runs down to 30cms for close work and has a field of view of 9.5 meters at 1000 very narrow but as it is oly for close work no problemlenm have attached an image of the thing but as I only have the one camera diff to take a shot with it on, wil try though.
The photo in the gallery of the Bombylius was hand held with this optic attached and has given a good account of its self. I find it VG for insects and flowers

[Ashu]

I have posted few pics of Black Kite on Nikon Binoculars Forum. Pictures were taken using Nikon Venturer LX 10x42 and Canon PowerShot A95.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=82586




I was interested to see a photo taken by someone on this forum using his/her digital camera and binoculars.

Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd give it a try. I focussed my bins on the bird and then held the camera in my other hand, using the screen to get the bird in the middle of the pic. The result wouldn't win any prizes but at least it's recognizable.

Clearly digibinning doesn't have a great future! (though it might be more feasible with bins that have a screw-socket for a tripod). But it struck me that there may be occasions when you want a record shot of, say, a butterfly or dragonfly for identification purposes when this technique might be better than nothing.

PS sorry if this is in the wrong forum!

[Vodomec]

I use a Olympus 7070wz and pentax 10*43 dcf sp. Two samples ->

[christineredgate]

Vodomec,those shots are very good.One of our members-Tanny,is very good at digibinning.He has the technique down to a very fine art.Yes one does need a steady hand.I tried once with the Kyocera Contax cam,this little cam is very light,and the results very passable.

[loranfrfr]

I own some Nikon monarch 8*40 and a cheap digital Panasonic camera. I usually take pictures of fast moving, hard to find birds by looking with my right eye through the left eye cup of my binocular, (my left eye is closed), and holding my camera (zoom 3X) in the right eye cup of the binoculars . The camera fits exactly in the eye cup, by the way. If the light is bright, you can get fairly decent pictures (look at my blog (http://huronriverbirding.blogspot.com/) . By low light, I actually look at the LCD screen of the camera, and try to keep the binoculars as stable as possible, possibly against my knee or a tree.

I think this technique is just perfect for birders who wants to document their sighting. The camera is tiny and only takes a few grams (and $) in a pocket. A mediocre picture of an Ivory Billed woodpecker would be much much better than no picture at all!

Another good advantage ; the pictures are never going to win any prize, so you don't have to waste your time and energy trying to get THE best shot of the year. You can just observe and watch birds.