Scopes for Canon Powershot G6?

[Tord]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum.

I have picked up up bird watching as a complement to my other hobbies, which include outdoors photography and flyfishing. I would like to deepen my interest and before proceeding with purchase of equipment I have a couple of questions, and would also like to hear opinions (biased or not) from knowledgeable people about the following:

- Are there any scopes with adapters that will accomodate a Canon Powershot G6?
- Or will these adapters only work for SLRs?
- I like to travel and I don't want to be discouraged bringing the scope with me, for size/weight reason.
- Is 65 mm front lens diameter enough?
- Should I look for a fixed focal length ocular, or a zoom?
- Lastly, what should I consider when selecting a tripod? Do tripods for scopes differ a lot from tripods for photography?

Thanks in advance

Tord
Sweden

[john-henry]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum.

I have picked up up bird watching as a complement to my other hobbies, which include outdoors photography and flyfishing. I would like to deepen my interest and before proceeding with purchase of equipment I have a couple of questions, and would also like to hear opinions (biased or not) from knowledgeable people about the following:

- Are there any scopes with adapters that will accomodate a Canon Powershot G6?
- Or will these adapters only work for SLRs?
- I like to travel and I don't want to be discouraged bringing the scope with me, for size/weight reason.
- Is 65 mm front lens diameter enough?
- Should I look for a fixed focal length ocular, or a zoom?
- Lastly, what should I consider when selecting a tripod? Do tripods for scopes differ a lot from tripods for photography?

Thanks in advance

Tord
Sweden

Hi tord,
I'm afraid the G6 is not a suitable camera for digiscoping it gives a lot of vignetting, you would be better trying a smaller 3x zoom compact camera.
Have a look through the digi-forums and you will pick up a lot of good advice on what cameras, adapters and tripods are suitable before you spend your money on any equipment.

regards

John

[Tord]

Hi tord,
I'm afraid the G6 is not a suitable camera for digiscoping it gives a lot of vignetting, you would be better trying a smaller 3x zoom compact camera.
Have a look through the digi-forums and you will pick up a lot of good advice on what cameras, adapters and tripods are suitable before you spend your money on any equipment.

regards

John
Thanks for the information. Pity, because the G6 is such a good camera with excellent picture quality... and I purchased it less than a year ago.

/Tord

[iporali]

Hi Tord,

Welcome to BirdForum - and congratulations on the hockey championship... again :t:

The Canon G6 is a great camera - not the easiest for digiscoping - but it *can* be used, especially if you are mainly interested in bird photography. The problem with the G-series is the requirement of very long eye-relief, which normal birdwatching eyepieces don't provide. However, there are a couple of other solutions:
- almost any good ED scope (Zeiss, Leica, Swaro...) with a Scopetronix Maxview eyepiece (http://www.scopetronix.com/digiscoping.htm)
- Kowa TSN823 scope with a special 27xLER eyepiece

These eyepieces have either low power (MaxView) or a narrow field of view (27xLER) for normal birdwatching, but they should perform very well for digiscoping. You could eg. have a normal versatile eyepiece (zoom or 30xwide) for birdwatching and keep the digiscoping eyepiece attached to your camera. It should be quite easy to switch eyepieces when necessary - but that slightly spoils the "beauty" of digiscoping, ie. being able to easily view and photograph the birds with the same setup.

Best regards,

Ilkka

[mohbhorn]

Hi Tord,
I use G6 with the EagleEye DS eyepiece and Swarovski ATS 80 HD with good out come but you'll loss some magnification 'cause the eyepiece has low magnification . The advantage is you have IR remote which makes shaking very little.
But if you try with 20-60X eyepiece you'll get vignette at any zoom steps but the quality is good.
Have a look at my gallery http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/91345/sort/1/cat/500/page/1
and
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/91103/sort/1/size/medium/cat/500/page/1
Best regards,
mohbhorn.