Beginer looking for help.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Hello there. I've done a little digiscoping with my Nikon 4500 and Tasco 15-60x60 but the quality of the scope is terrible, massive chromatic abberation and low contrast. I would like to upgrade and the Pentax PF ED 100 has my attention. My problem is that I can't find much info on the scope. Anyone know of any reviews on it or does anyone own one?

[Andy Bright]

Hi. a big welcome to BirdForum.net from all the moderators and admin staff.

The big Pentax 100 does look interesting, I've seen a number of reviews on the 80 but next to nothing on the larger scope.
One thing is for certain..... it's very, very heavy. The Pentax 80 is a large and heavy scope compared to many of it's competitors, the 100 would be far heavier... that's why few birders will choose it.
Resolution should be exceptional with the 100mm objective..... and it may be the ultimate digiscoping scope.
Andy

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Freddy,

Tasco scopes have never been popular in UK birding circles, even though that's what all the box stores sell. I guess you've discovered why!

Why not check out Kowa scopes? - very good quality and better value for money than most of the others.

Michael

PS do I detect a Queen fan here? ;)

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Thank you for the replies.
Yes Michael I'm a Queen fan.
I am also interested in astronomy. Mars will be making it's closest appoach in our lifetime this August, what do you think about planet viewing with the big Pentax.

[Dave Smith]

Hi Freddy

I've just mentioned in a separate thread that I could see the polar ice cap on Mars with a 80mm Swarovski. With a 100mm scope you should get wonderful views. You do however need to have a fairly high magnification because the apparent size of Mars is small in spite of it being closer than normal.

Dave

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Hi Dave, what power did you use to see the ice caps?

[Dave Smith]

4mm astro eyepiece giving a magnification of 115.

[Paulyoly]

I can't speak for the 100mm pentax, but the 80mm ed angled scope produces outstanding digiscoping pics, check my gallery. The 100mm will be slightly heavier, but you probably could stand a more strenous workout like most of us. I would love to look through the 100 as the 80 produces very bright images using the xl-28 eyepiece, the view through the 100 ed pentax most be awesome. let us know what you decide.

[sparrowbirder]

according to the blurb the ed 80 is housed in an etremely lightweight "magnesium alloy body" how lightweight compared to say a kowa"" must admit,if the quaility of this scope is as good as it sounds,might be interested in purchasing one for digiscoping specially as it sounds quite reasonably priced!!
anybody ever used one,are adaptors available""

[Lewis]

"Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball..."

[Paulyoly]

Originally posted by Lewis
"Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball..."



??????????? Not sure what lewis meant, but for whoever asked for weights here are some off the net.

swaro ats80hd 45.9oz, also saw it listed as 47.9oz.

pentax pf80ed-a 56.4oz. 1600g

kowa tsn 823m 52.2oz 1480g

and for the big boy Pentax pf100ed 91.7oz 2600g. thats a heavy mother.

The 100mm scope is heavier for obvious reasons, but i wouldn't mind throwing it over my shoulder if it increased the amount of keepers(good shots).

[Lewis]

"Yes Michael I'm a Queen fan."

-sorry. It's a line from a Queen song. : )

"Get down, make love..."

[Lewis]

oh! sorry, there i go again

[Sumit]

Hi,
I am one of those "Jack of all Glass" and use digiscope, DSLR and SLRs to somehow record anything that flies in my country. In the context of this posting, I did posess the same Tasco and used it for a year. I have many images from it, some of great attraction to me. My laptop has only one image (from the Tasco) stored and it is not the best that the Tasco can do. I thought that it may be a good idea to attach the image, which is a rarity for India~ a Brown Shrike of ssp. lucionensis.
This is a very windy day image (the tail is twisted by the force of the wind) with a light tripod. If needed I can post additional images. Anything to start a debate......

[Freddy_Mercurio]

I talked to the camera shop that I ordered the scope from and I should be getting it soon. I got the zoom and 28mm eye piece as well.
I'd like to show you all a picture of a heron taken with my Tasco at about 200 yards, but I don't know how to post pictures.
Any help?

[IanF]

A very interesting thread Freddy that I have enjoyed keeping up with. I can't help with the scope advice, but I can tell you how to attach a photo ;)

In stead of using the grey reply box a the bottom of the page, use the green 'post reply' button above and to the right of the grey box. That brings up another page with all of the extra site features as wel as all the thread info. Just type in your rely and then hit the 'browse' button beneath the box and select your photo from your hard drive. Then hit the 'submit' button. Don't use the preview button or you will need to do the attachment again.

There are other ways to add a photo, but this is by far the simplest.

[Andy Bright]

Going back to weight of the various scopes.... the Pentax body isn't particularly heavy against the competition, but just check out the weight of that Pentax zoom eyepiece! Now that is heavy (and the size of a tin of baked beans)

[Freddy_Mercurio]

This is what I've been use to for the last ten years. I hope the new scope can beat this quality.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

That's actually one of my best pictures with the Tasco. The distance was close to two hundred yards and the scope set to 25x. It is the full image resized without any post camera adjustments. Check out that chromatic aberration!

[Tannin]

New Hampshire? Isn't that where they had the reactor meltdown? From that Glow-in-the-Dark Heron, I'd say that they still have a little work to do in the cleaning up the radioactives department. ;)

(Sorry Freddie - just pulling your leg. I think you are going to love your new scope.)

[IanF]

Well Freddy it's not just the Tasco that gives results like that. My first scope was a Kowa 611 and that is what the results used to look like using that one. Every photo was very soft and the CA was just as bad as you're getting. Using the scope just for viewing it was a great little scope, but not for digiscoping. I did wonder whether it as the Olympus C2000Z that I was using it with, butit no longer matters as I've moved on.

[Andy Bright]

Sorry, just couldn't resist the challenge ;) Couldn't let that poor heron suffer any more.

[Paulyoly]

Freddy, i'm looking through my pics to find my worst one with chromatic abberation, i will post it here. I must say that the CA with the pf80ed and cp990 is almost none existant, but i've had a couple that show some, but never in the center of the shot were the bird normally is. I think you will love that scope if it's anything like the 80ed. Screw the zoom for digiscoping, you won't need it unless the bird is a mile away. I bought the xl-21 and found that for most of my birding it was to much mag, unless the bird was the size of a hummingbird. I can't wait to see your results.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Hey Paul I love your PBase album, especially the water mocasin, he looks like you caught him redhanded with his hand in the cookie jar. What's up with the white squirrel, is it a grey squirrel?

Andy could you share what you did to improve my picture? I'm just learning Photo Shop and could use any advise offered. I'll post my reprocessed version of the heron. Lots of unsharp mask followed by contrast and brightness adjustment, and last, desaturate blues and magentas. Oh yeah, and resized to 25%.

[Paulyoly]

freddy, that is a grey squirrel with some kind of white strain/gene, i have atleast three in my yard that have white on them, one is almost all white. Here's a flycatcher with some CA on the stick, i do nothing to my pics to reduce CA, i don't know how and i don't have photoshop.

[Paulyoly]

Here's another flycatch pic that should have a lot of chromatic aberration, but doesn't have any.

[Paulyoly]

And here's the white squirrel. I think you'll find the xl-28 produces better results than the zoom, but i still wish i had bought the scope with the zoom just to have it for birding, i bought my scope for $600 with no eyepiece. I wish i new someone with a swarovski or leica/kowa so i could compare them.

[sparrowbirder]

probably sounds naive saying this, sometimes CA is very obvious as in the heron posted above, in the first flycatcher shot though what am I looking for,looks a decent shot to me, maybe ive just got lower standards, does it sometimes manifest itself as a slightly "out of focus" effect on bill,legs etc, on the enclosed picture,comments would be appreciated on the amount of CA on this shot,so I know what to look for, and also any comments on a cure!!!

[Paulyoly]

Originally posted by sparrowbirder
probably sounds naive saying this, sometimes CA is very obvious as in the heron posted above, in the first flycatcher shot though what am I looking for,looks a decent shot to me, maybe ive just got lower standards, does it sometimes manifest itself as a slightly "out of focus" effect on bill,legs etc, on the enclosed picture,comments would be appreciated on the amount of CA on this shot,so I know what to look for, and also any comments on a cure!!!


Chromatic abberation is purple fringing around the edge between light and dark objects in the pic, like the white ring around the neck of your dove, there is some purple fringing there. IN the first flycatcher pic there is CA around the twig that's to the right of the bird. It isn't bad and could be easily removed if i knew how.

[stevo]

Hi Paul

Here`s a quick fix for chromatic abberation,this works in photoshop/elements.Select enhance a drop down menu appears,select colour,master appears click on this another drop down window appears now pick the colour that`s causing the fringing,a window opens drag the SATURATION arrow back to the left until the fringing goes,click okay.All you need to do now is to save the image for the correction to be permanent.

Regards Stevo.

[Andy Bright]

There's various methods to do the same thing.... and it's also dependant upon what software you're using.
Some methods here .... though sponge on desaturation (at about 30%) is quite a quick an easy way to make the problem less of an eyesore.
http://www.digiscoped.com/Digiscopingwithphotoshop.html

I may split this thread and transport the CA/Photoshop bit to the appropriate forum.

[christineredgate]

Here you are Andy,what can you do for this heron,yes i know i was not coming back to the forum for a week ,but the visitors are at the pub,and the pc is not covered in dust sheets yet!!.This forum is addictive,but to be serious ,my herons received a very negative response,but they were at least 3/4 mile away,and it was very sunny.
Christine.

[christineredgate]

re the fly catcher and white squirrel,why is it that all of the pics from America are sometimes so much more vibrant than our here in England.i cannot believe the acess you all seem to have to wildlife out there.Both pics are great,so clear,you must have been really close up.
Christine.

[Andy Bright]

Blimey, can't do miracles 3:-) Mainly a contrast problem with your Heron... and maybe heathaze. You're pushing it at those distances.

[Paulyoly]

Originally posted by christineredgat
re the fly catcher and white squirrel,why is it that all of the pics from America are sometimes so much more vibrant than our here in England.i cannot believe the acess you all seem to have to wildlife out there.Both pics are great,so clear,you must have been really close up.
Christine.

Here in Florida we have one of the best climates for wildlife all year round, both those pics were taken in my backyard, the squirrel was very close as far as digiscoping goes, probably 20 feet from me, don't remember how close the flycatcher was, but 20-30 feet most likely. I think we have better lighting in Florida than you in england or so i've heard from those on the net.

[christineredgate]

Yes,Thanks Andy,I do believe in miracles!!!.Which is why one day I will get a really good digi scope pic.
Paulyoly,thanks for your reply.No wonder your images are so clear,being such a short distance away.So yes Andy,I do expect miracles.But all our birds are a distance away,but then that is best for the birds,they are safe,and bird protection is a priority,but occasionally one will take the perfect pic.
thanks for taking time to reply.
Christine.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Haven't had much time to play with it, we are in monsoon season around here. I did manage to take this picture by holding the camera up to the scope. Shot was taken with 22X eyepiece and the subject was about thirty feet away. 1/126th sec exposure at iso 200.

[Paulyoly]

I understand monsoon season, it rains twice a day here in florida right now. I'm surprised your 990 didn't focus on the blade of grass just infront of the squirrel, mine likes to focus on whatever it wants even when i use area focus, which is all the time. ISO 200 explains the extra noise in the background, i've never changed the iso from 100, don't even know how. That's a good first pics for just hand holding, so hows the view through the scope? Lately i've been viewing more than photographing because the camera just doesn't do a good scope justice. Did you use the macro mode at half zoom or is that full camera zoom?

[Ragna]

Paul
when digiscoping i tend to use manual focus on infinity on the camera and just focus through the scope, ive found very little difference between this and close focus mode.Freedy this is a good first attempt.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Well I finally built an adaptor to mount my 4500 to the new scope. I'm having a bit of a hard time with my tripod, not very stiff and very rough movement. Not to mention I don't have a remote shutter release for my camera.
I did manage to get this shot today.
http://www.pbase.com/image/20217234
It was pretty far, about thirty yards. What do you all think?

[christineredgate]

Freddy ,absolutely beautiful.I am so envious.you can get lovely widlife shots in your part of the world.I have a 4500,and i use either the eagle optics adapter,or the Swarowski one.I have the swar scope.I find that once you have the pic in the camera screen and you let go of the scope,then the pic moves,so i have bought a beanbag to sit on top of the scope to keep it in position,and i think it seems to be working.I was advised to buy a remote shutter release cable which i have done,it seems okay,but the proffessionals such as andy do not seem too sure.I think it is trial and error.But yuor picture is superb.
Christine.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

Here is my first picture of a hummingbird. A long shot at about 33 yards. Exposure time was 1/ 23rd, focal length 23.5mm.

[Freddy_Mercurio]

I think this is a red tailed hawk, I'm not too good with my hawk identification. About a 170 yard shot, 1/72 second exposure.

[christineredgate]

Freddie,excellent shots.I do love the Hawk,very clear ,you are so lucky to have such wonderful birds at close shooting range,
Christine

[IanF]

I'd say you have got the hang of it now Freddy. Great couple of shots :t: