I ned a little help

[justme]

Can I use a Pentax Optio S for digiscoping
http://www.pentax.com/products/cameras/camera_overview.cfm?productID=18263

I will be using my camera for football gmes,and sometimes bird watching..

I have been looking at these scopes ( something for under $200-$250 )
http://www.ckcpower.com/crystalvue.htm
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/494823
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/818065
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/631229
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/697698
http://www.binoculars.com/v2/detail.asp?PID=1113

Or which pro quality lens do you think would be better for picture perfect quality, as if I was standing 2-5 feet away..

I will be about 50-300ft away the max 600ft

Any help would be a help

[iporali]

Hi justme,

And welcome to a great forum - I hope you like it too ;)

About Optio S and digiscoping... I don't know much about the camera or the scopes you mentioned, but I'll try to answer anyway.

Practically any camera (and a scope) can be used for digiscoping but Optio S may not be the easiest one because its lenses are not centered in the lens barrel, which means that the adapter for coupling the cam and the scope is not easily done.

I also have to tell you that digiscoping in general (even with the very best equipment) is not very good at capturing moving objects - *especially* sports etc. The slow speeds (focusing and exp times) of a "consumer" digicamera (Optio S is actually quite good in this respect) are going to produce you a lot of fuzzy images. So be forewarned.

About the scope candidates in your price range - I would forget all the zooms. Good zoom eyepieces are very expensive to manufacture and a poor zoom effectively kills the joy of watching distant objects - as well as gives you poor images in digiscoping. I would take Crystalvue from your list, but you can think it as a half of a binocular (magnification something like 6-20x with digicam) rather than as a telescope.

I hope I don't sound too discouraging but if you browse the digiscoping galleries here, you see that the vast majority of successful images are from still targets - and these people have put easily $2000 on their equipment. An excellent starting point for (bird-) digiscoping is Andy Bright's web-site www.digiscoped.com.

So what was my point again...
1. Try your Optio S (about half zoom) by hand-holding it on a good scope in an optics store (Swarovski, Zeiss, Leica, Kowa). If the image on the screen is only a small bright spot in the center (less than 1/3) - forget digiscoping with it. If not, proceed.
2. Try to find a handyman to make an off-centered adapter for binocular-Optio -combo. If this works, proceed.
3. Buy Crystalvue and ask the handyman to make one more adapter.
4. Use a tripod, concentrate on slow, not too distant targets and start shooting.

Best of luck :t:

Ilkka