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Oly C-50 Zoom great (1 Viewer)

Forcreeks

If you want to see something new in nature!
United States
The next paragraph begins my original post. This line is a later edit.. I want to say, tho I point it out below, I realize many of you are UK birders and may not have as many bright days to shoot as I do. Could be this is a big advantage of Nikon CP's, but I never used one. The Oly problem is not poor light gathering or sensitivity.. it's the AF-locking in low light.. no AF-lock, no focus! Also my Kowa TSN-824 is 82mm objective which gathers lots of light. Oly can get a lock better in sports mode at ISO 320 but with more grain. ISO 160 is pretty good and can handle mild overcast, and ISO80, best grain works in bright to mid-bright overcast & sunny weather. That's the best anecdotal analysis I can do.
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Sorry, but I have to differ here on cameras. Well, I'm a new member here, but started digiscoping over 2 yrs ago with a Canon Powershot S-20 3.3 MP Camera, then Canon's highest res. compact. Pls see my results in the Gallery (Forcreeks) of which I've uploaded about 1/3 to 1/2 of my better shots I'd like to post.
Actually I started digiscoping with a Sony DCRPC1 mini-DV camcorder a year before that and got the notion to try still cams. This photography genre had no name and I couldn't find anyone else doing it, but I know the early experimenters were indeed out there. So I went looking for cams and took my scope, here in Oregon USA, to the bigger camera stores and just held the various cams to my 20-60x eyepiece on the Kowa TSN-824-fluorite glass scope. The Canon worked well so I bought it.
Then I found the Kowa 32x eyepiece with larger exit pupil worked even better, less vignetting. For the past yr, I've been looking for the right upgrade to 4-5 MP cams, and tried the CP4500 twice and decided against it - required high zooms compared to my Canon to avoid vignetting. I also read on Steve's Digicams that it tends to "blow out the highlights" which is a problem with most birds - I've struggled with - white patches with no feather detail. Finally in 2003 came the Olympus C-50 Zoom (in USA) with 5 MP. Its ultra pocket sized but easy to use controls. Takes gorgeous pics and no vignetting. I've only posted a few so far from this camera. See my Anna's hummingbird super closeup shot, more to come. BUT be aware, it has external focus (lens movement, and mount problems) and no manual focus, and focuses poorly in medium low light. I only hand-hold to scope, always have, don't want all that gear between me and my scope eyepiece. I haven't found a perfect camera yet for digiscoping, but both of mine are very good. The update on the Canon is the Powershot S-45 4 MP, with many more user-controllable features than my old S-20. Great Forum, glad to have found you all. Steve B (Forcreeks)
 
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Oh, and I meant to add, I see that UK's EagleEyeOptics now has a digiscoping scope eyepiece with various scope-brands mount rings that significantly reduces vignetting, and I've just ordered it. This would let me try various cameras and let friends use their cams on my scope too. Something like the Nikon CP5700 would be good if this eyepiece works well.
 
hi Steve,& welcome to birdforum :) I appreciate you sharing your findings and thoughts on the camera makes and models. I viewed most of your photos before the gallery went offline and they are beautiful. I had never seen a digiscoped spider before and the clarity & detail really caught my eye- Your photos speak for themselves. I recently purchased a nikon 990 to use with my kowa scope and with blurry digiscoped photos aside (I'm still very new at digiscoping) I am not at all impressed with the quality of the macro or landscape photos at all.
So you had better digiscoping results with the 32x eyepiece? I'm currently using the 20x-60x zoom, handheld- I'll be receiving the kowa lens adapter this week and am anxious to see how it fares.
 
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Cindy, thanks for kind remarks. Yeah, the 32X has definite advantages over the 20-60. I'm no optics expert but I think I remember that the zooms have more elements thus more glass, possible distortion and dimished light. Further, THEY CAN MOVE YOUR FOCUS! I had bigtime problems with that - a steady focus is critical as others have pointed out as far as the very shallow depth of field (of focus). Personally, and here's my technique tip to you, I hold several fingers of both hands on the scope eyepiece and "float" the camera inside the rubber cup area with delicate touch even though both hands are on the camera and right index finger on the shutter release. I'm able to optimize vignette and light reflection problems this way and even move the spot or center metering area to a differently lighted part of the field before half pressing the release (this is called Auto-focus locking and sets the focus and exposure both). Now you cant' do that with an adapter mount, however it's a trade-off obviously. I'm sure there are folks who will just do much better with the rigid mount system. And don't get discouraged.. technique matters and takes time and practice - ther'e no substitute. Take very many shots, and trash the bad/save the good. Experiment. There are limitations, but I find the better you get, the more you push the envelope of the possible. FOr example catching a swimming duck by anticipating where she'll go next and waiting there a moment before resetting for another try. It's all good fun, and so rewarding. Good scoping.
 
Thanks for posting these reports Steve. I've been using the 823 with the 32x and was considering the purchase of the 20-60x zoom. I really like the quality if the 32x but sometimes find that in order to reduce vignetting with the Nikon 4500 it pulls you in a bit too close cropping too much of the bird. I guess I'll make do though.
I'll be interested to hear how you get on with the new EagleEye eyepiece though.
 
A number of the Canon 'S' and 'A' series cameras are o.k. for digiscoping... I have a number of links on my website to users of these cameras.
Likewise, several Olympus/Fuji/Kodak cameras are able to take good shots via a scope.

I find that handholding limits the ability to 'chase' small active birds and get a shot off when the bird rests for a second or two. Conventional adapters can be used with some cameras that have a 'moving' lens systems, but vignetting is often worse on these cameras with an adapter compared to the Nikon cp9**/4500.

Vignetting on the cp4500 with a typical e.p. shouldn't be noticed until you go into the bottom third or so of the camera's zoom range.
The highlight blow-out is definitely an issue, even reducing the contrast in-camera doesn't fully alleviate it.

I'd be very interested to see the results with the various low powered e.p's that are becoming available.... most of them are aimed at the video-scoper, but they will allow a greater number of cameras to be used for digiscoping without significant vignetting. I still doubt that a cp5700 would give acceptable results. There could be resolution issues as well, espescially if you are used to using an 80mm scope at optimum mag of 30x.

In an ideal world, we would have a standard eyepiece for general viewing and an ultra flat eyepiece for digiscoping... allowing us to zoom out without getting the distortion around the edges of the image.
Andy B
 
Andybrightuk said:
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In an ideal world, we would have a standard eyepiece for general viewing and an ultra flat eyepiece for digiscoping... allowing us to zoom out without getting the distortion around the edges of the image.
Andy B

The world may not be perfect right now, but i have a feeling that the major manufactures of these scopes allready have digiscoping eyepieces in the works. There's obviously a demand for them, so supply is inevitable.

Kowa makes 20x and 25x ler eyepieces for their smaller scopes, i wonder why they don't for the larger ones?
 
Andybrightuk said:
I still doubt that a cp5700 would give acceptable results. There could be resolution issues as well, espescially if you are used to using an 80mm scope at optimum mag of 30x.

Andy B

I have to agree with that statement after trying my fuji s602 with a meade etx-90 telescope, sure a different eyepiece would have helped, but you can only do so much with a big zoom camera. If eagleeyeuk.com wants to send me a free eyepiece to test with my 602z then i'd be more than happy to try it, but i'm not going to spend any money to try and make this camera work with a scope when the nikon seems to work well.
 
thank you Steve- if nothing else, I'm having great fun & to me that is what matters :) I finally got my first-ever focused digiscoped photo today- focused being the key word here.. LOL. I find the kowa TSN-DA1 lens adapter very sleek and easy to assemble, but it is time consuming to first focus the bird in the scope then attach the lens adapter and hope the bird is still in the frame. I tried leaving it on and searching for the bird by looking through the monitor and it's just too frustrating (I need a sunshade BAD, the monitor looks like a hologram outline to me- useless!)
the windchills are like 25-30 below zero here today, but I'm determined to get some practicing in before the migrants arrive :)
here's the result with the kowa lens adapter:
http://www.pbase.com/image/14158078
 
Way to go Cindy. That's a focused shot indeed. I can't believe your gusto, going out in weather like that. I'm "allergic" to cold - ha! Definitely a fair-weather birder. They difficulties you mention are exactly why I handhold, though member Andy T just told me of the Optichron brand and it sounds easy to use, though less so with non-threaded camera lenses like my Oly C-50.
I've ordered that low power scope eyepiece and Kowa adapter from www.eagleeyeuk.com yesterday, and I'll try to report here on it in the future.
 
sounds like a plan Steve, will be interested to hear your thoughts on the equipment.. and I'm really a fair weather birder myself, but we pretty much go right from winter to spring here and I'm trying to log some time on the camera before those hyper passerines and wood warblers show up & the trees leaf out :)
 
I received the Digiscoping eyepiece from www.eagleeyeuk.com within 3-4 days here in Western U.S., a small customs duty had to be paid at Post office.
It mounted to the Kowa scope correctly with the included adapter, which is threaded, not bayonette for Kowa like the Kowa eyepieces.
The DS eyepiece totally solves my Mini-DV camcorder's (30mm threaded lens size) vignetting problems. (I started as a digi-videographer and didn't like 640k pixel resolutions.) I wanted beautiful bird pictures, not shaking video or pixelly stills.
But with the tiny Olympus, the vignette problem with new DS eyepiece is pretty bad until I zoom well upward.. of course I only have 3 power zoom on the C-50zoom. I partially got it to try new cams, like the CP5700 my sis has (that has to wait till I travel to LA!), larger format olympus like 4040, etc. that never worked on my scope. Remember the new eyepiece gives somewhere from 7x to 12x magnification, so you can afford to zoom up more. I think that's the whole principle behind it, less power so you can zoom up, removing vignettes. Using it as regular eyepiece I notice I need to back way off from the lens, which is not necessarily bad, except I was not out in bright sun, which could be tough. THe view looked as clear as my Kowa 32x but since power is only 1/3 who knows. Supposedly it adjusts for this, but it's tricky and I don't know if it'd be enough at maximum. The true test for me will come with the larger lens cams than my two stills have, but I think it has promise.
I'll report further but it may be some time to get the other cams in hand. Steve
 
I am also interested. What is the focal length of the eyepiece? Can this eyepiece be adapted to a standard 11/4 in telescopic eyepiece holder. While the 1250 mm focal length of my Meade EXT 90 hasn't been near the problem I originally feared, I would really like to lower my power if possible.

When your fastest f stop is around 12, lighting is always a problem, even in southern Nevada.
 
Yes, f12 is pretty slow alright.
The Eagle Eye DS Eyepiece varies in power as I said: Remember the new eyepiece gives somewhere from 7x to 12x magnification, so you can afford to zoom up more. The 7-8x rating according to its literature would happen with "the latest 'micro' scope bodies" and 10-12 x would be the more traditional scopes (mine). The ep consists of five pieces fitted together plus a threaded adpter ring you order with it for your particular scope. All the five pieces are for besides the lens itself is a system of threadlocking and movement to move the lens closer or further from the scope body and locking it there, and also to give it a sort of adjustable length metal eye-cup/shade. It comes in a tubular nylon zippered case with belt loop which is about 2" dia and 4" tall. The thread on the ep is female, not male and the thread size is not printed anywhere, but I measure across it as: 37mm, yes it's 37mm, I just threaded in a male accessory lens I had. So it comes with an adapter ring you choose by scope brand that's 37mm male to female of your scope's thread, my Kowa looks to be 50mm. That's about it. Oh, the 5-piece design is supposed to let you "tune" the ep to your scope and camera, as I said by moving the elements in or out from scope within a limited range. Steve
 
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