opticoholic
Well-known member
Hello,
About 10 years ago I started my bird photography hobby digiscoping with my old Coolpix 990 on a Leica 62mm scope. Gradually I moved away from digiscoping to using a DSLR and long lens. I think one of the limitations of digiscoping is the slow focal ratios and diffraction. Usually about the best you can do even with low power eyepieces is ~f/9. Zoom in even a little and your equivalent f-stop quickly goes to f/11 or more. Of course digiscopers still get great results, but I think diffraction becomes a significant limiting factor.
I've been occasionally visiting your group here and admiring your photos. Later this year I'm going to be getting a high end 80mm f/6 APO triplet refractor. The telescope is still being made so I won't have it for a few months, but it should be very nice. My main purpose with the scope is astronomy, but after admiring your photos I want to try using the telescope for bird photography. I'm hoping that using the small telescope maybe I can get a lot of "reach" like digiscoping but maybe get a little higher quality photos. Obviously I give up the ability to enjoy the wonderful view through the eyepiece of a spotting scope, but if my main priority is getting a photo, maybe I'll be happier with the results? All of your wonderful photos generally lead me to believe that, but what do you people think as far as the pros and cons of spotting scopes vs. using small telescopes for bird photography?
Also, if any of you would like to point me at old threads that cover all the basic questions for "newbies" wanting to use astronomy telescopes for bird photography, that would be great. I plan to use a good red dot finder and my Olympus E-M1. My E-M1 is not getting used nearly often enough these days. Those of you who use the Olympus OM-D bodies, are there any special adapters that you prefer?
Thanks for sharing all your great photos.
Dave
About 10 years ago I started my bird photography hobby digiscoping with my old Coolpix 990 on a Leica 62mm scope. Gradually I moved away from digiscoping to using a DSLR and long lens. I think one of the limitations of digiscoping is the slow focal ratios and diffraction. Usually about the best you can do even with low power eyepieces is ~f/9. Zoom in even a little and your equivalent f-stop quickly goes to f/11 or more. Of course digiscopers still get great results, but I think diffraction becomes a significant limiting factor.
I've been occasionally visiting your group here and admiring your photos. Later this year I'm going to be getting a high end 80mm f/6 APO triplet refractor. The telescope is still being made so I won't have it for a few months, but it should be very nice. My main purpose with the scope is astronomy, but after admiring your photos I want to try using the telescope for bird photography. I'm hoping that using the small telescope maybe I can get a lot of "reach" like digiscoping but maybe get a little higher quality photos. Obviously I give up the ability to enjoy the wonderful view through the eyepiece of a spotting scope, but if my main priority is getting a photo, maybe I'll be happier with the results? All of your wonderful photos generally lead me to believe that, but what do you people think as far as the pros and cons of spotting scopes vs. using small telescopes for bird photography?
Also, if any of you would like to point me at old threads that cover all the basic questions for "newbies" wanting to use astronomy telescopes for bird photography, that would be great. I plan to use a good red dot finder and my Olympus E-M1. My E-M1 is not getting used nearly often enough these days. Those of you who use the Olympus OM-D bodies, are there any special adapters that you prefer?
Thanks for sharing all your great photos.
Dave