Anyone digiscoping with DSLR at prime focus? (1 Viewer)

Hi Fernando,

I can honestly say that I am blown away! Your images are splendid!

I just purchased a William Optics Zenithstar II ED (80mm) and have the intention to use it for prime focus bird photography. I would be interested to know more about Nikon lens modification you made and the actual connection between the Nikon lens, the 2" extension and your teleconvertors. Have you ever tried a barlow/powermate instead of the teleconvertors?

After seeing your images, I think I will forego digiscoping and focus on getting my scope set up to work with my D50

Thanks again for sharing.

birdeast said:

Hi Fernando,

I can honestly say that I am blown away! Your images are splendid!

Click to expand...

Thank you.

birdeast said:

I just purchased a William Optics Zenithstar II ED (80mm) and have the intention to use it for prime focus bird photography. I would be interested to know more about Nikon lens modification you made and the actual connection between the Nikon lens, the 2" extension and your teleconvertors. Have you ever tried a barlow/powermate instead of the teleconvertors?

Click to expand...

OK, so we'll help each other out I've been considering changing my ED80 for your WO, so I'm very interested in seeing the results that your scope can do. I want the WO because of it's size and also it's mechanical quality. SO when you finish your setup please show me a few shots (from and with the scope) and also how long is it with the adapter instaled and with the hood retracted, OK?

Here is a few shots of the first lens I used for this setup, I build this when I was using a Vixen 80SS, a Quantaray 35-70mm:

The adapter finished and ready to use

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/75971733-O.jpg
Inside the focus ring rubber there's four screws holding the extension tube in place.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/75971730-O.jpg
A pic of the extension tube and the lens allready without the glass and ready for the tube. This extention tube was done with a 1.25" barrel. On the other one (the 28-80 lens) I used the 2" barrel.

While doing this you'll have to measure the point where your camera is focused on infinity, you'll have to consider this distance when building the adapter, I suspect for that WO the adapter is going to be quite long. If you don't do this and built a short adapter the setup will focus way past infinity and will never reach the closest focus possible, in my scope I have a range from about 6m to infinity, without extra parts.

Here is how everything looks today with the 28-80 lens and the D70.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/75971727-O.jpg Obviously this isn't the original skywatcher color.

The converters (after the adapter is made) are connected the same way their connected to any regular lens.

I didn't use barlows but I did try a Powermate 2" 2x on the Vixen not the ED80, so I cannot comment about how well it would work on the ED80. With the Vixen I considered the powermate unusable, it was soft on the center and very soft on the corners, but keep in mind that the Vixen is a 400mm F/5 achromat and converters/barlows/powermates results are only as good as the glass they're atached so I can't draw conclusion from it, but I did expected better. What I also didn't like is that it's a very heavy part, much heavier than the Kenko 2x. Frankly considering the weight and price of the powermate alone I think you'll be better of with a Kenko 2" converter, plus it will fit allmost every other lens you'll attach it to.

I hope this helps, anything more please ask.

Thanks Fernando.....

I can see myself asking more detailed questions when I actually have everything in hand and find myself ready to put it all together.

I am very happy to assist as much as I can. You must understand though....I am a complete novice. I just received this scope last Wednesday and I am a bit overwhelmed. Still, I will share my experiences for what they are worth.

I have a 1.4x teleconvertor. This should be good to start with. However, I am looking at a device from Siebert Optics called a Power Mag Wheel. It is a Barlow type device that allows the user to dial between 2x, 2.5x & 3x (there are about 4 different power combinations available)

I will be traveling next week. I hope to be able to get busy with my scope the week after. I will let you know how I get on. Actually, I have already started a thread under scope section where I plan to let folks know how I get on with digiscoping with the WO scope when I get a chance.

birdeast said:

Thanks Fernando.....

I can see myself asking more detailed questions when I actually have everything in hand and find myself ready to put it all together.

I am very happy to assist as much as I can. You must understand though....I am a complete novice. I just received this scope last Wednesday and I am a bit overwhelmed. Still, I will share my experiences for what they are worth.

I have a 1.4x teleconvertor. This should be good to start with. However, I am looking at a device from Siebert Optics called a Power Mag Wheel. It is a Barlow type device that allows the user to dial between 2x, 2.5x & 3x (there are about 4 different power combinations available)

I will be traveling next week. I hope to be able to get busy with my scope the week after. I will let you know how I get on. Actually, I have already started a thread under digiscoping section where I plan to let folks know how I get on with digiscoping with the WO scope when I get a chance.

Click to expand...

IMO I think you should try with the 1.4x converter for now, use it for some time and decide then if you really need more power, I rarely use more than the 1.4x, only now and then I stack the other 1.4x and that is as long as I'll go.

About the Power Mag, I know nothing about it but I really doubt you're gonna use much of the 2.5 and 3x settings, remember that your scope with a 2x converter is at 1090mm F/13.6 witch is still useable a lot of times and with a 3X it will be at 1635mm F/20.4, I really doubt you'll find many times where you can use such a setting for bird photography, that's too long and way too slow, you'd also need a monster tripod to keep a setup like this steady enough for photography. So you'll probably find out that it's cheaper, lighter and better optically to stick with a 2x converter. This is just my opinion of course.