• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Reducing vignetting for NEX-5N and Leupold scope? (1 Viewer)

IanMalcom

New member
Hello all,

I am trying to get into digiscoping with a cheap setup:

I am using a 50mm Leupold compact 15-30x spotting scope. Below are the specs
http://www.leupold.com/hunting-shooting/spotting-scopes/gr-spotting-scopes/gr-15-30x50mm-compact/

My camera is a Sony NEX-5N with the stock OSS 18-55mm (f3.5 to 5.6 min) lense

I am experiencing a hefty amount of vignetting the first picture attached shows my best shot at 15x with the 18-55mm lense zoomed in about half way. excuse the lack of birds

I then tried my mother's 16mm f2.8 OSS lense, see attachment 2 there is more clairty however the vignetting is prominent.


I am thinking about buying a lense to suite my scope the best, however its just trial and error is far as my understanding goes. I know there is a ratio or formula to match camera aperture and scope exit pupil but I wouldn't have a clue how it works.

Which lense size can fix my vignetting problems? I read on another thread someone used a nex5 with a Rokkor 28mm f2.8 and got good results. But how can you even know without testing lenses in person? Input would be appreciated
 

Attachments

  • 18-55mm.jpg
    18-55mm.jpg
    160.5 KB · Views: 119
  • 16mm.jpg
    16mm.jpg
    184.3 KB · Views: 123
Hello all,

I am trying to get into digiscoping with a cheap setup:

I am using a 50mm Leupold compact 15-30x spotting scope. Below are the specs
http://www.leupold.com/hunting-shooting/spotting-scopes/gr-spotting-scopes/gr-15-30x50mm-compact/

My camera is a Sony NEX-5N with the stock OSS 18-55mm (f3.5 to 5.6 min) lense

I am experiencing a hefty amount of vignetting the first picture attached shows my best shot at 15x with the 18-55mm lense zoomed in about half way. excuse the lack of birds

I then tried my mother's 16mm f2.8 OSS lense, see attachment 2 there is more clairty however the vignetting is prominent.


I am thinking about buying a lense to suite my scope the best, however its just trial and error is far as my understanding goes. I know there is a ratio or formula to match camera aperture and scope exit pupil but I wouldn't have a clue how it works.

Which lense size can fix my vignetting problems? I read on another thread someone used a nex5 with a Rokkor 28mm f2.8 and got good results. But how can you even know without testing lenses in person? Input would be appreciated

You need over 40 mm with a prime lens to be safe, especially if your scope eyepiece Eye Relief is much lower than 20mm. Sony zooms won't work.
The Sigma 30/2.8 will work well whereas a 20mm lens will be marginal.
Go with the Sigma.
Neil.
 
I'm trying to set one of these Leupold 50mm scopes up for digiscoping as well. Would you mind if I asked what sort of adapter you're using with it?
 

Attachments

  • lorikeet.jpg
    lorikeet.jpg
    168.6 KB · Views: 123
  • mount1.jpg
    mount1.jpg
    176.3 KB · Views: 104
  • mount2.jpg
    mount2.jpg
    213.7 KB · Views: 129
Warning! This thread is more than 9 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top