Gary Ferguson said:
question is digiscoping or a good digital camera with zoom. Then there is the question of video? I see my hunting evolving into photo shoots. One last foot note, we will be in Alaska the 3rd week in May of this year and want to get the best pics possible. I think I want something that will take quality photos that a beginner can use easily.
Gary
You need to establish what your priorities are. Even with all the $$$ in the world, if you want to digiscope AND videoscope AND get good DSLR shots you'll be packing a lot of gear and weight.
Broadly, digiscoping is fiddly, but relatively cheap, and relatively light, given that you'll be packing your scope with you anyway. It gives you the best stills at long ranges beyond the reach of a 400mm DSLR lens if you don't want to drop 3000 bucks plus. DSLR lenses get heavy and expensive real quick past that focal length! You won't get good at digiscoping by May unless you get LOTS of practice in beforehand, and you'll need to shoot 20-50 frames for every keeper unless you have lots of light, low wind and lethargic birds. You can't do flight shots with digiscoping unless you have incredible luck and bags of light.
DSLR gives you the best picture quality and a much faster set-up and shoot time, provided the bird fills at least 1/4 of the frame. American birds are reputed to be more tame that the European ones I'm used to, but if you find yourself winding your scope zoom up more than 25x then to get good performance at that range with a DSLR you'll need a lens of at least 500mm which is heavy and expensive. A 400mm lens gives you good pictures at a little more than the range of good viewing with 8x bins, and okay record shots at twice the distance.
Videoscoping funnily enough seems to set up faster than digiscoping but perhaps it's just me. The resolution of video is poor for stills, but having the motion of the bird does give you something that stills just don't do, and you usually get to see the birds from a bunch of different angles as it moves, which is good for ID later. If it's stills you want, don't do videoscoping. The results will suck.
The video equivalent of the DSLR for speed on the draw is a superzoom videocam like the newer JVC 25x optical zoom cameras and I have seen some 30x models. These have a range similar to your scope at 30-40x without attaching to the scope. If you want to video through the scope you need a cam with a smallish lens, less than 30mm dia, and a smallish zoom range - up to 12x.
But first you have to get straight what you want. Stills or Video? If stills, 6x4 record shots or stuff you will put on the wall at 10x12. If you trend to the latter, a DSLR is the way to go, the former digiscoping has much to offer.