Does a scope or a lense exist for videoing with Ø37mm videocam without vignetting ? (1 Viewer)

Hi everybody,

I begin with birds videoing...
I have got a digital camcorder SONY PC120 (10x optical zoom, 37mm diameter thread) and would like to make birds videos with a bigger magnification. I don't have any scope at this time.

In your opinion, what is the best solution to obtain the best videos and pictures without vignetting or blur or with the less vigneting :

- to buy an adaptator lense for my camcorder ? Which magnification ? Which adaptator ? EagleEye Opticzoom 5x suitable and sufficient ?
- Or to buy a good scope ? Which model would be the best for videos : LEICA APO 77 ? SWAROVSKI 80 HD ? ZEISS ? Other ? (with a 20mm eyepiece or less I suppose).

Thank you very much for your advice.

Chris
Fontainebleau (50 miles under Paris)
( http://perso.planetis.com/christian.brezillon )
PS : this forum is the best and the most complete on birding I have never seen. Thanks for that.

Hi Chris and a very warm welcome to birdforum.net from all the moderators and admin staff here. We hope you enjoy the website.

There are better people to answer this question than myself... but I get almost zero vignetting (even at full wide-angle) with my camcorder when used on the Swarovski AT80HD spotting scope with the EagleEye 'Ds' eyepiece. This eyepiece gives between 10-12x magnification which is perfect when used with a camcorder that has an optical zoom of 10x.
Others, such as our videoscoping expert Paul Hackett, will be able to advise you on the amount of vignetting using smaller add-on teleconverters like the EagleEye 5x.

Any of the top scopes (Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski, Kowa, Nikon) will be perfectly suitable for the task. the actual optical differences between these are very marginal when using a video camera. Remember to budget for a sturdy tripod and a good quality fluid video head for the tripod.

The Eagle-Eye 'Digimount' would be very acceptable as a way of attaching your camera to the scope eyepiece.

Best regards,
Andy

Chris-B.scoping said:

Hi everybody,

I begin with birds videoing...
I have got a digital camcorder SONY PC120 (10x optical zoom, 37mm diameter thread) and would like to make birds videos with a bigger magnification. I don't have any scope at this time.

In your opinion, what is the best solution to obtain the best videos and pictures without vignetting or blur or with the less vigneting :

- to buy an adaptator lense for my camcorder ? Which magnification ? Which adaptator ? EagleEye Opticzoom 5x suitable and sufficient ?
- Or to buy a good scope ? Which model would be the best for videos : LEICA APO 77 ? SWAROVSKI 80 HD ? ZEISS ? Other ? (with a 20mm eyepiece or less I suppose).

Thank you very much for your advice.

Chris
Fontainebleau (50 miles under Paris)
( http://perso.planetis.com/christian.brezillon )
PS : this forum is the best and the most complete on birding I have never seen. Thanks for that.

Click to expand...

Videoscoping without vignetting : that's possible!

Thanks a lot, Andy : that is a very suitable -and fast, too!- answer for my problem !
The trick : to provide a 10 or 12x eyepiece (so, large diameter and small but sufficient magnification, thanks to the cam optical magnification ) by EagleEye for example.
I enjoy really because the Swarovski 80HD was the scope I prefered despite of its price.
I haven't forgotten the necessary sturdy tripod (a good Manfrotto probably) and for the fluid video head I'm going to study the...financial question, at first!

I'm going to write your website address in the near future in my own website. Your site and obviously this forum should be better known by "birders" in France, I think.

Best Regards and thanks,
Chris

Andy Bright said:

Hi Chris
[...]
Best regards,
Andy

Click to expand...

Camcorder

Andy what Camcorder do you have?

I just bought a Swarovski AT80HD spotting scope thinking I could use my Olympus C2100 UZ with it. What a let down to find out it will not work. Now I have to buy a camera that will work with it. So I'm looking at a Nikon CoolPix 4500, about $500.00. Is it possible to get a camcorder for about $500 that would work good with my scope?

Carl

Andy Bright said:

Hi Chris and a very warm welcome to birdforum.net from all the moderators and admin staff here. We hope you enjoy the website.

There are better people to answer this question than myself... but I get almost zero vignetting (even at full wide-angle) with my camcorder when used on the Swarovski AT80HD spotting scope with the EagleEye 'Ds' eyepiece. This eyepiece gives between 10-12x magnification which is perfect when used with a camcorder that has an optical zoom of 10x.
Others, such as our videoscoping expert Paul Hackett, will be able to advise you on the amount of vignetting using smaller add-on teleconverters like the EagleEye 5x.

Any of the top scopes (Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski, Kowa, Nikon) will be perfectly suitable for the task. the actual optical differences between these are very marginal when using a video camera. Remember to budget for a sturdy tripod and a good quality fluid video head for the tripod.

The Eagle-Eye 'Digimount' would be very acceptable as a way of attaching your camera to the scope eyepiece.

Best regards,
Andy

Click to expand...

Hello!
I also have a olympus 2100uz. I just ordered a Canon xr85mc mini digital video camera with 20x optical zoom at Amazon.com
As mentioned by one of the psters I also use google as my search engine and when it comes to finding prices/availability I use Froogle (a division of Google).

BiLL

I use a now quite old Panasonic Mini DV DS77B (filter diameter 30.5 mm)and get good results on my camcorder. The main thing I have found is to have everything carefully balanced and the whole set up rigid so that vibrations do not knock the assembly about and cause dreadful wobble when you come to see the results after taping.

Hi Chris,

I use a Sony HC85 (37mm) with a Lieca APO77 Scope and 20-60 eyepiece. After setting eyepiece zoom, I adjust camera zoom until frame is properly filled...seems to work. A good tripod and adapter is required and vibration can be a problem. Will have to try it with IS mode.