Picture Quality (1 Viewer)

Hi

How full a picture do you get when using a digital camera mounted to a Zeiss diascope, using the camera adapter.... Do you end up with a decent picture inside the black area??

Thanks

Ackley

You need to put the digital camera into digital zoom mode if at all possible. This will usually eliminate that black ring. I have never used a Zeiss to digiscope, but have digiscoped a bit now. Generally, I have to focus the scope while looking through my cameras LCD to get good pictures. Even then, I am usually getting 1 in 25 pictures to turn out really well. Maybe someone else can help us both on that part.
Jeff Wright
Kirskville, MO

No, never touch the digital zoom, use the camera's optical zoom.
Depending upon your camera and scope eyepiece, you shouldn't get any 'black area' (called vignetting) if you zoom in slightly with the camera. What camera are you using?
regards,
Andy

I have never been able to zoom past the black with only opitcal zoom. Then again, I don't have a camera attachment for the scope so I just have to hold the camera to the eyepiece. What is wrong with the digital zoom?

What camera

HI

Well, I am looking to use a Nikon 5200 to digiscope with, but if you think that is not a good option I will go buy another one to get the job done.

What are your thoughts on the Canon A95 for the job.

I would not like to go into digital zoom either... it might be ok with a big megapixel camera to an extent... but no thanks.. Keep to the optical!

Also, the eye piece is a 20-60X!!

Thanks for your help!
Ackley

Ackley said:

Hi

How full a picture do you get when using a digital camera mounted to a Zeiss diascope, using the camera adapter.... Do you end up with a decent picture inside the black area??

Thanks

Ackley

Click to expand...

Hi Ackley,

The image area on the camera sensor depends roughly on 4 factors:
1) (Apparent) Field of view of the scope eyepiece
2) Eye relief of the eyepiece
3) Distance of entrance pupil of the camera (how much the camera needs eye-relief)
4) Field of view of the camera (zoom range)

A wide-angled eyepiece can deliver about 60 to 74° (Leica 32xWA) AFOV. This is the theoretical maximum that you can get if your camera can see it all - the widest focal length of the camera zoom is usually 35-38mm (35mm equivalent), which means that the camera usually can't see the whole fov of the widest wide-angle eyepieces. Zoom eyepieces (of which the Zeiss is the most wide-angled) usually have AFOV of 40-50°, which is narrower than the FOV of the camera -> sharp-edged image in black frames.

Many digital cameras need about 20mm of eye-relief. Large lens and long zoom (>3x) usually mean longer eye-relief requirements. If the eyepiece has smaller eye-relief than what the camera needs, the edge of image "ring" turns gradually black (vignetting) - further reducing the FOV. In rare cases (very long eye-relief eyepiece and a small camera) the camera can be too close to the eyepiece causing strange looking black-outs. The Zeiss zoom has eye-relief of about 16mm, which means that the image edges are vignetted with most cameras like the Canon A95 or the Nikon 5200 - at wide angle camera zoom. You should get rid of these black corners by (optically) zooming in. Digital zooming is the same as cropping the image in the computer.

Summa summarum: The Canon A-series, Nikon 5200 etc and Sony W-series seem all to work very well in digiscoping with the Zeiss Diascope. Personally, I like the adjustable display and true aperture priority exposure of the A95.

Good luck, :t:

Ilkka

I use the A95 with my Zeiss 65 + zoom EP, and once I've (optical) zoomed in on the camera a wee bit, all vignetting goes away, and the image quality is way better than my mediocre abilities can make full use of.