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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

I you were me........ (1 Viewer)

J

johnshiro

Member
If you were me........

I'm quite new here and to birding in general. As a member of WWT, I have been mainly concentrating on photography but have become interested in learning and identifying different species etc. I guess for this I need a spotting scope, so my question is: if you had £200 to spend, what would be your choice.
I'd be really grateful for you comments, with best regards,
John
 
Hi John,

to be frank - save up a bit while scanning the classifieds and ebay for a very good deal on a used scope. Or spend the 200 quid on some decent bins if you don't have any.
The bins will be the main tool, you need a scope maybe 20% of the time unless you're mainly birding near water...

Also when looking for a scope keep in mind that you'll need a tripod and head too unless you have those from photography...

Joachim
 
Hi John. A friend of mine was looking at the Celestron Ultima but that was based on online reviews. Might be worthwhile contacting Carmarthen Cameras to see what they have in?

Rich

PS I find my scope extremely useful at Penclacwydd where, as you know, the birds can be quite distant.
 
Depending on your camera, there may be some plain 400mm telephotos
that perform extremely well with many DSLRs, and at excellent prices.
A classic telephoto will perform at a level not quite up to ED APOs, but well
beyond a regular achromat, for flatness and chromatics. The issue with many
digital cameras is their entrance pupils compared with the exit pupil of the scope.
For example, a little IPhone camera may do extremely well on the eyepiece of a spotter,
but a DSLR will have contrast problems, unless it's used at prime focus (without eyepiece,
as the lens). Just mentioning that, so the camera and lens are mated properly.
 
Hi John,

I have an idea in your case - you wrote, that you have been concentrating on photography, so you might own one or more good telephoto lenses. There is a product called Lens2Scope which is basically an image reversal prism plus a scope eyepiece with an objective bayonet mount at the end - it also fits well into your budget.
You then connect this to your telephoto lens and have a scope - fixed magnification for a prime lens or zoom for a zoom lens. The magnification is you objective focal length divided by 10 (for the 10mm Lens2Scope) or 7 (for the 7mm Lens2scope).
The image quality of the assembly is mainly dependent on the quality of the objective here - with a good one it supposedly reaches the quality of a mid range scope... has anybody first hand experience with this product?

Maybe grab your tele glass and go to a shop which stocks these things and try.

Joachim
 
Joachim, post 7,
A test of a Lens2scope is available on the WEB-site of House of Outdoor (I checked it and it is there). I tested it in combination with a Canon f4L/70-200 mm zoomlens.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
Thanks Gijs - that's what reminded me of it when googling for the scope test!
I take it that the image quality of the 10mm model was quite ok for the price if one already has a tele? Do you also know the 7mm one which seems to have a bigger AFOV and a twist up eyecup?

Joachim
 
Joachim,
In the course of time quite a few different Lens2scope models were made, but I only investigated the 10 mm model. The image quality of the 10 mm is OK for its price, but a real scope is much better.
Gijs
 
Convertors like Lens2Scope have to add a short Barlow to buy enough length for
full correction, and then you enter the eyepiece. It's a hard job.
I place a singe mirror diagonal (w/o tube) with bonded EP directly onto the
telephoto. Left-Right isn't corrected, just up/down, but chromatic aberration,
field flatness, and contrast are generally far better than regular spotters and close to
ED spotters. A standard telephoto is a form of 4-element apochromat, though its
emphasis is on flatness. The nice part is the adjustable f-stop. It can do great things
in daylight....super-high contrast and higher resolution...if you have the light to pay for it.

You can mask regular scopes, but the adjustable f-stop makes it continuously variable and 'right there'.
 
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