Videoscoping with the Sony HDR-SR8 (2 Viewers)

As mentioned in the Kowa forum , I needed to video some newly hatched flamingo chicks in our local park this week at a distance of about 35 metres over water. I haven't used the Sony videocam since our trip to Egypt last year so had to read the manual again. Set it up with the Kowa 27x LER eyepiece on the Swarovski scope as the Kowa has good ER. Little or no vignetting at 40 - 60 mm on the camera zoom (27x ) and AF works well. I have it setup on a bracket so that I can move the camera in and out as I zoom the lens to minimise vignetting.
Here is a link to one of the videos I took.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7892550@N03/2763682131/

I also took some stills using the Sony.
I'm taking this camera with me to South Africa tonight and expect to fill the 100 gig HD for the first time.
Neil.
Sony HDR-SR8 camcorder on Swarovski STS80HD scope and Kowa 27x LER eyepiece and homemade bracket
Kowloon Park,
Hong Kong,
China.
August 2008

Just had a look at your video clip on flickr, most impressive. Enjoy your visit to South Africa.

Hey Neil, I see you're having the same problem with your videoscoping I have had with mine in some situations. Look for the little black specs on the video occasionally showing especially on light colored objects like the flamingos. It drives me crazy. Sometimes I can focus through it using manual focus. Not sure what causes it (maybe tiny dust specs on the eyepiece?) but it seems to be most prominent on the widest zoom settings on the camcorder. Good luck on your Africa trip.

Rick

Hi Neil, did you have to convert the HD video to MPEG2 before uploading to flickr?

Den

poledark said:

Hi Neil, did you have to convert the HD video to MPEG2 before uploading to flickr?

Den

Click to expand...

Den,
It saves as an MPEG-4 . I'm impressed with the easy to uploading and viewing on Flickr.
Neil.

Hi Neil,

Nice images.

I've also been experimenting with HD videoscoping and I've found some eyepieces that do not vigenette.

They are:
1. William Optics DCL-4337 (vig eliminated at 2x)
2. Pentax XW20 (no vig at 0x)
3. Scopetronix Maxview 14 (no vig at 0x)
4. Siebert Performance 35mm (vig eliminated at 2x)

Oddly, the Pextax XW14 and XW10 do vignette even though their eyerelief specs are the same on paper.

You can view my results in HD here:

http://www.vimeo.com/album/31076

Can Popper said:

Hi Neil,

Nice images.

I've also been experimenting with HD videoscoping and I've found some eyepieces that do not vigenette.

They are:
1. William Optics DCL-4337 (vig eliminated at 2x)
2. Pentax XW20 (no vig at 0x)
3. Scopetronix Maxview 14 (no vig at 0x)
4. Siebert Performance 35mm (vig eliminated at 2x)

Oddly, the Pextax XW14 and XW10 do vignette even though their eyerelief specs are the same on paper.

You can view my results in HD here:

http://www.vimeo.com/album/31076

Click to expand...

Nice videos. Strange about the Pentax eyepieces. I have a Pentax 20mm , but I haven't tried it for video yet. Kowa have a couple of video eyepieces with long eye-relief (50 and 100 mm ) which I would like to try sometime.
Neil.