Digiscoping with Olympus C-765 (1 Viewer)

I have a Leica Apovid 77 scope with a 20-60 zoom eyepiece. I am trying to digiscope with it using an Olympus C-765 Ultra zoom camera. The nice thing about this camera is that the lens of the camera fits tight on the eyepiece of the scope with the eyecup extended, so I can snap the camera on the scope and I don't have to hold the camera. The problem is that to eliminate vignetting I need to zoom the camera to more than 10X (optical + digital zoom). With my scope zoom set at the minimum 20X, the total image enlargement is so great that I see only the head of a bird when I might prefer to see the whole bird. It is not possible to get the camera lens closer to the scope eyepiece, even by holding it as close as possible with the eyecup not extended. Are there settings on the camera that I can use to avoid the vignetting without having to zoom the camera up to about 15X. Would a different camera allow for digiscoping with less extreme amounts of camera zoom? If so, what do you recommend?

You will manage to take photos but the camera isn't exactly ideal. Really the lens is a bit too wide to cover the eyepeice and to remove the vignetting you will have to zoom up quite high which unfortunately will be too powerful for the optics leading to very soft images.

Best bet is to leave the scope eyepiece at 20x and the camera zoom at 2-3x and then simply crop the excess. You will get some reasonable photos but they'll be small.

The C765 is a nice camera to use on it's own for close birds 10-15', but for digiscoping really you need a dedicated camera. In your position I'd be looking to pick up a Nikon CP990,995,4500 secondhand or an Contax SL300RT/Kyocera SL400 - all now discontinued but can be picked up a bit cheaper. If you think you'll stick with digiscoping then it may be worth going the whole hog and definitely picking up a Nikon CP4500 or even the Canon A95 which is still being made and producing superb results going by the Gallery photos I have seen.

Thank-you for your very prompt and informative reply. I just acquired the Olympus as a gift and now I realize that I will have to exchange it. I will look at your suggestions. Do you know if the Fujifilm 3100 would work with our scope? Last month, we met a birding photographer who had a now-discontinued Fuji camera that took quite nice pictures through our scope. This birder recommended the Fujifilm 3100 for current purchase. What is your opinion of this camera with our Leica scope?

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Fuji S3100 though looking at the specs, it's not one I'd have considered for digiscoping for much the same reasons as the Olympus.

Really the optic zoom should only be 2-3x, which is all that's needed even on the Nikon cameras. The S3100 still has a lens wider than the eyepiece and an external moving zoom, which may be okay for hand holding, but for the best and most consistent results in digiscoping the camera needs to be mounted on the scope itself and a remote cable release used. With each of the other models I mentioned, this is possible.

Also a big advantage with the other models I mentioned is the tiltable LCD so that when the camera is held to/mounted on the scope the LCD can be angled so as to be viewed easily - especially so if yours is the straight model of scope.

If you are happy with the results seen from this camera on your scope then it may be worth giving it a go.