First hesitant steps..... (1 Viewer)

Hello there!
Having recently taken proud possession of my first scope and "proper" digital camera, I am just in the process of learning the art of digiscoping.

The equipment I have is as follows.....

Hawke Endurance 23-70x70 scope and Samsung Digimax S500 camera.

The camera is 5 megapixel with 3x optical zoom.

Before this I have been trying with my Samsung D303 Mini DV Camcorder, but with 20x zoom, I have found this to be too much!!!

(23x minimum on the scope X 20times with the camcorder to get rid of the vignetting = 460x magnification)....not good!!

So, armed with my new gear, I have been taking pics of everything that moves within vision of my back garden

The attachements show my very best shots to date, and I would very much appreciate your opinions (positive or negative)

The "Robin Post" pic is completely untouched, as it came off the camera, and I think it shows what is possible with even this very "cheap" set-up.

(£200 for the scope and my loving wife got the S500 from John Lewis's at the knock-down price of £54!!)

The "Goldfinch" pic has been post-processed to get rid of an occurring problem I have with camera blur....(movement, I think, rather than lack of focus) maybe some could comment /suggest(?)

I've included the original Goldfinch pic for comparison to processed pic.

The only technique I have at the moment is that of holding the camera up to the eyepiece (the two match almost perfectly with the eye-cup extended)
then zooming 1.5-2x with the camera to get rid of vignetting.

(I'm still playing with what best camera set-up is as regards to metering/focus/aperture etc.....any helpful hints?)

Well, I'm in danger of writing a book, so I'll attach the pics, and hope you like them!
God bless,
Mick

Welcome to the dark side, there is no turning back now.

When you are starting out it can be helpful to look at what you've done critically, find things you could improve and work on that next session.

You've identified camera movement as a problem. What can you do to minimize it? Some things you can look at.

What shutter speed do you have? If it is too slow, your camera movement becomes evident. Can you increase the shutter speed?

How snug is your connection from camera to scope, is there play in it? Perhaps a bit of tape can be used to make it more snug.

You could practice being very steady when pressing the shutter. Hold your breath, press the shutter release very slowly, lock your elbows to your side, etc.

Good luck, Harold

Harold Stiver said:

Welcome to the dark side, there is no turning back now.

When you are starting out it can be helpful to look at what you've done critically, find things you could improve and work on that next session.

You've identified camera movement as a problem. What can you do to minimize it? Some things you can look at.

What shutter speed do you have? If it is too slow, your camera movement becomes evident. Can you increase the shutter speed?

How snug is your connection from camera to scope, is there play in it? Perhaps a bit of tape can be used to make it more snug.

You could practice being very steady when pressing the shutter. Hold your breath, press the shutter release very slowly, lock your elbows to your side, etc.

Good luck, Harold

Click to expand...

Thanks Harold for all those things to look at!

And my apologies for the immense delay in replying!

(That's mainly down to looking at all your valuable pointers, and trying to address them)

I think I am beginning to get somewhere at last, but I guess, that's more for you and any other expert in the digiscoping field to decide.

For sure, the camera shake is beginning to be addressed with technique, and also with the help of the generic "Universal Digiscoping Bracket" that I got from LCE in Nottingham for £40.

It does seem to do a good job of holding the camera over the eyepiece, and helps me to concentrate more on other aspects of the art.

As a bonus, it will adjust sufficiently to be able to hold my Camcorder to the eyepiece as well!
(though with 20x zoom to get rid of vignetting, and a 400K pixel count, I am not sure if that will be used very often.)

As far as shutter speed, that seems to be decided by the camera itself, as I have not yet got into the finer workings of the camera.

Same goes pretty much for the exposure.

Maybe this is something I need to look into more closely.

To illustrate the (hopefully) improvements I have made in my approach to digiscoping, I have included a photo I have recently taken of a Female House Sparrow.

I think if you go to

http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/...eepers/?action=view&current=House_Sparrow.jpg

you will see all the exif data that will tell you the set-up of the camera.

The camera was held over the eyepiece with the bracket, and the bird was outside my kitchen window, the scope being in the kitchen.

So the shot was taken through glass.

Distance was around 5 metres, in fact I had to move the set-up right to the back of the kitchen to be able to focus down to the bird table.

If I am to be honest, I think I need to address the matter of the tripod as I think this is now where my main problems lie. (It does seems to be very sensitive to the slightest handling of the camera.)

Unfortunately, the possibilty of obtaining a decent tripod in the foreseeable future is practically non-existant. (but I live in hopes!!!)

For now, I think I've said enough, so I'll leave it to your good self to be critical as you need to be!

God bless,
Mick