Nikon P300 for Digiscoping (2 Viewers)

RJM · May 24, 2011

Neil, I was playing with the P300 on a new Nikon FS8 adapter attached to a Kowa 774 and 30x Wide eyepiece at Hobby's World shop last week. I did not notice any abnormal camera zoom beyond what I assume was the typical equivalent 50mm focal length (~3 steps?) was required to eliminate vignetting.

Jason Bugay Reyes · May 24, 2011

Rick,

What do you think of the FSB-8 ?

RJM · May 25, 2011

Minimalist simple. All an adapter should be. Didn't really spend much time studying it though. More concerned with trying to figure out the P300's Continuous shooting speed function.

ianreid · May 25, 2011

Neil said:
Ian,
Sorry you were disappointed with the P300.
I was surprised to hear that you had to use the camera at full zoom to eliminate vignetting. This would be the main reason that images would appear to be "not as clean as I had hoped ". The lens is not Nikon ED glass so suffers over about half zoom. The camera is certainly not as "eyepiece friendly" as the F31 which was one of the best ever for minimizing vignetting.
I don't have a Swarovski 20-60 zoom on hand but I just ran the camera on the Kowa 20-60x zoom using the Swarovski UCA. The best case is about 50 % zoom at 60x which drops back to 80% zoom at 20x. I would suspect the Swarovski would be similar if not slightly better. I use the zoom mostly at 60x as I want lot's of magnification with digicams.
There are lot's of good cameras out there these days and most can be "made" to digiscope so I will be interested to hear what you find.
The Nikon P6000 will give better results than the P300 but is much slower and doesn't have Continuous Self-timer either. No Nikons do unfortunately but Canon's do.
Neil.
ps could you post the best you got with the camera.

Thanks for your comments Neil,

Here are some pictures and some further observations. You will see that the pictures are not too bad, and I was in retrospect being overly picky.

The main reason I returned was that I was hoping for a camera that gave me features that addressed shortcomings of my aging Fuji. Ultimately the improvement relative to my existing equipment didn't seem to justify the price tag. I think what I really want is a Canon S95 with full HD video, and maybe such a camera will arrive soon

.

I was also disappointed with the ratio of crap pics to keepers which seemed higher than with my existing equipment. Admittedly I was using the P300 for the first time.

I used my scope primarily at 20x.

All P300 pics are at ISO160. Other than scaling down from 4000x3000 to 640x480, or cropped directly from the full image to 640x480, I have done no postprocessing.

DSCN0054: Speed 1/250,Aperture 3.7, Focal length 11.1mm
DSCN0073: 1/125, 5.5, 17.9mm
DSCN0078: 1/640, 4.9, 17.9mm
DSCN0090: 1/320, 4.0, 12.5mm

Looking at the exif data it seems my impressions of having to be completely zoomed in were false.

Cheers, Ian

ianreid · May 25, 2011

Further pics

ianreid · May 25, 2011

Just for comparison (though it's not really fair), a recent pic using my f31fd.

ISO100, 1/7s, 5.0, 24mm

Again this pic has not been post-processed in any way other than the rescale (_full) and the crop (_detail).

Cheers, Ian

Neil · May 25, 2011

ianreid said:
Further pics

Ian,
I think you felt that "letdown" most people get when they test their new camera out in the field and realize that it doesn't have one of the nice features of their previous camera that they really liked. I love the Continuous Self-timer and Continuous Jpeg shooting of the Canon's. But the Nikon lenses and Screens have been better than Canon's. I like the better noise handling on the Micro Four Thirds.
Your swan photo was a nice shot.
Anyway the searching for the "ideal" digiscoping camera is a fun challenge which I do every weekend after our Saturday brunch.
Neil
ps I'm still looking for a second hand F31 to replace the one I lost in Central Park, NY.

Jason Bugay Reyes · Jun 2, 2011

Tested the Nikon P300 with FSB-8 bracket which fit on my friend's Kowa 883 with 20-60x zoom eyepiece.

Both pictures was taken at 20x and full zoom on P300. Only resized and cropping. No sharpening applied and ISO 400.

Cropped 33%

Hor Kee · Jun 2, 2011

Finally the Coolpix 990, 8400 and P6000 have a worthy successor!

Jason Bugay Reyes · Jun 3, 2011

Hor Kee said:
Finally the Coolpix 990, 8400 and P6000 have a worthy successor!

I hope the next replacement for P7000 has 8fps and HD video like P300 :king:

Neil · Jun 5, 2011

horukuru said:
Tested the Nikon P300 with FSB-8 bracket which fit on my friend's Kowa 883 with 20-60x zoom eyepiece.

Both pictures was taken at 20x and full zoom on P300. Only resized and cropping. No sharpening applied and ISO 400.

View attachment 328424 View attachment 328425

Cropped 33%

View attachment 328426 View attachment 328427

Nice Jason. I think it could have been even better at 60x on the zoom and about 1/3 rd into the camera zoom.
I like the HD video on the P300 too.
Neil

Jason Bugay Reyes · Jun 5, 2011

Neil said:
Nice Jason. I think it could have been even better at 60x on the zoom and about 1/3 rd into the camera zoom.
I like the HD video on the P300 too.
Neil

Will try that Neil on my 20-60x EDG eyepiece by end of this month if I found 3rd party adapter :king:

Hor Kee · Jun 6, 2011

Dear Jason,

Can you post pics on how the FSB-8 adapter fits to the P300 camera please? Does it grip around the metal ring that surrounds the lens?

RJM · Jun 6, 2011

No, it attaches to the tripod socket. There are some reports here in Japan that the FSB-8 might not have the precision/rigidity to stay optically centered so our local digisco pro shop has made some modifications to improve its handling, http://www.digiscoshop.com/jpg/adapter/DezisukoyaFSB-8_kai/photo1.jpg

Of course, it doubles the price!

Jason Bugay Reyes · Jun 6, 2011

Hor Kee said:
Dear Jason,

Can you post pics on how the FSB-8 adapter fits to the P300 camera please? Does it grip around the metal ring that surrounds the lens?

Sorry Hor,

I don't have the pic of the adapter attached on the P300. It is with my friend now and he is testing the camera until end of the month. Check his picture at FB under name of Andrew Siani

RJM said:
No, it attaches to the tripod socket. There are some reports here in Japan that the FSB-8 might not have the precision/rigidity to stay optically centered so our local digisco pro shop has made some modifications to improve its handling, http://www.digiscoshop.com/jpg/adapter/DezisukoyaFSB-8_kai/photo1.jpg

Of course, it doubles the price!

Yes I agree Rick. The modification is better by the Japanese shop

stephen kane · Jun 13, 2011

hello

RJM said:
Neil, I was playing with the P300 on a new Nikon FS8 adapter attached to a Kowa 774 and 30x Wide eyepiece at Hobby's World shop last week. I did not notice any abnormal camera zoom beyond what I assume was the typical equivalent 50mm focal length (~3 steps?) was required to eliminate vignetting.

hi guys just wondered if you tell if p300 has an eyepice type adptor to fit a kowa 88s angel scope with 30wa eypice? and would you recomed thep330 or canon 595 inf both can be used with eyepice adoptor?
im going to new camera soon so any hints would most apricated!
thanks steve

Jason Bugay Reyes · Jun 14, 2011

stephen kane said:
hi guys just wondered if you tell if p300 has an eyepice type adptor to fit a kowa 88s angel scope with 30wa eypice? and would you recomed thep330 or canon 595 inf both can be used with eyepice adoptor?
im going to new camera soon so any hints would most apricated!
thanks steve

Steve,

My friend was using the P300 with FSB-8 adapter and it fits on his 20-60x and 30x eyepiece on Kowa 883 scope same like yours

Strandman · Jun 17, 2011

having a bit of trouble/fun finding good way of attaching P300 + FSB-8 to a Swarovski eyepiece- any best ideas welcome

the 20-60 zoom Swarovski eyepiece is very wide with firmly glued-on rubber eye-ring, so that may not be the way to go with the FSB-8 + Swarov.

but I'm making some progress with an improvised bayonet fitting for a 30x fixed Swarovski eyepiece using a plastic sleeve

not one for the purists as it would fail centring and rigidity tests, but after a mildly embarrassing 10mins in the chemists, I've established that Aussie colour mate shampoo slots in just perfectly as the sleeve

Parker · Jun 18, 2011

Nothing like a bit of ingenuity, great stuff Ed. I've been thinking about making a sleeve that fits over the Swaro 30x eyepiece so I can use the UCA digiscoping adaptor. Does the "Ausie colour mate" plastic tube even out the thickness of the EP ?

Cheers,

Neil · Jun 19, 2011

ed keeble said:
having a bit of trouble/fun finding good way of attaching P300 + FSB-8 to a Swarovski eyepiece- any best ideas welcome

the 20-60 zoom Swarovski eyepiece is very wide with firmly glued-on rubber eye-ring, so that may not be the way to go with the FSB-8 + Swarov.

but I'm making some progress with an improvised bayonet fitting for a 30x fixed Swarovski eyepiece using a plastic sleeve

not one for the purists as it would fail centring and rigidity tests, but after a mildly embarrassing 10mins in the chemists, I've established that Aussie colour mate shampoo slots in just perfectly as the sleeve

Nice work Ed.

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