[republic]

HI
Can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong, this shot was taken with my Sony a200 mounted on a Bresser Safari 20-60x80 spotting scope set on x20, any larger magnifacation just make it worse.


http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/sho...2/limit/recent

Is it the camera settings ? and can I improve this with photoshop ?

Thanks

[BillB]

How far away was the bird? My impression is that the softness is due not to movement, but pushing the optical quality to an extreme. If I had this result, I would have either zoomed in too far with the camera, or had excessive heat disturbance in the atmosphere. I do not think you can correct this in Photoshop.

Regards, Bill

[Neil]

I don't know this scope but I see it's what they call " a value" scope. It probably won't be up to digiscoping at long distances in less than perfect light. Do a test in your garden on a subject about 20 metres away (it doesn't have to be a bird) and post your best shot here, which should give us more of an idea. Neil.

[republic]

This ones very slightly better

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/sho...8/limit/recent

They were taken at minimum magnifacation of x20 but the camera had to be set on manual.

[bartolli]

I used to have the same Bresser scope but with a canon A510, after a lot of practice I was getting some decent shots. My spoonbill photo (gallery) was taken with this setup, ok its not brill but the bird was over 100m away and the scope was zoomed up quite a bit.

I did find that the best shots were generally always those that were a bit closer. You are right that zooming the scope will generally make things worse, although occassionally I did get half decent shots with some zoom.

My main problem turned out to be zooming the camera to get rid of the vignetting, this always resulted in the camera being unable to focus cos of the increased focal length. The problem was eventually sorted by people on this board, back focus the scope a little bit. If you can find the thread that might help you if its the same problem.

Otherwise, I always use aperture priority, continuous shooting mode (shoot off several shots at once), try not to push the ISO setting too much, and always use a remote shutter release.

Good advice from Neil above, ref setting up and practising with different settings to see what your results are like. I did exactly this in our garden.

[republic]

My sony SLR is mounted to the scope so there is no lens, the scopes eyepiece goes directly to be slr mirror.

Could it be the mirror shaking as I have no mirror-lock function ?

[republic]

Definently no tripod shake, took with beanbag on top and on concrete floor with cable realease.

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/sho...6/limit/recent

[RJM]

Looks like the focus is off. Eyepiece projection requires keen eyesight and good manual focus skills. Using a dslr with LiveView can make focusing easier, but still never 100%.

Frankly, I would not expect consistent or even excellent results with the method you have chosen. If you are going to shoot through the scope eyepiece, best to use a pocket digicam so the camera can auotfocus. If you are going use a dslr, then best to use either 28-35mm AF lens to get AF BUT there will be a very real chance of vignetting.

Next option is to use the scope's dedicated SLR camera adapter (if available) or a 2x tele-negative lens like a Powermate if your scope can accept it. But you still will have to rely on your manual focus skills.

cheers,
Rick

[Neil]

Originally Posted by republic

Definently no tripod shake, took with beanbag on top and on concrete floor with cable realease.

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/sho...6/limit/recent

It's not in focus.