I'm so Confused -spotting scope help! (1 Viewer)

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #1

Can someone help me out with this scope thing. I've read posts of an eyepiece with the scope. If the scope is on the camera, what is the eyepiece for? And what is the zoom on an eyepiece/scope ? - the scope zooms in & out too? No, I don't know much - sorry - but would so appreciate the lecture if you can simply tell me or atleast give me a link that explains it. I'm willing to read up on it, just can't find the exact info I'm looking for. Thanks very much!

 

pauco

Старлин&

• Jun 24, 2003

• #2

shell
andy brights the man for this one, he is the BF EXPERT ON SCOPING.
bert.

 

stevo

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #3

Hi Shell

The eyepiece magnifies the subject,some eyepieces are fixed magnifications IE 32x,20x.With a zoom eyepiece,the eyepiece itself does the zooming IE 20x to 60x magnification.With digiscoping the scope acts as a super telephoto lens so say a digital camera can go up to 4x zoom you x this buy the eyepiece mag say (30x) this gives you 120x magnification.

Hope this helps Stevo

 

Glen Tepke

Oceanodroma

• Jun 24, 2003

• #4

Shell

Here is another attempt to answer part of your question. There are two basic approaches to using a scope and camera to take pictures. In digiscoping, the more popular of the two, the scope has an eyepiece attached just as if you were using the scope for birding without the camera, and the camera has its own lens, just as if you were using the camera without the scope. When you put the two togther, the camera is taking a picture of the image that is coming out of the scope eyepiece, the same image you see when you look into the eyepiece with your eye. The magnification provided by the scope is multiplied by the magnification of the camera lens to produce a highly magnified final image.

In the other technique, which doesn't have a handy name like digiscoping, a scope without an eyepiece is attached to a camera without a lens (obviously it has to be an SLR - a camera that accepts interchangeable lenses) so the scope body is serving as a telephoto lens for the camera. This requires a special adapter which is inserted between the scope body and the camera in place of the scope eyepiece. Because you don't get the multiplication effect of digiscoping, this technique does not produce as much magnification.

Hope this makes sense.

Glen

 

KC Foggin

Very, very long time member

Supporter

• Jun 24, 2003

• #5

Shell, this is an excellent question and I am sure more than one person will benefit from the answers here.

Seriously, that is why the Raven looked so appealing to me as a newbie to digiscoping. When I did the research on the better/more expensive scopes (and this is not saying the Raven is a slack by any means, just that there are higher end scopes) I found most of them you still had to invest in the eyepiece. The Raven came with an eyepiece and a fairly popular size eyepiece to boot. Someday, I hope my digiscoping skills will justify a more expensive scope but I am more than pleased with what I have.

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #6

Hi Bert - I went to Andy's site and did alot of reading, so thanks very much !

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #7

Thank you Stevo for replying. That does help me to understand. So without an eyepiece, you just have a telephoto lens, a big one! , But with the eyepiece you can zoom in on what the scope is viewing.(with or without a camera) I think I got that right. Thanks so much !

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #8

Thanks Andrew, your info helps quite a bit as well !! So the eyepiece is actually a zooming purpose for the scope then? I mean , the eyepiece magnifies the scope's huge telephoto view of the subject. I do appreciate the help Andrew.

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #9

O.k. Kevin - I think I'm really getting this - thanks so much ! I could get an eyepiece for a scope that zooms , or I could get one for a scope that does not zoom, and it has a particular # of magnification. Wow- so much to learn. Thank you !

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 24, 2003

• #10

Glen, that explanation was like a ''light bulb'' moment for me. Now I see how the scope is used without an eyepiece. So I get it now - the more I read everyone's responses , the more I am understanding this. Thank you !!!!

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 25, 2003

• #11

Hey KC , well I sure hope someone else benefits from this. There is alot of great info on these replies! (for someone who doesn't know squat - like me-haha) Thanks for replying, do you mind telling me the best place to look at or review the Raven scopes? Should it be new or second hand?

And one more thing, I'm wondering why I am not getting any email to notify me of these postings? I'm getting emails from everywhere else and from personal emails too. Is this forum messing up , or what, I went to my "Edit Options" here, and made sure ALL of my options for Private Messages, a pop up box for them, and direct email for replies was checked, I did it twice matter of fact. So what do you think is wrong?

 

KC Foggin

Very, very long time member

Supporter

• Jun 25, 2003

• #12

Do you have some kind of spam guard set up on your email Shell? If so, you might have to lower the security a bit. Actually, I just checked cause I have had no notifications all day and this message was not in my email notification. Okay, I will check with admin on this.

 

Shell

Well-known member

• Jun 25, 2003

• #13

Nope, believe me - the security is low enough- lol! See, I had to come check in on this thread to see if any new replies were in for me. I didn't get your message above in my email either.

 

Johnny1

Well-known member

• Jun 25, 2003

• #14

Hi Shell, I read a thread earlier saying they are having problems with the e-mail notification system..... so don't panic! it's not ya fault with your computer.

 

Johnny1

Well-known member

• Jun 25, 2003

• #15

Can I just add one more thing? you can't use a scope without an eye-piece - even just for looking through, some eye-pieces are fixed magnification i.e. 25x 30x 45x etc. a zoom eyepiece will magnify from 15x-45x, or even 20x - 60x.

 

Glen Tepke

Oceanodroma

• Jun 25, 2003

• #16

You cannot use a scope without an eyepiece for just looking at things with your eye, but you can use it for taking pictures if you use an adapter to connect it to an SLR camera -- see my other post above. Glen

 

Andy Bright

Administrator

Staff member

• Jun 29, 2003

• #17

Sorry to have been late on this thread... been on holiday.
I think Shell's questions have been answered expertly.
Just one note about the eyepieces..... fixed magnification eyepieces give a wider field of view than a zoom eyepiece for the same magnification, so you can see more (which is important for general viewing, but not really for digiscoping).