• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

iScoping (1 Viewer)

rob.72

Well-known member
If you have a mobile phone with a camera you may be only a home made adaptor away from a half decent digiscoping setup which will be very cheap, very light, always at hand and as a result alot of fun to use.

Mine's an iPhone (hence to title) but am sure you can make an adaptor to connect your phone and scope combo.

Now i know this isn't something new but i also know that people are getting very mixed results and may have abandoned the idea.

Here are some examples for you to consider.

Any questions?
 

Attachments

  • Ptarmigan.jpg
    Ptarmigan.jpg
    345 KB · Views: 338
  • Common Seal.jpg
    Common Seal.jpg
    331.1 KB · Views: 230
  • Razorbill.jpg
    Razorbill.jpg
    300.2 KB · Views: 1,105
  • Wheatear.jpg
    Wheatear.jpg
    293.3 KB · Views: 1,019
  • Puffin.jpg
    Puffin.jpg
    355.8 KB · Views: 272
The Adaptor

Thanks Steve, Chris

The Scope i use is the Opticron HR80 with the HDF 38xww eyepiece.

The adaptor is made from UPVC door panel and the dimensions are 6in x 3.5in and about 1 inch thick, it weighs nothing and can easily fit in a pocket.

The phone slides down into position and is firmly held with full access to the screen.

You push the adaptor onto the eyepiece and you are good to go.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9949.JPG
    IMG_9949.JPG
    387.6 KB · Views: 1,033
  • IMG_9950.JPG
    IMG_9950.JPG
    352.9 KB · Views: 291
  • IMG_9952.JPG
    IMG_9952.JPG
    335.3 KB · Views: 1,122
Incredibly innovative Rob - well done. Those pics are excellent. I've no experience of the phone in question and how camera tech on a phone has moved on, but are you subject to auto only or can you make some custom settings in the menu, like f stops / tele / SS speed etc. ?

What kind of distances were those pix above ?
 
Incredibly innovative Rob - well done. Those pics are excellent. I've no experience of the phone in question and how camera tech on a phone has moved on, but are you subject to auto only or can you make some custom settings in the menu, like f stops / tele / SS speed etc. ?

What kind of distances were those pix above ?

I wish i could control shutter speed and aperture but its completely auto and as a result there are light situations it can't deal with.
There is a digital zoom which you can get away with using at about 5% of its actual range but any more and the quality would suffer.
The HD movie mode is great but i found out recently that its best to convert the QT MOV file to WMV before uploading to places like BF, i uploaded a clip of a male Corn Crake calling but it plays back silent and jerky!, thats just a teething problem though and easily sorted.
As a replacement for a good point and shoot set up its not there yet but if you have a phone already...well its great fun and costs nowt!

Ptarmigan 10m
Seal 40m
Razorbill 10m
Wheatear 10m
Puffin 50m

PS, i have discovered a way to have some control over exposure in situations where the subject is against a bright background causing under exposure but it requires a small vignette to be considerer when the adaptor is made.
 
Very impressive results Rob, if I wasn't so cack handed I'd try and make an adapter for my cellphone (which has a 13 MP camera on it). I've tried manually lining it up but it was impossible.
 
Very impressive results Rob, if I wasn't so cack handed I'd try and make an adapter for my cellphone (which has a 13 MP camera on it). I've tried manually lining it up but it was impossible.

I can relate to that Stu, when i first got the phone a Pied-billed Grebe showed up and this was the best i could get!
Now with a steady hand and a stationary subject its possible to get much better results but often the subject aint stationary and the results are more like this Lady Amherst's Pheasent!
 

Attachments

  • Pied-billed Grebe.JPG
    Pied-billed Grebe.JPG
    324 KB · Views: 149
  • LA Pheasant.JPG
    LA Pheasant.JPG
    232.4 KB · Views: 143
The very next Photo was this of a Carrion Crow taken in poor light condidtions and after a slow afternoon at work (idle hands and all that).
Like the crows close cousin i was well Choughed!
 

Attachments

  • Crow.JPG
    Crow.JPG
    337.4 KB · Views: 214
Thanks Steve, Chris

The Scope i use is the Opticron HR80 with the HDF 38xww eyepiece.

The adaptor is made from UPVC door panel and the dimensions are 6in x 3.5in and about 1 inch thick, it weighs nothing and can easily fit in a pocket.

The phone slides down into position and is firmly held with full access to the screen.

You push the adaptor onto the eyepiece and you are good to go.

Very innovative Rob.
 
Some of the camera apps will help exposure issues.
Camera+ will do this and also has stabilization and timer features.
59p seems a bargain.
Off to Wickes to look for some ideas for adapter.
Peter
 
Thanks Steve, Chris

The Scope i use is the Opticron HR80 with the HDF 38xww eyepiece.

The adaptor is made from UPVC door panel and the dimensions are 6in x 3.5in and about 1 inch thick, it weighs nothing and can easily fit in a pocket.

The phone slides down into position and is firmly held with full access to the screen.

You push the adaptor onto the eyepiece and you are good to go.

Great stuff Rob, it's good to see that problems & solutions can be sorted with a little thought & imagination.
 
Some of the camera apps will help exposure issues.
Camera+ will do this and also has stabilization and timer features.
59p seems a bargain.
Off to Wickes to look for some ideas for adapter.
Peter

Thanks for the app idea peter, keep us posted on how you get on with the adaptor.
 
Some of the camera apps will help exposure issues.
Camera+ will do this and also has stabilization and timer features.
59p seems a bargain.
Off to Wickes to look for some ideas for adapter.
Peter

Just got the camera+ app and it looks very promising regarding the exposure compensation... Cheers Peter.
 
Can't find a more appropriate thread for this post, and would seem churlish to make a new one!

Have just upgraded from an iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4 myself and whilst watching some Common Crossbills through my scope thought I'd give it a go - pleasantly surprising for the first photo taken with the phone!

Subsequently I've been taking more photos, all handheld - the Snow Bunting were particularly tricky to get crisp being so mobile but it would certainly be easier with an adapter.

The Short-eared Owl was photographed on Monday in poor light and this inspired me somewhat to press on with the technique to improve on my handheld efforts. I'm currently in the process of constructing my own adapter - struggling to get the alignment correct at the moment, but will post some photos/results up when I do succeed.

Would love to see anyone elses homemade adapters and photos!

Cheers,

David
 
Last edited:
I should probably add that these were all taken through an old Kowa tsn-3, with a 30x WA Eyepiece.

And whilst browsing yesterday I did come across 2 commercially produced adapters - the 'Meopta Meopix' and the 'Orion Steadypix'. The former is seemingly not yet available but looks interesting - does anyone know if it's designed solely for Meopta eyepieces? Do they have eyepieces of varying sizes and thus will there be a range of sizes for none Meopta users to pinch the technology? From the couple of reviews I found of the Orion it sounded disappointing, I don't know if anyone has any experience of one?
 
Last edited:
Hi,
some recent correspondence with Meopta:

"Thanks for your interest in MeoPix, it will be available by March 2012. It will upon release only fit Meopta products. Sometime this year it will be available for all major brands. Im sure many online stores will have it available."

Scott
 
Great photos, Rob. I wish i had the skills to craft such an adapter. I've obtained a spare eyepiece covers and case and will try to cobble these together to see if it works.

Question: what distance between EP and iPhone seems optimal?

Toucan Sam was captured with iPhone handheld to scope eyepiece...the first time I've gotten (or probably will ever get) a usable image in this manner.
 

Attachments

  • toucan1b.jpg
    toucan1b.jpg
    222.6 KB · Views: 135
Inspired by the meopta adapter I made my own iPone4 adapter to fit on aNikon ED50 with the 27W MC ep.

For parts I used a giveaway case and the cut off bottom from a plastic pill can i had at home. The can had a quite a snug fit over the ep. so I was a bit lucky there.

All I had to do was to drill a 10mm hole centered in the bottom of the can and glue it together with the case. I sanded both surfaces and used a melted glue gun to get the parts together.



Posted some pics from my first attempt in my gallery links below.

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/411203/ppuser/97538

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/411202/ppuser/97538

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/411201/ppuser/97538

//Johan
 

Attachments

  • DSC_0085.jpg
    DSC_0085.jpg
    98 KB · Views: 165
  • DSC_0087.jpg
    DSC_0087.jpg
    81.6 KB · Views: 160
  • DSC_0099.jpg
    DSC_0099.jpg
    70.1 KB · Views: 202
Warning! This thread is more than 12 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top