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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Astroscope + DSLR = Gallery! (7 Viewers)

Some photographs from first field trip with scope:

Canon Eos 60D
TLAPO906T
All manual focus if I remember correctly (eyeball MkI)

1. Pied King Fisher; ISO 200; 600mm; 1/320; r=41m

2. Egyptian Goose; ISO 200; 2600mm; 1/30; r=40m

3. Pied King Fisher with tadpole; ISO 200; 1200mm; 1/125; r=41m

4. Red-Eyed Dove; ISO 400; 1176mm; 1/320; 41m

5. Sacred Ibis; ISO 400; 1176mm; 1/640; r=80m
 

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Canon Eos 50D
TLAPO906T
Manual focus
All taken between 10m - 20m. ISO 200-400 and with Kenko 1.4TC

1. Red-Eyed Dove

2. Red-Knobbed Coot

3. Red-Knobbed Coot

4. Red-Knobbed Coot

5. Sacred Ibis
 

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Hi all,

After being so impressed by your photographs, I've finally joined the club. My set up is very similar to thornlv's, mainly because I bought it from him ;) Skywatcher ED80 with my D90.

Very chuffed with the results so far even without a suitable tripod. I managed half an hour at lunch today shortly after the scope arrived - here's a quick sample.

No real problems except focusing. I find it really hard to judge exact focus through the view finder, often finding I actually focused slightly behind the bird/object. I'm sure this will come with practice but any tips would be much appreciated.

A few quick questions if anyone has time to answer. I've read extensively on here but haven't found out exactly what: 1. a Barlow is and 2. baffling is. I've gathered that you do one to the other and use it to increase effective focal length which is something I'd like to do! I tried googling 'baffling barlow' but I got some nonsense about the X factor!

Cheers,

Owen

Edit: I should have mentioned the Redshank are captive birds.
 

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And tonight's effort. On a hunch I went to retrieve my broken Sigma 2x teleconverter, which was dropped and ceased to function. As it turns out the optics are fine, so it works perfectly with no electronics. This is cropped square, sharpened a little and colour corrected. I had tot take the whole lot outside - the air temperature difference really made a huge difference when I tried out the window.
 

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Good results Hyrax.....In the pictures displayed I do not see any real focus issues. You might consider getting a dandelion chip to assist focussing.
 
Good results Hyrax.....In the pictures displayed I do not see any real focus issues. You might consider getting a dandelion chip to assist focussing.

Thanks for the advice, I'll read the thread on those. No focus issues on the pic s I put up, but there were on the other 50 or so that were taken! I resorted to firing burst mode whilst slowly moving the focus through - get one or 2 in focus shots for 10 duds! Not sustainable in the long run. With the moon I used zoomed in live view which helped a lot but I'd find that very difficult with mobile subjects.
 
A couple of new shots, All taken with the Borg 76ED. 500FL +1.4 TC ISO 800
Manual focus using tripod.
 

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Some photos at relatively high magnification:

Canon Eos 60D
TLAPO906T
3.9X focal length extension: 2340mm at f/26
Uncropped, Standard Picture Style.

1. Blue Crane: ISO 3200; 1/640; 53m

2. Cape Teal: ISO 3200; 1/640; 37m

3. Sacred Ibis: ISO 3200; 1/500; 45m

Some evidence of a light blue fringe in areas of high contrast.

Comments welcome.

Jaco
 

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Good intimate portraits of the crane and ibis. As you say there is some blue fringing and it looks slightly soft - but all down to the glass I think. What's the crop factor on a 60D?
 
Hello Hyrax

Thanks for the compliment.

The blue fringing is from the 1.96X TN I think. I still can't figure out whether it is the glass or because it is not properly aligned (or collimated?) in the macro tube.

The 60D is a 1.6 crop.

Jaco
 
some more with same setup

nr 1 possibly phylloscopus collybita
nr 2 juvenile pied flycatcher
nr3 juvenile chaffinch
nr4 nuthatch
 
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Hi Cango

Those look GREAT. You up close on 1,3 and 4? Must be. Look at how big their eyes were getting :)

Jaco

Thanks. 3 had to push out the camera adapter to gain room for focus, so perhaps 5-6meters. 1 and 4 plus few meters more, or therabout. Only square crops (no crop in height). Flycatcher around 10m or so.
 
Sparrowhawk, Barbet and Heron C80ED
Kite C80ED + 2X TN
 

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Exceptional shots Cango - great feather detail B :)

Some from my Orion 80ED ..All @ ISO 200, no tripod ( forgot to bring it )
 

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