Digiscoping with a Nikon ED50 (1 Viewer)

Looking forward to buying a decent tripod at the Bird Fair in August before I travel up to Guisborough/Whitby with my husband for a few days. Will be getting stuck into digiscoping at last at Bempton, Flamborough Head and South Gare, weather willing. If shots are good enough I will post them here.

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If you're visiting this part of the world, don't forget Filey Brigg. It's an excellent place for digiscoping waders, terns etc, you can get really close to many of them. I had a great day there at the end of last August when there were at least 20 Roseates amongst the many Common, Arctic and Sandwich terns, and a few Blacks too.

In the meantime here's a photo of a young Blackbird taken at home one evening. Apart from resizing for this site and a bit of sharpening it's as it came out of the camera. I think the levels of detail are pretty good for such a small scope. Just a pity there isn't a better photographer behind it!

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Ron that's an excellent shot of a blackbird, and shows just how capable the scope really is. I have always thought that the ED50's optics are just as good as any other premium scope's, it just lacks that extra bit of light gathering power.

I was wondering that, as you use the zoom, roughly what mag did you use? I would expect if you kept it below around 25x (and not too much camera zoom) it should be capable of very good results. So long as you're prepared to accept the lack of 'reach' with this combination, it is as good as any other top scope (and your shot is proof of this!).

I only have a 27x eyepiece for mine, and have been less satisfied with the results, though I generally use my bigger scope for most of my digiscoping.

Steve.

Hi Steve. I normally use the scope on minimum magnification (13x) where possible as this gives maximum brightness and maximum eye relief (which is a bit short on the zoom.) If maximum zoom on the camera doesn't get me close enough, I start to increase the zoom on the scope. The image does start to get a bit short of light then though.

If you look at my (very thin) user's gallery the shots of the Sparrow and Blackbird were taken with the scope at minimum zoom, whereas the Marsh Harriers and the distant Thrush were around maximum zoom. The other bird shots were taken with my old Acuter scope.

http://birdforum.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/53267

Ron

Very good shots Ron, obviously picture quality is better at the lowest zoom setting, though the thrush and Marsh Harrier aren't bad either considering the longer distances. Perhaps I'll have another go with mine next week in Speyside, when I will be doing a lot of legwork, and won't want to be carrying a lot of extra weight.

Actually the Marsh Harrier shots are a good example of the advantage of the ED50 setup. I wasn't really expecting to do any digiscoping but had the gear with me. We were in the hide when the Harriers appeared. They were flying about and then settled on the tree opposite. That was too good an opportunity to miss so I fished the camera and adapter out of the bag, took a couple of minutes to set it up and ended up with some quite nice record shots.

Ron

SteveClifton said:

If you're visiting this part of the world, don't forget Filey Brigg. It's an excellent place for digiscoping waders, terns etc, you can get really close to many of them. I had a great day there at the end of last August when there were at least 20 Roseates amongst the many Common, Arctic and Sandwich terns, and a few Blacks too.

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Thanks Steve. Will add it to the list!

Good shot

:t: Wow! now that IS a BEAUTY well shot