A95 - Adapter or Handheld (1 Viewer)

I have recently purchased a friends Opticron ES80 GA ED45 with 20-60 zoom eyepiece. I want to try digiscoping with my Canon A95. I intended to connect the camera with a Lensmate 37mm thread to an LCE Winchester adapter.

However I have seen some marvellous pictures in the gallery which say 'handheld', which presumably means no adapter has been used.

My question is do I need to buy an adapter or is handheld an option for a complete novice.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Steve

Steve

Handheld can produce good pictures, but most are totally useless ( you need something to centre your lens in the eyepiece without letting the camera lens touch glass ). And adaptor and remote shutter release will produce far more good photo's. The only drawback is the time wasted in setting it up.

Saying that, most of my photo's I take "just for the record", so most are handheld. If its something special, I use the adaptor!.

I use the ES80 GA ED with the HDF Zoom and the A95 with lensmate and LCE adaptor. Nice kit!.

Handheld can work out pretty well if you at least have a bottle-cap guide to centre the camera lens on the eyepiece. If the diameter of your camera lens barrel exceeds th daimeter of the eyepiece glass, then with a little care, there is minimal risk of the camera barrel/lens touching the eyepiece glass (unless for some reason the lens is seriously convex).

Most of my digiscoped pics are done handheld even though I have an adapter. It all depends on whether or not you expect the subject to move quickly or not. Also, once there is sufficient light, you can get reasonably sharp pictures handheld.

rka

I don't use the scope or camera that you have, so cannot comment on the specifics, but...

I'd recommend trying digiscoping handheld before spending out money on an adaptor and cable release. Going handheld will give you an idea of what sort of results you can get, and also if digiscoping is for you (not everyone likes it). I started out digiscoping handheld and really enjoyed it, I found I got reasonable results and so carried on without an adaptor for a couple of years. I have only just got an adaptor (went for a srb digiscoping sleeve) as I've changed my camera - I find it very easy (and fast) to put on and off the scope and it's a pleasure to use.

Try it handheld first, if you enjoy it get the adaptor, it does make it easier.

two shots taken handheld:
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/40900/sort/1/cat/500/page/9
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/35734/sort/1/cat/500/page/9
and one with the adaptor:
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/63472/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

Hi Steve,

On behalf of Admin and the Moderators welcome to Bird Forum :t:

In any sort of digiscoping due to the long telephoto effect, vibration is a big problem. Even after setting the scope focus and using an adaptor and cable release I find I have to wait several seconds for the vibrations to settle.

Having said that I too would advise to give hand holding a go first. Some people can manage it and it costs nothing. I'd advise picking a brightly lit subject on a sunny day with the sun behind you, c.20m at no more than 20x eyepiece zoom and 2-3x camera zoom at it's widest (f3-4 ish) aperture so you get the fastest shutter speed. You can worry about more zoom and changing settings at sometime in the future.

Next step would be to get an adaptor which as mentioned already at least centres the camera on the eyepiece. If you've shaky hands like me then it means using an adapter plus remote cable release!

Whichever way you choose, don't be put off if the first few photos aren't perfect. Even after taking many thousands of photos and using adapters and cable releases I still end up with far more deletions than keepers!

Many thanks for all of your advice, I will give handheld a go to start with. If I can get anywhere near some of the handheld pictures I have seen in the galleries I will be a happy man.

Steve25 said:

I have recently purchased a friends Opticron ES80 GA ED45 with 20-60 zoom eyepiece. I want to try digiscoping with my Canon A95. I intended to connect the camera with a Lensmate 37mm thread to an LCE Winchester adapter.

However I have seen some marvellous pictures in the gallery which say 'handheld', which presumably means no adapter has been used.

My question is do I need to buy an adapter or is handheld an option for a complete novice.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Steve

Click to expand...

Hi,

Try to practice handheld.
I alse have a Canon A95 and I take all my shots handheld (I use a Swarovski AT80 HD + 30 SW). It works fine and my pictures are sharp.
I 've joined two files : first picture of a Reed warbler taken at 1/50 sec (Iso 50) and the second file is a crop of the same picture to show how sharp is the picture.
Hope that helps you. Sorry for my english

Best regards,

marc

I wouldn't bother messing about with handheld. Get an adaptor and do it properly or don't waste your time.

(Doesn't square with some opinions above, but there you go.)