photographing birds at birdfeeders (1 Viewer)

I bought a fuji A330 digital camera which has a 3x optical zoom. I tried the camera out fully zoomed in, but the picture was not close enough.

The feeders are about 10 to 15 feet away from the house and I dont know what camera to get. I have a Opticron Mighty Midget 52A scope and I have a 15-40x zoom eyepiece as well as the standard 25x eyepiece that came with the scope.

I would like to do digiscoping and get the coolpix 4500 but I cannot afford the adapter which is the go between as well. I was thinking about getting a non digital Canon 300V SLR camera with a telephoto lens 75 - 300 mm zoom, and a 28 -90mm lens, but it would mean buying the film and just getting the negatives back to transfer them via my scanner to my PC.

I am wondering if the fuji 5000 would better but I do not want to buy another digital camera and find out he optical zoom is not enough to get a good image of the birds on the feeder.

Any advice form you guys would be welcome and I look forward to hearing from you. Please help me guys!

Kindest Regards


Brian Pemberton

Hello Brian

I am currently using the Olympus 750UZ, which has a 10x optical zoom, close enough to photograph the feeders in the garden. Don't be influenced though by the market spin regarding digital zoom.

Regards

Hi

At your distance an SLR and 300mm or greater lens would be the best option. Film or digital.
If this is too costly and you already have the scope and a small digital point&shoot, it must be worth investing in an adaptor.
It depends on what you want the pictures for; the dedicated SLR will be way ahead in terms of quality.

Hi Brian,

A toughie one as most cameras won't have a sufficently powerful zoom to get decent sized photos of birds from a distance.

Options are -

1. DSLR + nice long lens - very expensive.
2. Digiscoping - for which you need a top of the range scope from whichever manufacturer + plus camera to match. I don't think the Mighty Midget would cut it so decent results but if you can tripod mount the scope then it may be worth hand holding the camera to the eyepiece.
3. Compact digital camera with decent zoom lens. Still not exactly cheap but a cheaper option than any of the above. Several amnufacturers have anywhere between 8 - 12x optical zooms (forget digital zooms). Even then you may need to use a teleconverter with them for a sufficently sized image.

For a long time I got decent enough results with an Olympus C2100UZ 2 mp 10x optical zoom camera, now replaced by the 7** series which have more MP's but no image stabiliser. Nearest to it is the Panasonic range of 12x optical zoom cameras with IS. Several other manufacturers produce long lens cameras too. Again though for shots from anything more than about 15' a converter lens helps a lot.

Of course you can always bringing the birds a little nearer by placing the feeders closer to the house or even using the suction cup window feeders - even the 3x zoom should give decent results once the birds get used to your presence.

35 mm SLR can still give exceptional results but with processing costs and the high volume of wasted shots, it's hardly cost effective in the long run.

I have never used the Fuji S5000 but looking at the spec. it could do the job, but without a converter you still need to be thinking of photos from maximum 10-12' for small garden birds - even then they won't fill the frame.

Hi Brian,

Helen is right re. digital zoom. Camera manufacturers often make a big deal out of digital zoom purely because the numbers are bigger - 50X zoom looks better than 10X etc. In short, too much digital zoom sucks.

Have you tried holding the camera up to the eyepiece of your scope? If your hands are steady enough and you get it just right you can get some pretty decent images like that, although you'll most likely suffer from some vignetting as well. You could also investigate making some kind of adapter yourself. I don't know your camera or your scope so can't help any further with that - just an idea. If you do try that it might be worth using a low power eyepiece (15X with your zoom eyepiece) and full optical zoom on your camera.

Good luck!

Rich.

Edit..Posted almost the same time as Ian

Other option is to put the camera closer ...get a long cable release or remote release (maybe not so expensive secondhand), focus on a good perch and wait

abp said:

I bought a fuji A330 digital camera which has a 3x optical zoom. I tried the camera out fully zoomed in, but the picture was not close enough.

The feeders are about 10 to 15 feet away from the house and I dont know what camera to get. I have a Opticron Mighty Midget 52A scope and I have a 15-40x zoom eyepiece as well as the standard 25x eyepiece that came with the scope.

I would like to do digiscoping and get the coolpix 4500 but I cannot afford the adapter which is the go between as well. I was thinking about getting a non digital Canon 300V SLR camera with a telephoto lens 75 - 300 mm zoom, and a 28 -90mm lens, but it would mean buying the film and just getting the negatives back to transfer them via my scanner to my PC.

I am wondering if the fuji 5000 would better but I do not want to buy another digital camera and find out he optical zoom is not enough to get a good image of the birds on the feeder.

Any advice form you guys would be welcome and I look forward to hearing from you. Please help me guys!

Kindest Regards


Brian Pemberton

Click to expand...

Pardon me for butting in. I'm also brand new to digiscoping. Have a 3 meg Kodak point and shoot with a 3x optical, a mid priced 20x60 scope and a pretty good tripod. (knowing the law of diminishing returns I did'nt join the big boys) A company in Portland, Oregon USA makes a universal mechanical mount to bring the camera lens up within a couple mm of the eyepiece. Mount allows camera to swivel out between shots. Question. How do I get all this stuff to focus? Have been looking all over for a tutorial , but don't seem to find one

Craig

Craig,

If you haven't already..take a look at Andy's site http://www.digiscoped.com/

I normally use auto focus on the camera and focus the scope using the LCD monitor on the back of the camera to confirm focus etc.

Rich.

Jos Stratford said:

Other option is to put the camera closer ...get a long cable release or remote release (maybe not so expensive secondhand), focus on a good perch and wait

Click to expand...

Good idea, but you would probable want an extension on and off switch or the batteries would be dead before the birds arrived :-(

Mick