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Leica Apo televid 62 and Canon A95 (1 Viewer)

I

ikw101

Well-known member
Just wondering if anybody else has tried this combination and if they have what camera settings have proved successful.

At the moment I'm using the 16-48 zoom but so far my digiscoping efforts have been dissapointing so I'm considering buying the 26x wide angle lens as it should let more light through therefore faster shutter speed.

The Canon A95 is attached to the scope via the Eagleeye adaptor and appears to be rock solid. I'm also using a cable release so hopefully pressing the shutter isn't the problem. In operation normally I have to zoom in to approx x2 on the camera to remove vignetting and this results in a minimum aperture of F4.5. The camera's autofocus appears to lock on without any difficulties. Based upon the results I've been getting please see http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88943 something isn't quite right. I'm guessing the shutter speed isn't fast enough to freeze the birds movement (how fast should it be)?

Any suggestions or advice will be extremely welcome

Thanks

A couple more photos
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88944
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88946
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Im probably not gonna be much use,other than to say keep at it.

I often use the same set up as you,(leica apo 62 and canon a95).

The best advice i can give you is all the usual digiscoping stuff,get
as close as you can,preferably with the sun/light behind you,with the
a95 i find its best to try and stick with ISO 100 or lower,if possible
take LOTS of pics while changing the scopes fine focus at various
intervals (your bound to get at least one good shot like that).

Im far from an expert compared to some people on here,but heres a few
pics i've taken with this setup,both taken in the shade and the woody
from quite far away.

Good luck :)
 

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ikw101 said:
Just wondering if anybody else has tried this combination and if they have what camera settings have proved successful.

At the moment I'm using the 16-48 zoom but so far my digiscoping efforts have been dissapointing so I'm considering buying the 26x wide angle lens as it should let more light through therefore faster shutter speed.

The Canon A95 is attached to the scope via the Eagleeye adaptor and appears to be rock solid. I'm also using a cable release so hopefully pressing the shutter isn't the problem. In operation normally I have to zoom in to approx x2 on the camera to remove vignetting and this results in a minimum aperture of F4.5. The camera's autofocus appears to lock on without any difficulties. Based upon the results I've been getting please see http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88943 something isn't quite right. I'm guessing the shutter speed isn't fast enough to freeze the birds movement (how fast should it be)?

Any suggestions or advice will be extremely welcome

Thanks

A couple more photos
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88944
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88946
Click to expand...

You've picked one of the most difficult subjects to take, a very pale bird against a dark background and at quite a distance by the look of it, so don't be too disappointed. The shot needed some exposure compensation (-1 would be a good bet) to stop the whites being blown out, the only problem is this would darken the background even more.

I would suggest you try a few easier subjects - larger and closer - to get a better idea of what you and your setup can do, you might be pleasantly surprised. Either way don't take a few disapointments to heart, we've all had them, just try a few easier subjects and try to get out of any wind.

Here are some settings that work well with the A95, it will give you a base to work from until you find what suits you best.

Turn the mode dial to AV.
Press the FUNC button and select AWB, Continuous Drive Mode, ISO 50 (100 at most), Exposure Compensation -1/3, Effect off, Spot metering, Large (L), and Superfine (S).
Press the FUNC button again to exit these settings.

Press the MENU button and select Flexizone, Red-eye off, AF Point, MF-Point Zoom on, AF assist Beam off, Digital Zoom off, Review 3 secs, Reverse Display on.
Then the most important bit, Save settings to C, this will put all the settings made into C (custom) Mode, from now on use C Mode all the time.
Press MENU again to exit.

When you've sorted out the zoom needed to clear vignetting this setting can also be saved to C by zooming the camera to the required position and Savings Settings to C again.

What you have now is Aperture Priority Mode, auto focus and spot metering position linked together, i.e. focusing and metering are both done in the rectangle in the centre of the screen - which incidentally can be moved to 9 different positions in the screen to help composition or avoid small obstacles in front of the bird etc.

These settings I use for perhaps 90% of shots taken and find they work quite well, however for situations where there are branches, etc in the way of the bird I switch to Manual Focus. (If using MF I find that because the camera goes through Macro first the distance scale that appears with MF has to be reset, between 7 mtrs and infinity seems ok, this setting can also be saved to C).

regards

John
 
jc001 said:
Hi,

Im probably not gonna be much use,other than to say keep at it.

I often use the same set up as you,(leica apo 62 and canon a95).

The best advice i can give you is all the usual digiscoping stuff,get
as close as you can,preferably with the sun/light behind you,with the
a95 i find its best to try and stick with ISO 100 or lower,if possible
take LOTS of pics while changing the scopes fine focus at various
intervals (your bound to get at least one good shot like that).

Im far from an expert compared to some people on here,but heres a few
pics i've taken with this setup,both taken in the shade and the woody
from quite far away.

Good luck :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement.

Since posting the message I've been out practicing and the results are definitely improving. Other than trying to be a bit more realistic in the choice of subject the single most dramatic difference has been achieved by making the tripod head rock solid. (It took a couple of washers wedged between the quick release plate and catch). This has really helped. Which tripod head are you using?

I'm very impressed with your results - especially the woodpecker. After fine focusing with the scope are you trusting the cameras autofocus or going into manual focus? After reading some of the other posts several people seem to recommend setting the cameras focus to infinity and then using the scopes fine focus but this sounds too easy to be true.

I'll definitely be trying the take loads of photos technique.

Thanks

Ian


:t:
 

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john-henry said:
You've picked one of the most difficult subjects to take, a very pale bird against a dark background and at quite a distance by the look of it, so don't be too disappointed. The shot needed some exposure compensation (-1 would be a good bet) to stop the whites being blown out, the only problem is this would darken the background even more.

I would suggest you try a few easier subjects - larger and closer - to get a better idea of what you and your setup can do, you might be pleasantly surprised. Either way don't take a few disapointments to heart, we've all had them, just try a few easier subjects and try to get out of any wind.

Here are some settings that work well with the A95, it will give you a base to work from until you find what suits you best.

Turn the mode dial to AV.
Press the FUNC button and select AWB, Continuous Drive Mode, ISO 50 (100 at most), Exposure Compensation -1/3, Effect off, Spot metering, Large (L), and Superfine (S).
Press the FUNC button again to exit these settings.

Press the MENU button and select Flexizone, Red-eye off, AF Point, MF-Point Zoom on, AF assist Beam off, Digital Zoom off, Review 3 secs, Reverse Display on.
Then the most important bit, Save settings to C, this will put all the settings made into C (custom) Mode, from now on use C Mode all the time.
Press MENU again to exit.

When you've sorted out the zoom needed to clear vignetting this setting can also be saved to C by zooming the camera to the required position and Savings Settings to C again.

What you have now is Aperture Priority Mode, auto focus and spot metering position linked together, i.e. focusing and metering are both done in the rectangle in the centre of the screen - which incidentally can be moved to 9 different positions in the screen to help composition or avoid small obstacles in front of the bird etc.

These settings I use for perhaps 90% of shots taken and find they work quite well, however for situations where there are branches, etc in the way of the bird I switch to Manual Focus. (If using MF I find that because the camera goes through Macro first the distance scale that appears with MF has to be reset, between 7 mtrs and infinity seems ok, this setting can also be saved to C).

regards

John
Click to expand...

John

Many thanks for your tips.

I've found quite a few on using the various Coolpix models but there seems to be very little on the A95. The camera is all set up now and everything saved into C mode so if we get some decent weather over the weekend I'll be trying out your settings.

The shrike was a very optimistic one to begin digiscoping with. Unfortunately there was little natural cover available and I didn't want to risk scaring it off. With hindsight I wish I'd gone around the other side of the clearing so I hadn't been shooting into the sun quite so much. Based upon your experience I'd be interested to know what you've found the realistic limits to be - x30 with the camera zoomed in to about x2 was on this occasion quite a bit off the mark.

Regards

Ian
 
ikw101 said:
John

Many thanks for your tips.

I've found quite a few on using the various Coolpix models but there seems to be very little on the A95. The camera is all set up now and everything saved into C mode so if we get some decent weather over the weekend I'll be trying out your settings.

The shrike was a very optimistic one to begin digiscoping with. Unfortunately there was little natural cover available and I didn't want to risk scaring it off. With hindsight I wish I'd gone around the other side of the clearing so I hadn't been shooting into the sun quite so much. Based upon your experience I'd be interested to know what you've found the realistic limits to be - x30 with the camera zoomed in to about x2 was on this occasion quite a bit off the mark.

Regards

Ian
Click to expand...

Ian,
It's hard to say what a realistic distance is, often a not-so-good shot is better than no shot. The only certain thing is the closer you are and the less zoom (camera and scope) used the better the quality, obviously partly due to less shake and partly to do with air quality over distance.

Often it pays to use MF at greater distances, the AF doesn't always pick up what you're trying to focus on - crank the scope zoom up and use the magnified central area to get a good focus then reduce the mag. to what you want, set the distance scale to between 7mtrs and infinity for MF.

I use 20x on the scope whenever possible and just enough camera zoom to clear vignetting (about 1/2 zoom), but if the bird is more distant I find 30x still gives good results but you need to be a lot more careful to avoid shake etc.

Digiscoping is all for free so try anything and everything, if it works out, great, if it doesn't you learn from it. One useful tip - after you've taken a few shots have a look at them for sharpness and exposure, look at the histogram, it will tell you if your exposure is good (I do mean the cameras' exposure here), or needs adjusting etc.
Most of all take loads of photographs, not only of birds but anything that doesn't move - the more you take the quicker you learn.

Regards

John
 
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