Looking to buy.. need advice (1 Viewer)

Hello~
I've been thinking about buying a spotting scope for use in photography of birds. Kowa and Nikon seem to be the main companies selling scopes here in Japan. I'm looking to possibly use the scope as a prime focus lens for my DSLR. Right now I'm using a telescope as a 430mm lens. It works quite well, but it is rather heavy. These spotting scopes look lighter and seem to have a longer focal length. I don't see myself spending more that $1000 (~100000yen) or so for just the scope. Of course I'll have to get a dslr adapter and possibly some sort of eyepiece if I want to do eye-piece projection. I want something with a focal length of 500mm or more if possible (without the eyepiece).
So what do you guys recommend? Mainly I've been looking at Kowa, but am open to whatever is good.

Hi Chris,

Already sent you a PM this morning but here is some general info. If your primary use for the scope is as a supertele lens for you dslr, you want a straight scope. It makes everything easier and more natural. Kowa has the most complete set of digiscoping options of ANY scope maker. Their PZ zoom dslr is probably the best there is and allows you to have a zoom lens with a focal length of 580-1000mm on a full frame camera. Images can be superb if you have good long lens and manual focus technique, stable mount, and good light since you will be shooting at F11 on average. Kowa makes the excellent 884 and 774 scopes with dual focus knobs, critical for getting fine focus. Visually there is no practical difference, but for dslr use the larger aperture of the 884 delivers ~1/3 stop faster shutter speeds. The 884 has slightly less depth of field and can be a little harder to focus accurately.

While there are of course many upsides to using a dslr on a scope, there are some important downsides too. Primarily you will not be able to use the scope visually with the adapter attached and there can be lots of downtime between shots waiting for interesting birds. Also since you are shooting at F11, ACCURATE manual focus can be a chore on a moving bird at these focal lengths. Shutter speeds can get painfully slow in poor light. Keeper rate is about 10%.

After testing all the various methods, I found myself going back to using a compact digicam as the benefits outweigh any IQ concerns. Image quality can be just as good as a dslr, shutter speeds are generally faster since you are shooting 2-3 stops faster, and focal lengths are 2-4x greater... ~3000-6000mm in some cases. You also get the benefit of the cameras AF to help tweak your manual focus of the scope so keeper rate goes up. Finally you can easily switch between visual and digiscoping on the fly. Of course, your kit will be lighter, smaller than a dslr set up too.

Hope this helps. Lot's more to it but it would take hours to write all about it.

cheers,
Rick

Rick,

Thanks for the incredible summary of this thing we call digiscoping. Seriously, I've been in and out of this forum now for years and have never read anything that outlines the general pros and cons so nicely.

I use a Kowa 883 with fixed 21x EP and a canon s95 and the only problem I have is getting time to use it.

Joe

Rick,

I am using a Kowa TSN 883 with a Baader setup and a normal Casio Excilim compactcamera. This combination is perfect for good pictures. But taking pictures is not my main goal, they are "proof" of my sightings and when they are good or great it's a bonus.

As for your maximum of $ 1000 I recommend the Nikon ED 82 (either straight or angled). It is a very good scope, probably the best for this amount of money. Eyepieces of the "DS"-type are specially made for DigiScoping and Nikon has a lot of setups. But also on this scope universal systems fit so you can choose either to start on lower budget digiscoping to expanding to the max. Good luck,

Marijn