Advice sought on Canon eos 30 d and digiscoping (1 Viewer)

martinbeacon · Sep 29, 2006

Hi all,
I am considering investing in a Canon eos 30d as my first digital slr. Could someone advise me as to whether I should go for a package deal with lenses ie: Body + EF 17mm-85mm or 18mm-55mm or not? I also use my Kowa tsn 4 regularly and would like to get into Digiscoping with the same camera plus the necessary attachments.
tks
Martin

Robert L Jarvis · Sep 29, 2006

I have a TSN4 and in the past have tried to mate a DSLR or SLR to it but they do not really work.

If you use a photo attachment this means you remove the camera lens and scope eyepiece. The camera is attached to the scope by the attachment. This make the scope end heavy and difficult to set up to take shots. The scope in effect becomes a big telephoto but problems occur with light, it comes down to F8 or F10 which is just not good enough and you have to manual focus scope. Not very easy to make sure the object is in focus looking through viewfinder.

Then if you look at say the swaro scope adapter for attaching the DSLR to the scope this works by screwing the adapter into filter thread on the end of camera lens and then fixing the whole to the scope eyepiece. Better than using a photo attachment but you have to use again manual focus.

Whilst desirable and many people have tried, a dslr and scope do not really go together.
Far better if you want to take good photos to get a good camera lens of upto 400/500mm or invest in a good compact and adapter for your scope.

No doubt some other posters will come on and praise the photo attachment but take my advice do not waste your money.

Keith Reeder · Oct 1, 2006

Well I agree with you, Roger..!

Buying a great DSLR like a 30D and then sticking it onto a scope (regardless of the quality of the scope) is like putting tractor wheels on a Ferrari, to my mind - it loses many of the benefits that a DSLR is meant to provide.

No AF, no metering, noisier images because of the need to use high ISOs to make up for the throttled light to the sensor...

As Robert says, get a long lens for the camera and/or a compact for digiscoping.

Hottentot · Oct 2, 2006

I agree with Roger and Keith, you won't get better pictures with a DSLR than you would with a cheap compact attached to the scope. Believe me I tried it, and the photos were rubbish compared to using a proper DSLR lens.

If you think you will be getting close to birds (5m-30m) then a DSLR and long lens with a pair of binos (to spot with) seems to be optimal. Beyond that (unless its a big bird) the telescope and compact camera give comparable or better results.

Robert L Jarvis · Oct 2, 2006

Please note, it is Robert not Roger!!

postcardcv · Oct 2, 2006

Robert L Jarvis said:
Whilst desirable and many people have tried, a dslr and scope do not really go together.
Far better if you want to take good photos to get a good camera lens of upto 400/500mm or invest in a good compact and adapter for your scope.

No doubt some other posters will come on and praise the photo attachment but take my advice do not waste your money.

I'm in complete agreement. I've used slr adapters on Opticron, Swarovski and Leica scopes and have always found them to require a lot of effort for poor results. If you want to digiscope buy a compact camera, it's much easier than an slr. If you do invest in a dslr then a long lens is definitely the way to go.

Robert Tilt · Oct 2, 2006

If I may offer some advice here - I have used a 300D on a kowa scope with some success but have subsequently found the 170-500 sigma lens offers more reliable results. You have autofocus etc and cropping slightly gives the same `image size` - please have a look at my picture on rtimages.com if interested. Links to digiscoped pictures can be found through the `about this site` llink.
Hope that helps.

JTF · Oct 9, 2006

Dlsr

Sigma is an excellent lense to use on a canon DLSR. As for digiscoping the nikon coolpix series are good with birding scopes.

gordon g · Oct 10, 2006

I have experimented with my canon 1v and 50mm lens on a swaro 80hd on a few occasions. In bright light and high contrast ,eg grebes on the water, it was possible to autofocus. The drawback of this is that lens length alters, moving the whole camera backwards. However, with 400ISO film and the scope firmly mounted on the tripod it was possible to handhold the camera and get reasonable pictures.
Most of the time, though, as others have said, average light and contrast have not allowed autofocus, and the image on the focus screen is rather dark to allow accurate manual focus.

The downside of digiscoping with compact cameras is that they are so slow to respond when you are used to SLR performance. I have not had any worthwhile results with my A95 unless the bird is stationary - even slow moving waders seem to glide out of shot before the camera has caught up.

For me, the right combo is SLR and long lens, but that's the expensive route to take if you are mainly a birder who photographs, rather than a photographer who birds.

martinbeacon · Oct 26, 2006

Thanks.

Hottentot said:
I agree with Roger and Keith, you won't get better pictures with a DSLR than you would with a cheap compact attached to the scope. Believe me I tried it, and the photos were rubbish compared to using a proper DSLR lens.

If you think you will be getting close to birds (5m-30m) then a DSLR and long lens with a pair of binos (to spot with) seems to be optimal. Beyond that (unless its a big bird) the telescope and compact camera give comparable or better results.

tks mate, but when you say long lens how long is best? tks again
Martin

gmax · Oct 27, 2006

Robert L Jarvis said:
Far better if you want to take good photos to get a good camera lens of upto 400/500mm

As Roger

(lol) says, this is the main optimal range; 300mm is the minimum, 600mm (or the sky) the average maximum: much depends on you main usage.
I'm sure many other experienced users will add their advice re. lens choice, just expect to spend a lot of money

, more or less as much as you spend on your camera (which is excellent!)
Good choice,
Max

martinbeacon · Nov 25, 2006

gmax said:
As Roger (lol) says, this is the main optimal range; 300mm is the minimum, 600mm (or the sky) the average maximum: much depends on you main usage.
I'm sure many other experienced users will add their advice re. lens choice, just expect to spend a lot of money , more or less as much as you spend on your camera (which is excellent!)
Good choice,
Max

Thank you all. I have much research still to do
:C

Robert Tilt · Nov 25, 2006

For what it is worth - I used a 300D on a Kowa scope with some good (and many poor)|results. I finally decided I had to concentrate on photography or bird watching - the photos won. The problem is that the equipment is unweildy etc. If my main interest had been just the `watching then a nikon 4500 on the kowa would have been best (I tried that as well). After a lot of `wasted` money I now have a 30D and canon lenses.
Mind you - I still look longinlgly at those scopes!

May I suggest what you really want - record shots while scoping or PHOTOGRAPHS?

Both are of value - depends which is more important? It is difficult to enjoy BOTH.

Advice sought on Canon eos 30 d and digiscoping (1 Viewer)

More options

martinbeacon

Member

Robert L Jarvis

Robert L Jarvis

Keith Reeder

Watch the birdie...

Hottentot

Fig

Robert L Jarvis

Robert L Jarvis

postcardcv

Super Moderator

Robert Tilt

Active member

JTF

Well-known member

gordon g

Well-known member

martinbeacon

Member

gmax

Sontium Dweller

martinbeacon

Member

Robert Tilt

Active member

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread