In response to some replies on this thread, i dont think Digiscoping is in decline, the fact is that some Digiscopers have moved on from Digiscoping to DSLR, the other factor to consider is that some birders are still discovering Digiscoping and this includes long time birders and obviously new birders.
Competitions are not to everybody's taste, i have entered this for a few years now just to participate, ( still not won one though !) its the taking part and keeping the hobby alive that works for me, i would take an educated guess and say there are far more active Digiscopers on BF than we think? just look at the number of hits in the Digiscoping Cameras section threads? and the number of pictures in the last year taken by Digiscopers in the BF Gallery? And we have forgotten the Astroscope People ( Paul Corfield and others who contribute regularly on BF, what about a competition for them? )
My personal bias is that i feel to take a very good Digiscoped picture takes some of the same skills the DSLR photographer has, Composition, Fieldcraft, Photoshop skills, and and oh, one more that the majority of DSLR Photographers dont have to worry about "Manual Focusing" not everybody has the eye to hand coordination.
I think the competition for Digiscopers still has its place, but if numbers were to drop further next year, yes i would then agree that its time to have a rethink on keeping the Digiscoping section.
Paul
