New to digiscoping - scope advice (1 Viewer)

Tord · Jul 19, 2012

Bulbul87 said:
So then, how much of an advantage is waterproofing? Is it worth sacrificing for additional flexibility of the Evostar Pro for a ruggedised Regal?

Hi,

On this subject - water proofing - I would say that if you intend photography and expect good results then you would probably not do it in poor light conditions, and not in rain conditions unless your camera body can withstand water. If your main purpose is observation than water proofing comes in handy.

Bulbul87 · Jul 19, 2012

kwikstaart said:
Please check this review: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1039 maybe there is a scope of your choice. In England the brand Opticron is quite popular so maybe there is a good one, they should be less expensive.

Interesting article. That reference to the Questar made me wonder whether a Mak such as the C90 or the C5 would workable and produce comparable results for digiscoping? They are quite moderately priced.

http://betterviewdesired.com/Meade-ETX.php
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-spotting-scopes.html

tord said:
On this subject - water proofing - I would say that if you intend photography and expect good results then you would probably not do it in poor light conditions, and not in rain conditions unless your camera body can withstand water. If your main purpose is observation than water proofing comes in handy.

Ok, so waterproofing might be an advantage in the field, but you are quite right; photography would ideally take place in dry and bright conditions, otherwise the camera (and photographer) would have to be waterproofed as well. Its a difficult one, because you always want to be ready to observe, but then if you see something noteworthy you have an overwhelming desire to take a photo! Sometimes when I have gone out, I have deliberately taken only bins with me to concentrate on the enjoyment of observing - a camera free day if you will - but then wished I had a camera with me! But when you have the camera, you spend so much time fiddling with the thing that you spend far less time actually enjoying the surroundings and observing.

Bulbul87 · Jul 19, 2012

I think a good point was going down to somewhere that sells them and having a good look at them before opening wallet. I think I might get down to Focus Optics, which is not too far fom here, one day.

Hor Kee · Jul 19, 2012

Do consider this: Getting a Pentax Q body and a Pentax Q to Canon EF mount adapter and sticking to your 100-400mm. The 5.53x crop factor will result in a 2200mm+ FOV equivalent setup. Note that the Q's sensor is as small as the sensors you will encounter on the compacts usually used for digiscoping.

kwikstaart · Jul 19, 2012

Bulbul87 said:
PS, what's the difference between a Kowa TSN-883 and a TSN-883 Prominar (apart for the £1000 or so in cost!) ?

Aslo I think good point taken about going down to somewhere that sells them and having a good look at them before opening wallet. Might get down to Focus Optics, which is not too far fom here, one day.

Hi Bulbul,

You are busy with it, I can see! :t: With Kowa the numbers mean the following:
88 for the diameter
1 is angled scope without fluorite, 2 is straight without fluorite
3 is for angled WITH fluorite (real fluorite should be a hair better than syntetical ED or HD or APO) 4 means fluorite straight.

Kowa als sells a 77-series with a smaller diameter of the frontlens and a syntetic fluorite but still very very good.

The reviews on "betterviewdesired"are many years old. More recent are the revies on www.tvwg.nl (see the left "testrapporten" and then google translate). Imo the Meade is not easy for digiscoping and most of them aren't wheatherproof. I haven't heard of the Pentax Q-combination but I doubt whether you keep the fast af you need although 2200 mm sounds very tempting. Small sensors have big disadvantages as well.

Another possibility I remember is the Lens2scope (google will help you): a sort of eyepiece to be connected with your Canon zoom 100-400. But this is more for photographers who occasionally want look through a scope but don't want to carry the weight.

regards,
marijn

Bulbul87 · Jul 19, 2012

kwikstaart, thanks for that explanation of the Kowa numbers and especially that bit of info about the fluorite, ED, and HD APO type lenses. So does 3 and 4 mean real fluorite? Do 1 and 2 have the ED variety then, or are they ordinary achromats?

I appreciate that "betterviewdesired" review was rather old. Just wondered what the current thinking is. Would the narrower field of view be much of a problem?

Lens2Scope looks like an interesting idea but seems to have a fixed eyepiece which would still give me 10-40x but won't reach up to 60x. Can't help thinking that the £130 spent would be better being put towardsa a dedicated scope.

kwikstaart · Jul 19, 2012

Bulbul87 said:
kwikstaart, thanks for that explanation of the Kowa numbers and especially that bit of info about the fluorite, ED, and HD APO type lenses. So does 3 and 4 mean real fluorite? Do 1 and 2 have the ED variety then, or are they ordinary achromats?

I appreciate that "betterviewdesired" review was rather old. Just wondered what the current thinking is. Would the narrower field of view be much of a problem?

Lens2Scope looks like an interesting idea but seems to have a fixed eyepiece which would still give me 10-40x but won't reach up to 60x. Can't help thinking that the £130 spent would be better being put towardsa a dedicated scope.

1 or 2 means a "normal" type of lens, at least nog equal to Fluorite, ED, APO or HD. The 773 or 774 is cheaper and has an "XD"-lens (similar to HD) but only the 883/4 has pure fluorite.

The Lens2scope is meant for viewing through your tele lens, I do not know whether it's possible to digiscope through it. Another downside: it will take time to switch form photo to lens2scope, open camera body etc...

I know a lot of birders swear with the 20x60 zoom but imho a 30x WA is more than enough: perfect for digiscoping, perfect for viewing and cheaper! If you cannot identify a bird with 30x then the possibility of identifying it with 60x (no matter how good your scope is) will still give problems. Because a blurry view (due to i.e. the wheather) will only give a bigger blury view. That's why Leica and Swarovski have downsized their zooms to 25-50x but with a bigger field of view (fov). With a zoom normally only the 20x is suitable for digiscoping and even then not with every camera due to vignetting. Bigger magnifications have a to small FOV which leads to a big black frame around the middle of the picture (vignetting).

So, what are thinking of for your first digiscoping set?

SeeToh · Jul 20, 2012

kwikstaart said:
I know a lot of birders swear with the 20x60 zoom but imho a 30x WA is more than enough: perfect for digiscoping, perfect for viewing and cheaper!

Agreed that a 30x wide-angle eyepiece is perfect for digiscoping. Check out my digiscoped images from my gallery http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/86109 which were shot mostly using the 30x eyepiece.

I currently own a Nikon 30x and 50x wide-angle digiscoping eyepeice for my Nikon 82mm ED Fieldscope. I rarely use the 50x except for birdwatching as it is very difficult to focus and extremely sensitive to vibrations when used to digiscope.

For birdwatching, I find the 50x wide-angle eyepeice better than the Nikon 25-75x MCII Zoom eyepiece which I also own and again rarely use :king:

Tord · Jul 23, 2012

SeeToh said:
Agreed that a 30x wide-angle eyepiece is perfect for digiscoping. Check out my digiscoped images from my gallery http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/86109 which were shot mostly using the 30x eyepiece.

I currently own a Nikon 30x and 50x wide-angle digiscoping eyepeice for my Nikon 82mm ED Fieldscope. I rarely use the 50x except for birdwatching as it is very difficult to focus and extremely sensitive to vibrations when used to digiscope.

For birdwatching, I find the 50x wide-angle eyepeice better than the Nikon 25-75x MCII Zoom eyepiece which I also own and again rarely use :king:

I fully agree. I use the DS30X myself, originally purchased for digiscoping purpose, a purpose it serves extremely well. I also believe it is a nice general purpose eyepiece, I seldom use the 25-75 MCII zoom nowadays.

CthIngo · Aug 14, 2012

SeeToh said:
I currently own a Nikon 30x and 50x wide-angle digiscoping eyepeice for my Nikon 82mm ED Fieldscope. I rarely use the 50x except for birdwatching as it is very difficult to focus and extremely sensitive to vibrations when used to digiscope.

That's some interesting information, as I was considering to get a 50x DS for more reach. I think I'll stay with the 30x (which I'm super happy with) then. You're a money saver |=)|

SeeToh · Aug 15, 2012

CthIngo said:
That's some interesting information, as I was considering to get a 50x DS for more reach. I think I'll stay with the 30x (which I'm super happy with) then. You're a money saver |=)|

Better to use the money to upgrade to a better camera:king:

hinnark · Aug 16, 2012

Tord said:
I fully agree. I use the DS30X myself, originally purchased for digiscoping purpose, a purpose it serves extremely well. I also believe it is a nice general purpose eyepiece, I seldom use the 25-75 MCII zoom nowadays.

With an ED82 and the two above mentioned eyepieces I experienced something odd. I was on a non-stop birding trip of several days' duration. Only sleeping during the night and birding the whole day long. The 30x DS was used as the main EP, and the 25-75 MCII only if higher magnification was required. At the end of day three my leading eye got tired and enforced me more and more to have a break from using the scope. Strangely enough, in that situation the 25-75 MC was easier to use, because it gave my overstrained eye a more relaxed view. I never noticed this before in normal use. It would be interesting for me to know if somebody else experienced this as well.

Steve

New to digiscoping - scope advice (1 Viewer)

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