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The history of digiscoping (1 Viewer)

Wildmoreway

Wildmoreway

Well-known member
I found this interesting site

http://10000birds.com/50-years-of-digiscoping-history.htm

In this world though there is such a thing as re-invention, back in 1998 (which no knowledge of this) I held a monocular to the front of my Olympus c420 to get a closer picture of part of Crewe Hall. My bet is that more than one of you out there did something the same without any knowledge of previous attempts and without passing what you had learnt on. So who really invented digiscoping in the modern context?
 
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I'm not sure who actually 'invented' digiscoping, but back in 2001/2 when I first started to get interested, the only information that seemed to be available on line was by Laurence Poh. This is his website where he's described as "the father of digiscoping".

I then came across Andy Bright's website and hence got here.

Sadly, Laurence died a few years ago, but some of his many pictures are in Opus, still remaining the best images we have of certain birds.
 
I knew Lawrence personally and it was a loss for the birding community in Malaysia. Digiscoping was, and still is popular here thanks to him. It gave some of my best moments in bird photography, especially when DSLRs had no budget models at that time. Having moved on to a DSLR system myself, I still miss digiscoping and the advantages it gives especially for birds at longer ranges.
 
I recall an article in the ABA's magazine a good few years back which advocated the use of film point-and-shoot cameras in combination with a 'scope to get, at the very least, 'record shots' of unusual records and such like. I thought at the time that digital point-and-shoot cameras - as I recall cheap 2-3m pixel cameras were just coming into vogue - would be a better way forward. Naturally, I didn't do anything about it!
 
I took a photo of a Spoonbill at Arne about 18 years ago by holding the body of my 'Super Practica TL' up to the scope. The result was awful, but it was at least recognisable (I think that was to the body of the scope, taking the eyepiece off).

Also took a pic of American Wigeon and GW Teal on the Canaries with a (film) point and shoot film camera up to the same scope, results much better, a couple of years later.
 
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I doubt digiscoping can be attributed to just one person even though it seems to be that way on the web. I bet loads of people tried it without ever knowing anyone else was doing the same. I used to build my own scopes purposely for mounting onto my first digicam many years ago for no other reason than I like experimenting with optics. It was a while after that when I found others were doing similar things. When you think of astrophotography it goes back many years before digicams were invented.

Paul.
 
My first sighting of someone digiscoping in the field was meeting someone at Sandbach Flashes in early 2002. He had something like a Nikon 990. I was using a Fuji S602Pro (not for digiscoping), we were admiring each other's cameras and wondering what the next inovation would be.
 
I've just checked, I started digiscoping in 1989, mind you I had to be frugal as to how many photos I took, and wait to get my prints back from the camera shop. The results are embarrassing to look at now. I wish I hadn't!
 
Warminster Birder said:
I've just checked, I started digiscoping in 1989, mind you I had to be frugal as to how many photos I took, and wait to get my prints back from the camera shop. The results are embarrassing to look at now. I wish I hadn't!
Click to expand...

Camcorders were commonplace by the mid 1980s so it would not be surprising if a few people were not holding their scopes up to the camcorder lens to see what happened.
 
I started and soon stopped digiscoping in the mid 90's...around 1995. I had a Bushnell 30mm scope, real cheap model too....$99. But I had this idea of seeing if I could get a shot from the scope from a early model digi camera. I tried....but it just didn't do it. Perhaps a very smudged foto at best but the idea was there.... How to connect a camera to the scope. jim
 
As the 10000 Birds article shows, many people and even manufacturers were experimenting or actually marketing related products/systems. My own experiments started around 1999, indeed specifically photographing birds. I had neither a digital image recording camera, nor an Internet connected computer. My "media" was the mini DV tape of my Sony Handycam, which had 10x optical zoom with its Carl Zeiss lens, and my 1997 Kowa TSN-824 scope I still use today (with Canon Powershot S100). I could pull 640k pixel stills off the tape using a computer with special PCI slot card installed in it. So I guess I was "Mini-DV-scoping." I think the particular iterations of equipment, and the specific dates of experimenting are irrelevant (though certainly interesting) for purposes of assigning "discovery" status to someone. I am happy that Laurence was and is considered "the" or "a" father of digiscoping. The idea is a patron "saint" if you will, spreading the "gospel" of digiscoping. The key ingredients there are: modern style digital camera using memory card (fully digital images), and field scope.. and in my vision of it.. birds! Capturing the beauty and intrigue of birds in particular.. is it for me. And then he went the extra measure to share and write about his methods. Thanks for the discussion and bringing back the old flavor and memories of those first "true" digiscoping days.
 
Digiscoping means taking pictures using digital camera through the eyepiece of spotting scope right ? Does it count the same when using film and taking pictures through the eyepiece of spotting scope ? Why not call it Filmscoping ?

And Forcreeks, your picture of the Anna's Hummingbird here http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100179/ppuser/1061 encouraged me to get into Digiscoping and I bought the Fujifilm F31fd as my 1st digital camera and were hoping to get good pics as yours !
 
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speckled wood said:
I found this interesting site

http://10000birds.com/50-years-of-digiscoping-history.htm

In this world though there is such a thing as re-invention, back in 1998 (which no knowledge of this) I held a monocular to the front of my Olympus c420 to get a closer picture of part of Crewe Hall. My bet is that more than one of you out there did something the same without any knowledge of previous attempts and without passing what you had learnt on. So who really invented digiscoping in the modern context?
Click to expand...

Not sure about digiscoping, but the article is way off in suggesting that Swarovski, in the early 90s, pioneered the idea of marketing an adapter to take photos through a spotting scope. In the mid-1970s I purchased from Swift an adapter for my 60 mm Swift Telemaster spotting scope, a popular scope with American birders at the time. It was a three inch aluminum tube that allowed you to attach an SLR camera body securely to the scope eyepiece. Yielded decent photos, but the cost of film limited the amount of experimentation you wanted to do to get good results.

Jim
 
Hey Jim.
Yes those were the days! I owned a Swift Telemaster spotting scope in 1974, and I too purchased the screw-on silver adaptor. I spent too much money on wasted film. Light needed to be super-bright to get any good images. Most memorable images for me was my first Ross's Gull at Scalby Mills, Scarborough around 1975 and my first Black-throated Thrush at Coltishall, Norfolk (poss same year?) where I did manage some decent shots.

Now it's so cheap and simple!

Trev
 
Coastman said:
Hey Jim.
Yes those were the days! I owned a Swift Telemaster spotting scope in 1974, and I too purchased the screw-on silver adaptor. I spent too much money on wasted film. Light needed to be super-bright to get any good images. Most memorable images for me was my first Ross's Gull at Scalby Mills, Scarborough around 1975 and my first Black-throated Thrush at Coltishall, Norfolk (poss same year?) where I did manage some decent shots.

Now it's so cheap and simple!

Trev
Click to expand...

Wow....digiscoping with film cameras sounds expensive!... I know in the 90's I had really cumbersome digital cameras I attempted to use (without success) ...but I can only imagine a film camera.
 
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