Right straight to the point, i have just purchased a superb Swarovski AT HD80 scope, tripod and 30ww/20-60 viewers. My next step is to film, photograph birds through it. I believe this is a good scope for this but need to know what camcorder/palmcorder to purchase and what adaptors i need. Any advice would be most welcome.
-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Help! (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Slipmatt
- Start date
Slipmatt said:
If you scroll down to the 'tips' section of this website, you will find some general information about selecting a camcorder.
http://www.manybirds.com/woodpeckers.htm
The author identifies characteristics rather than specific camers. You may find it useful.
E. Pike
ermine
Well-known member
As well as the excellent article on the site mentioned above, if your main aim is to use the camera with the scope, you should avoid too large a zoom range. In a camcorder elements of the zoomlens move so you may need to be close to the maximum zoom to clear vignetting on the scope. Which is manageable on a 20x scope mag and a 10x camcorder max zoom, but horribly overpowered at a 20-30x camera zoom which would give you a 20x (scope) times 15-25x (camcorder at full zoom, assuming part of the camcorder range starts from wideangle)
Conversely, if you figure you can manage with a camcorder zoom of 30x and a 2x teleconverter you'll end up with a magnification of about 40x which is more than your 30xw eyepice will give you on the Swaro. Obviously the quality of the video image won't compare with direct view through the Swaro
Conversely, if you figure you can manage with a camcorder zoom of 30x and a 2x teleconverter you'll end up with a magnification of about 40x which is more than your 30xw eyepice will give you on the Swaro. Obviously the quality of the video image won't compare with direct view through the Swaro
Slipmatt said:
Slipmatt,
probably there are some more experienced members over this forum that can give a better advice than me, as I plunged into videoscoping just lately.
You should take into consideration that you will use a different ep when videoscoping than your excellent birding ep .
The ep's that are usualy used are 10x-12x , as to minimise vignetting.
The ep's that I heard of are scopetronix, william optics ,and eagleEye.
Surely there are others and on another thread I am trying to find which gives better results.You will still have some vignetting though.
Than you should deal with balance difficulties.
I found that a sturdy tripod and a good head are very important.
For balancing you'll need very long plate for the tripod head or an aluminium
bracket (will serve also to hold your camcorder in place).
If you will not use a home made video bracket, than choose one of the digiscoping adapters that are available on the market.
As for the camcorder (for videoscoping) I reckon that you should use a 10x zoom camcorder. I would opt for a camcorder which gives the best possibilities for easy and good focus.
An excellent introduction and advice at Dr Chan Kai Soon website
http://members.fortunecity.com/kaisoon/VideoSetup/VideoSetup.html
Sassi
Katy Penland
Well-known member
Hi, Slipmatt! I see this is your first post, so a warm welcome to you from all of us on staff here at BirdForum!
Thankyou very much for your adviceermine said:As well as the excellent article on the site mentioned above, if your main aim is to use the camera with the scope, you should avoid too large a zoom range. In a camcorder elements of the zoomlens move so you may need to be close to the maximum zoom to clear vignetting on the scope. Which is manageable on a 20x scope mag and a 10x camcorder max zoom, but horribly overpowered at a 20-30x camera zoom which would give you a 20x (scope) times 15-25x (camcorder at full zoom, assuming part of the camcorder range starts from wideangle)
Conversely, if you figure you can manage with a camcorder zoom of 30x and a 2x teleconverter you'll end up with a magnification of about 40x which is more than your 30xw eyepice will give you on the Swaro. Obviously the quality of the video image won't compare with direct view through the Swaro
