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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Questions regarding new set up (1 Viewer)

skywatcher13

New member
Hi,

My name is David, this is my first post on the forums, thank you for having me here.

I would like to purchase some equipment for wild life observations but i am unsure of the correct route to take, there are many things to consider and im not sure which would provide a better outcome for me.

I want very much to have an ultraHD 4k setup with big magnification, 60x minimum but ideally closer to 90-120x. I don't want to use a telescope. I will be utilising it primarilly for video. I am pretty much sold on the Panasonic GH4 but i am unsure of the downsides to using a micro 4/3 camera for videoscoping with a spotting scope or even if the spotting scope route is a better choice than using a long lens such as a tamron product. I don't have that much knowledge in optics, and i have been hearing talk about the camera ‘crop factor’ feature. Is it true that i will be able to multiply the magnification of the spotting scope or lens by the camera's crop factor value? And is this a viable option to gain magnification without loss in image quality or am i better off achieving 4k plus 100x via another means?

By day i will use this set up for terrestrial observations but i'd very much like to be able to use utilise it at night for 4k moon observations too.

I would appreciate any advice to help me choose the right spotting scope that is a good match with the gh4. so far i have been looking at a few products, such as:

Swift Nighthawk 20-60x 82mm
Swift Premier 20-60x 80mm
Alpen Rainier 25-75x 86mm
Celestron Ultima 100 22-66x 100mm
Vortex Razor HD 20-60x 85mm
Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 20-60x 80mm

I have also seen a few scopes by Swarovski, Zeiss and Leica but i think these are out of my budget for now. Are any of these scope suitable for use with the gh4? I have around a thousand to spend on a scope.

Also another question, will i need to buy a lens for the gh4 or can i attach the body only to the spotting scope? im not sure how it works exactly.

Thank you so much for your help.

David
 
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