Digiscoping vs. "Astroscoping" (3 Viewers)

[Tord]

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This is a nice set-up but it will take time to get used it. The process felt awkward: Find and frame the bird, do the initial focus, adjust the exposure and fire a few shots, then magnify, reposition the magnified frame on the bird's head, fine-tune the focus, then finally fire the shutter for more perfect focus.

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Dave

Dave,
The method you describe is more or less the one I usually stick to myself.

I start by firing shots with 1X magnification, with some luck you will get one that is in focus. If the subject is cooperative then next I will magnify (5X) and fine tune focus. I have assigned the E-M1 F2 button to EVF magnification, the F2 button feels natural.

There is however a risk when magnifying and focusing on the head of close subjects, that is cropping the subject. To workaround this: either re-compose, or focus on shoulders with some bias towards back-focus, or if you have time use the arrows to move the magnified portion of the EVF.

To take full advantage of the maginifying feature you will probably want to engage the IS upon half-press of the shutter release button.

If shutter times start to become critical I will also take some shots using a gentle touch on the LCD. I find it quite often produces sharper results than pressing the shutter release button when times are longer than 1/80 s or thereabout.

Alternatively you can use the Olympus smartphone as a remote control. Works fine, but means yet another device to keep track of.

I expose in A mode and find the auto-ISO quite useful (I set the upper limit to limit 1600). I don't have insight into the details of the Oly algorithm but the camera seems to honor shutter times fairly well.

Lastly I have saved the setting fore use with scope in one of the "Mysets", this way you can use the camera with scope and other lenses without need to reprogram half a dozen of settings.

 

[JGobeil]

Paul, I wish it was that easy for me... Unfortunately, I don't use the scope as much as you do.

Tord, I'm glad the F2 button works well for you. I prefer to use the 2 buttons on front of the camera below the shutter: Magnify on the White Balance button and Peaking on the Preview button. I always keep WB on auto and I never use the Preview feature which I find useless with the WYSIWYG viewfinder.

 

[Tord]

Paul, I wish it was that easy for me...
Tord, I'm glad the F2 button works well for you. I prefer to use the 2 buttons on front of the camera below the shutter: Magnify on the White Balance button and Peaking on the Preview button. I always keep WB on auto and I never use the Preview feature which I find useless with the WYSIWYG viewfinder.

I forgot to write in my previous post that I use the EM-5 together with the scope. EM-5 has no support for focus peaking.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Paul, I wish it was that easy for me... Unfortunately, I don't use the scope as much as you do.

I tend to only get the scope out in springtime each year at the moment, mainly just March and April. That tends to be when most birds are about here, not many leaves on the trees and temperatures are stable enough for long range shooting. Even so, I found that doing that for the last few years I take to the scope as if I hadn't been away, it's completely ingrained in me now. Haven't used the scope since last summer so I will be dusting it off soon once nesting season begins.

Running my own business doesn't give me anywhere near as much time as I'd like to get the scope out these days which is a shame. Saves me a bit of money as I'm not buying up cheap lenses on ebay to take apart for TN's.

Paul.