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

Digiscoping with Kowa 883 (1 Viewer)

Hi,

the 500AH does not take Arca Swiss plates... and comes with a quite usable long plate (120mm iirc) which is normally able to properly balance your scope.

Of course other lengths are available from Manfrotto and 3rd parties.

Joachim
I took my 500AH, made and adapter/spacer and put one of the Manfrotto 323 connect adapter that uses the small 200pl plates. I did this so I could use the much smaller 323 connector than a much larger one on a couple of specialty scope stands, that actually clamp to a shooting bench. The work fine, I used some 1/2 " aluminum bar, 3/8 would have been fine. I just needed a spacer to clear the QD lock on the 323 connector which extends down below the mounting surface a little. It took some careful measuring, drilling a few holes of various sizes and tapping some of them for screws. I even drilled and tapped for a small allen screw that functions as an anti rotation lug. Another reason I wanted the smaller plate was so I could leave one on my Nikon digital camera, the 500AH plate was just too large and cumbersome on what is an average size for a SLR type camera.
 
That is a very nice setup you put together.

If you have an iPhone and decide to try phonescoping, consider purchasing the "ProCamera" app. It provides much more control over the phone's camera than the built in app, and allows you to save images in RAW and TIFF formats in addition to JPEG.

You can go to ProCamera's website (link below) and download the user manual to read through it and see if it has features you would like.

https://www.procamera-app.com/en/user-manual/

Good luck!
Thanks for sharing the procam website!
 
Just wondered if the ProCamera app (or any similar iOS ones) allow you to set a small focus area? Trying to digiscope through my scope the other day the issue I had was that I couldn’t focus properly on the bird because there were a few closer branches in the general vicinity that the iPhone‘s standard camera app wanted to focus on when I tried to select the focus point; a smaller selectable area would’ve alleviated the issue...
 
I tried to do that on my phone and press on that yellow square. If you use the phone slope adapter - there is an app for that. It allows you to change the f stop. So if you choose f atop of 2.8 you will have bokeh or blurred background. If your f stop is higher than f11, everything in your background will be clear. I hope that helps.
 
Very high quality product, works easily and flawlessly. That being said, only a couple of months later I upgraded from an iPhone X to iPhone 12, and my plan was to keep the iPhone X just for digiscoping use. I quickly came to realize that my Apple Watch was no longer paired with the iPhone X, so I couldn't take advantage of the remote shutter on my watch any longer.

Would I buy this again? At this price point, I recognize its a luxury as I tend to replace my phone every couple of years. I think next time around I'd probably look for something a bit more flexible like a Novagrade, even if they look clunky. But as far as the Kowa RP case goes, it's excellent.
 
The novagrade has by far been worth it for me, absolutely love it!
I have a nova grade and it is very sturdy...just been trying my 12pro camera and it is really very good...but one issue is that if I try to use the larger wide angle 52 mm the phone only shows the "portrait" mode and does not allow to move to photo or video??? Maybe using the pro camera app might help?//Anyone seen this/also can you take photos with the astrophoto eyepiece with the phones
 
I have a nova grade and it is very sturdy...just been trying my 12pro camera and it is really very good...but one issue is that if I try to use the larger wide angle 52 mm the phone only shows the "portrait" mode and does not allow to move to photo or video??? Maybe using the pro camera app might help?//Anyone seen this/also can you take photos with the astrophoto eyepiece with the phones
Adjust the phone down to where you’re setup in the adapter to use the wide angle lens. On my iPhone 11, when I select the wide angle lens for videos, it is the 4K resolution. Absolutely killer video. Not too much of a headache to adjust the adapter between the two lens. Manual adjust every time of the phone in the adapter, but not the end of the world to me.

I hope that makes sense.
 
I am still looking for adapter for my iphone 12 pro max, any suggestion for 3rd parts?
Have you tried Phoneskope ?
This is their UK website but I believe they sell into other markets

 
Hello everybody
I have just learnt from Kowa Europe that their new universal smartphone-adapter SMARTOSCOPE VARIO will be available from 'nexr week'
I found this apparently official Kowa video


and here is the link to the product on their site


hth
B
 
Have you found Jerry Jourdan site alphadigiscoping/He has a complete guide to digiscoping Alpha Digiscoping Review. Also recommend the DLC magnified optical viewfinder which you can mount on LCD to screen out bright light and aid DMF. The DLC is under $30 and way better than the more expensive Hoodman IMO
 
Have you tried Phoneskope ?
This is their UK website but I believe they sell into other markets

Thank you,I will try
 
Warning! This thread is more than 2 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top