My name is Ernie.
Some months ago, I purchased a Panasonic FZ50 super zoom camera, and was told in no uncertain terms it could not be used for Digiscoping.
Well after some investigation I have proved this to be incorrect. Providing you have the right combination of equipment it will work quite well.
I will use this Blog to show how my experiments have so far progressed. Ernie
I have always believed that the statement, “Zooms above 3X, are no good for Digiscoping”, to be rather out moded in this day an age, fine, when there was nothing else available. But it has become stuck in the minds of most people for so long, that, when the 4X zoom cameras came along, most just accepted that they will not work, or, were not willing to make the effort. I for one, Paul Jarvis was another believed and proved, that with the right combination of scope and adapter they will. Now Neil has success with the Canon G6. I think that now the myths have been broken.
Just recently I purchased the Lumix FZ50 with 12x Zoom, I have already read threads on how they will not work, Wrong!!, I can show you that they will, given the right combination of gear.
That said, don't go rushing off to buy the FZ50 to use on your present Spotting scope, because it will not be that effective, notice, “I didn't say it won't work,” as it might, just come back and bite me, because I know of one person already experimenting with it.
I was searching the net for eyepieces, and came upon one that made me sit up and take notice, I wasn't to sure about it at first, as there wasn't a great deal of info available, only that it was low magnification, in the end I decided to take a chance, and, am I glad I did.
For those who don't know the camera, if you drop the resolution to 3mpx you can take the zoom out to 21.4 times. They call this the EZ mode (extended Zoom) it will be this setting I will use first in my test shots.
I will use just four zoom areas, the first area where vignetting disappears, then equaled out too the maximum, of each mode.
There are four resolution areas involved here, 10, 8, 5, and 3mpx all have different zoom ranges, 10mpx is of course 12X, 8EZ is 13.4X, 5EZ is 17.1X, and 3EZ at 21.4X, I will try all of these modes, except the 8EZ as it is close to the 10mpx. At this stage I don't know where the sweet spot is, as I have not yet done any experimenting in that area, but from what I can see, it performs well at all settings, throughout the zoom range. It also performs well using a 2X barlows lens.
Before we go into the gear in use, lets first see if the whole idea is feasible.
As the zoom is internal to the camera I was able to fix it direct to the eyepiece via a step ring. Vignetting disappeared in 3 and 5EZ modes at 2X zoom (70mm), at 10mpx and 8EZ its around 3X zoom, it continued to be free throughout the whole range, in the 3 and 5EZ modes, 8EZ showed some loss of light at the long end, 10 mpx showed some degree of vignetting, But I can live with 3, 5, and 8 mpx
The images all have the appropriate info attached.
There has been the normal Post Processing, and reducing the size of the images to fit the page via Free Transform, then resizing for the web. The 10mpx has some vignetting, but with the 2X barlow attached it disappears throughout the whole range.
All images at 10 meters except the last two, program mode, continuous AF, and spot metering, wired remote. what do you think. Ernie
Some months ago, I purchased a Panasonic FZ50 super zoom camera, and was told in no uncertain terms it could not be used for Digiscoping.
Well after some investigation I have proved this to be incorrect. Providing you have the right combination of equipment it will work quite well.
I will use this Blog to show how my experiments have so far progressed. Ernie
I have always believed that the statement, “Zooms above 3X, are no good for Digiscoping”, to be rather out moded in this day an age, fine, when there was nothing else available. But it has become stuck in the minds of most people for so long, that, when the 4X zoom cameras came along, most just accepted that they will not work, or, were not willing to make the effort. I for one, Paul Jarvis was another believed and proved, that with the right combination of scope and adapter they will. Now Neil has success with the Canon G6. I think that now the myths have been broken.
Just recently I purchased the Lumix FZ50 with 12x Zoom, I have already read threads on how they will not work, Wrong!!, I can show you that they will, given the right combination of gear.
That said, don't go rushing off to buy the FZ50 to use on your present Spotting scope, because it will not be that effective, notice, “I didn't say it won't work,” as it might, just come back and bite me, because I know of one person already experimenting with it.
I was searching the net for eyepieces, and came upon one that made me sit up and take notice, I wasn't to sure about it at first, as there wasn't a great deal of info available, only that it was low magnification, in the end I decided to take a chance, and, am I glad I did.
For those who don't know the camera, if you drop the resolution to 3mpx you can take the zoom out to 21.4 times. They call this the EZ mode (extended Zoom) it will be this setting I will use first in my test shots.
I will use just four zoom areas, the first area where vignetting disappears, then equaled out too the maximum, of each mode.
There are four resolution areas involved here, 10, 8, 5, and 3mpx all have different zoom ranges, 10mpx is of course 12X, 8EZ is 13.4X, 5EZ is 17.1X, and 3EZ at 21.4X, I will try all of these modes, except the 8EZ as it is close to the 10mpx. At this stage I don't know where the sweet spot is, as I have not yet done any experimenting in that area, but from what I can see, it performs well at all settings, throughout the zoom range. It also performs well using a 2X barlows lens.
Before we go into the gear in use, lets first see if the whole idea is feasible.
As the zoom is internal to the camera I was able to fix it direct to the eyepiece via a step ring. Vignetting disappeared in 3 and 5EZ modes at 2X zoom (70mm), at 10mpx and 8EZ its around 3X zoom, it continued to be free throughout the whole range, in the 3 and 5EZ modes, 8EZ showed some loss of light at the long end, 10 mpx showed some degree of vignetting, But I can live with 3, 5, and 8 mpx
The images all have the appropriate info attached.
There has been the normal Post Processing, and reducing the size of the images to fit the page via Free Transform, then resizing for the web. The 10mpx has some vignetting, but with the 2X barlow attached it disappears throughout the whole range.
All images at 10 meters except the last two, program mode, continuous AF, and spot metering, wired remote. what do you think. Ernie
