Some digiscoping experiments with a dslr (1 Viewer)

[Paul Corfield]

I was out in a local forest over the weekend and managed to drop my digital slr as I was setting the scope up on the tripod. As I was rushing to get a photo I don't think I had clipped the tripod mount on properly and the whole lot hit the deck with the camera taking the whole impact. Once the insurance is sorted out I'm going to be in the market for a new camera. Haven't decided yet but hopefully funds will stretch to a Canon 40D or maybe the newly announced Canon 1000D depending on the reviews. We shall see. I'd consider a P&S but there's nothing to tempt me at the moment.

Paul.

 

[JGobeil]

Sorry to hear that Paul. I hope it will turn up fine and that you will like the new camera.

The 1000D looks interesting, but don't forget it is an entry level camera. For example, il does not offer spot metering.... However, it is not too expensive, is very light for carrying, and benefits from Canon's expertise.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Spot metering isn't something I would miss as I never used it with the dslr I had before although the 1000D has partial 9% at center which is like a big spot. Price in the UK looks like being around £500 for the body but I guess it will be had for cheaper at some outlets. I could get a 40D body for around £500 so it depends which is best for my needs.

Paul.

 

[JGobeil]

Paul,

I find spot metering unvaluable for bird photography - but it is a matter of preference, I guess.

If you can get the 40D for about the same price, I suggest you go for it. It is a much more serious camera, semi-pro vs consumer for the 1000D. And it is available now.

 

[Paul Corfield]

I had a go with my dads Canon 400D on the back of my Skywatcher scope with the 1.5X teleconverter. I couldn't mount them together as the teleconverter is my old Pentax mount so I just held the camera by hand but I got a good idea of what the camera was like and that in turn would give me some idea what the 450D would be like. The 450D is probably the camera I am going to get next. I posted a photo below which didn't come out too bad seeing as I was hand holding the camera. I also tried some shots at ISO1600 and they were hardly any different to this ISO400 one. At ISO1600 I was shooting at 1/1000 in the rain so shutter speeds were well up. With the Canon crop factor of 1.6 I was getting 1440mm (35mm equivalent).

Paul.

 

[JGobeil]

Paul,

You will also realize that the Canon DSLRs react well to treatment by the noise removers like Noise Ninja.

The 450D is an interesting camera with lots of nice features. Its 12mp and low noise will allow you to crop substantially, increasing effective magnification. Contrary to the 400D, it has spot metering, a nice feature for digiscoping ( or prime focusing if you prefer ). The viewfinder is made with a mirror instead of a prism unfortunately, making it not as bright as the 40D, but still quite good.

 

[Paul Corfield]

My insurance offered me a cash settlement today so I'm off out to the shops now to get a Canon 450D. :t: Shall post some results as I get them.

Paul.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Here's a couple of photos with the Canon 450D. First one is at ISO400 with a 2X teleconverter on the scope (1800mm) and the second one was in the evening at ISO800 with a 1.5X teleconverter (1440mm). Both photos were from 35m (115 feet) approx. I could only hand hold the camera up to the converters as I don't have the correct adapter yet.

Paul.

 

[JGobeil]

Good for you Paul ! I wish you fun and success with the 450D
Regards
Jules

 

[Paul Corfield]

I was out late tonight messing around with the image stabilized kit lens at really slow shutter speeds and ISO 1600. The photo below was taken at 9.20pm which was around half an hour before it gets dark here just to give an idea of the low light levels. According to the exif data I had the lens set at 39mm, F8 and the shutter speed was just 1/5 sec. I hand held the camera behind the scope and took the photo through the Baader Hyperion eyepiece so this is proper digiscoping before anyone chimes in

No eveidence of camera shake for such slow shutter speeds and very little noise for ISO 1600. You have to hand hold the camera for the image stabilization to work. Once you connect it to the scope it has no effect and just comes out blurred.

Photo below was 30m range approx and with the lens at 39mm and 17mm eyepiece I get 2200mm. No noise has been removed from the image. The photo isn't of anything much, just a sample of what can be done with the camera. It looks like daylight in the photo but in reality there was very little light at all.

Paul.

 

[Neil]

Photo below was 30m range approx and with the lens at 39mm and 17mm eyepiece I get 2200mm. No noise has been removed from the image. The photo isn't of anything much, just a sample of what can be done with the camera. It looks like daylight in the photo but in reality there was very little light at all.

Paul.[/QUOTE]

Nice work Paul. I'd be surprised if you could do better with the camera attached. Neil.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Nice work Paul. I'd be surprised if you could do better with the camera attached. Neil.

Something I've found with my dads 400D and now with my 450D is that the Canon's are affected quite a bit by any camera shake no matter how small. That's something I didn't get with my old Samsung. Even at 1/500 alot of the hand held shots through the scope are coming out blurred so I'm expecting to have to use the shutter remote a lot more than I ever did before.

Paul.

 

[Neil]

Something I've found with my dads 400D and now with my 450D is that the Canon's are affected quite a bit by any camera shake no matter how small. That's something I didn't get with my old Samsung. Even at 1/500 alot of the hand held shots through the scope are coming out blurred so I'm expecting to have to use the shutter remote a lot more than I ever did before.

Paul.

Paul,
If this is the case I wonder what advantage you are getting from using a DSLR. Wouldn't you be better off with one of the high end digicams with low noise and RAW at iso 50/80/100 eg the Nikon 8400,Olympus 7070wz,Fuji E900,Ricoh GX100? Neil.

 

[Paul Corfield]

I'm pretty sure once I get the adapter then it will be fine. Because I'm having to hold the camera up against my Pentax converters and lenses I can't get a flat seal due to the bits that stick out the back of the lenses. This means the whole lot is moving all the time as I'm trying to take photos plus the image isn't going to be hitting the sensor squarely. The only one I can get a fairly good connection with at the moment is the 1.5X teleconverter and pretty much all the photos I'm taking with that are coming out sharp. Just got to wait a few days for the adapter to arrive.

Here's two photos from today, first one with the 1.5X converter and second one with the kit lens through the 17mm Baader Hyperion eyepiece. Both from 35m range approx.

Paul.

 

[Paul Corfield]

I've found today that shooting in RAW has made a big difference to the sharpness with the 450D. Pretty much every shot is coming out sharp now and it's easy to apply the same alterations to a group of RAW images in Adobe Lightroom. I found the jpeg photos from the Canon are slightly soft with regards to feather detail, even on maximum in-camera sharpening. General photography on the other hand is pefectly fine, no complaints with the camera at all as far as that is concerned.

Here's a couple of photos converted from RAW. Wood Pigeon was around 40m range and Blackbird around 25m. Both taken with the 1.5X teleconverter.

Paul.

 

[Neil]

I've found today that shooting in RAW has made a big difference to the sharpness with the 450D. Pretty much every shot is coming out sharp now and it's easy to apply the same alterations to a group of RAW images in Adobe Lightroom. I found the jpeg photos from the Canon are slightly soft with regards to feather detail, even on maximum in-camera sharpening. General photography on the other hand is pefectly fine, no complaints with the camera at all as far as that is concerned.

Here's a couple of photos converted from RAW. Wood Pigeon was around 40m range and Blackbird around 25m. Both taken with the 1.5X teleconverter.

Paul.

Good looking results Paul.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Waited for evening to try some ISO 1600 shots in fairly overcast conditions. Excellent retention of detail with just some noise showing in the darker areas. This could be removed quite easily in the RAW conversion or further refined with something like Noise Ninja. Posting these with the noise left in as an example of how well the camera performs. Both photos taken with a 2X teleconverter attached to the scope (1920mm equivalent). Wood Pigeons were approx 25m and the toy Robin was a measured 10m.

Really starting to love this camera. The RAW files are giving some excellent results and the 12 million pixels makes cropping while retaining detail very easy.

Paul.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Had the Canon 450D for 4 days now and really starting to get the best out of it, really impressed with the results. Photos below were taken this evening from around 40m range, ISO400 with the 1.5X teleconverter (1440mm equivalent), the photos have been cropped, resized etc from the RAW files.

Paul.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Here's an ISO1600 image taken with the 450D this evening at around 7.30pm, low light, overcast and in the rain. Used 1.5X teleconverter (1440mm) 1/160 sec and processed the RAW image in Adobe Lightroom.

Paul.

 

[Robert L Jarvis]

Very nice photo Paul. Pick of the bunch seems to be the Santa Claus impression. LOL.