What is a "DIGISCOPE"?....
Most digiscope set ups like the one above feature a spotting scope, ... Right, with today's more sophisticated cameras and a wide array of accessories it is simple, but in the not so distant past, many found digiscoping both difficult and frustrating.
Although no one can agree on the exact instant digiscoping began, all stories are similar. Somewhere a desperate, lone birder was confronted with some mega rarity. Wanting desperately to be able to prove this rare sight, the individual pulled a small camera out of their pocket, held it to the scope's eyepiece and prayed! To the surprise of all, it worked.
Early digiscoping pioneers faced a steep learning curve trying to figure out what did and did not work, and early failures outnumbered successes. These failed attempts were due in part to field craft, but there was also a lack of suitable equipment early on. As a result, many folks who attempted digiscoping in the past have written it off as a lesson in futility.
One difficulty was finding ways to couple the camera to the eyepiece, and early innovations from users included a wide assortment of plastic cups, PVC pipe fittings, lens caps, and enough duct tape to make even MacGyver and Red-Green envious! The good news for those less handy individuals out there is that most major manufacturers NOW offer branded solutions for easy mounting of camera to eyepiece.
Leica Digital Adapter 2 allows quick coupling of camera & scope.
Early digital p&s cameras that were favored by digiscopers featured extremely slow shutter response. This lag was so extreme that it seemed you could whistle two bars of your favorite tune in the time between pressing the shutter release and when the image was actually captured. Plus the LCD view screens were often smaller than a postage stamp, offering lo-resolution, tiny, dark subjects. This led to many a missed opportunity like the "oh so close" example below, and many images that were improperly focused.
Extreme shutter lag of preferred digiscoping cameras from even 5 years ago, led to missed opportunities in digiscoping.
Today's modern point and shoots offer near real time response and large, bright, high resolution view screens making digiscoping easier and more fun. Realize, of course, that when I say, "today's modern..." I mean that quite literally. Each successive digital p&s camera generation may roll out as quickly as every 8 months, so even a 4 year old camera may pale in comparison to current models in these two areas. As a result, many current models respond faster, offer superior resolution, and offer view screens that allow you to easily assess focus in the field.
Some of the MOST important features in a digiscoping camera (IMHO) include:
- 4x or less optical zoom
- fast shutter response (microprocessors continually get faster and smaller)
- large, bright screen makes focusing easier
There are MANY others but I'm already getting finger cramps, so we can save more for subsequent entries. I will close by saying if you've never tried digiscoping, give it a try but be warned it's addicting. If you tried in the past and were disappointed in your results, think about trying it again. Newer, more sophisticated adapters and cameras make success rates much higher than they were even a few years ago. This makes digiscoping simple and fun, which is part of what we all love about birding!
Sandhill Cranes await the dawn at Bosque Del Apache NWR near Socorro, NM, USA
posted by Jeff Bouton at
2:21 AM
8 Comments:
Jeff,
Glad to see you're hosting your own Leica sponsored blog. Will be back here often.
I made an attempt at digiscoping using an 3 inch astronomical telescope shooting a pair of nesting Peregrine Falcons in New York City. The nest was just outside Central Park and was approximately a quarter of a mile away. This was certainly one of many problems.
Here's a post with an image of a Peregrine perched on top of the General Motors Building in Mid-town Manhattan:
http://tinyurl.com/gugso or ...
http://novahunter.blogspot.com/2006/04/peregrine-falcon-update-26-april-2006.html
Any comments would be much appreciated. I used a Lumix FZ30 with a special eyepiece designed for DSLR type cameras. The scope is a Televue-76.
All the best.
So, are there adaptors for SLR cameras with spotting scopes or is there an advantage to using an SLR on a spotting scope versus dumping $3-6,000 on an SLR lens suitable for photographing birds?
bw,
Yes there are adapters that couple SLR/DSLR bodies to the scope as well. The most common type replaces the eyepiece and attaches to the bayonet mount of your specific SLR?DSLR body through use of a T-ring. Using this style adapter your scope functions as an 800 mm telephoto lens!
Jeff
Beautiful photos!
digiscoping is one of the way to enjoy the birds. no one can agree who started digiscoping but i got into digiscoping through admiration at laurence poh's photos. a great guy and always helpful even during his last few months.
i prefer a smaller camera for digiscoping to minimise the weight.
Hello Jeff,
Nice blog and great intro to digiscoping. I have seen and admire some of your well thought out responses on other forums to criticism of why Lecia, like many other manufacturers, do not make a “perfect” camera just for digicoping. I imagine you often take heat for being a Leica rep from the field when Leica does not really have an ideal, complete digiscpoing package. But I don’t see any other scope/camera makers as directly involved and honestly interested as you, so I think it is great.
However, I was curious if you had any insights on Leica’s new planned 82mm APO scope and eyepiece in regards to digiscoping? It is certainly not the first fluorite scope on the market (Kowa 88mm) and it really seems astronomically priced. But, the eyepiece’s planned wide field of view across the full zoom range currently appears to be unique to the industry and may allow much better coupling to a range of cameras without vignetting. Have you tried prototypes of this scope for digiscoping yet? Will Leica be making a solid digiscope camera mount for this scope? Is the eyepiece threaded to accommodate direct connection to cameras or will mounting be the all too common “somewhat of an afterthought” connection to the eyepiece with tensioning screws. Do you think the wide-angle eyepiece will permit more effective use of the D-lux 3 camera for digiscoping?
Finally, do you think Leica will be producing a dedicated eyepiece/camera combo device in the near future? I believe you commented on other forums that it would be prohibitively expensive. But I see Zeiss now offers a rather low quality one by Leica camera standards (4MP, DC4) which they are selling for ~$2K just for the camera and an integrated fixed-zoom eyepiece. I don’t know how successful it has been for them as a product, but I would have to think Leica could produce a similar system with a much better sensor based on their existing camera offerings and expertise.
Anyhow, thanks for any insights you can offer and keep up the good work and advice for us fellow enthusiasts!
-Peter
This post has been removed by the author.
Peter,
Thanks for the props. Let me address your many observations and questions to the best of my ability.
Regarding the Fluorite question, this is not what makes it different from past models. Our old APO Televid scopes had fluoride infused lens elements as well.
The wide angle zoom eyepiece, however, is certainly new and unique. Leica will be the first manufacturer to ever accomplish this difficult feat. The ground glass aspheric lens element that allows this wide field view, requires very precise lens grind tolerences and this also lends itself to a higher pricepoint. This wider field of view will certainly allow for better success with a whole host of cameras including the D-Lux 3, though. I have not (unfortunately) had much chance to experiment with digiscoping as of yet. One prototype exists at present and my time with it was VERY short. I expect to see a final prototype very soon though.
There will be a new digiscoping adapter here the Digital Adapter 3. Regarding a threaded eyepiece, "NO" there will not be one. Moreover, I don't see how this would be helpful. Almost no modern point & shoots offer filter thread capabilities (<2% probably). Plus, older p&s cameras are slow and antiquated and I wouldn't recommend using these over newer cameras. Also, I don't recommend supporting a heavy DSLR body & lens only by the thin filter thread rings on the front of the lens. These are engineered only to hold a tiny piece of glass, not a 3-4 pound body and camera combnation. It is too risky to trust a $1,000 - 5,000 camera body and lens to be suported in this way and there have already been a number of documented failures by others utilizing this technique. It's a risky and costly proposition when these failures occur. I've been in contact with engineers to come up with a different approach for these cameras though and expect an exciting new approach as revolutionary as the digital adapter 2.
Finally, regarding an all in one solution, we are always looking at these. However, there are many difficulties here. For example, if you maintain an optical view through a high quality glass eyepiece as we have now, you have to split the light so that a portion reaches your eye and a portion reaches the electronic sensor. To be effective as a high quality eyepiece you need to transmit the majority of this to your eye naturally. The resulting light reaching the sensor is usually so minute that you can't achieve high enough shutter speeds to effectively stop motion in all but the VERY best lighting conditions. In addition, given the rapid change and improvement in digital technologies including quicker microprocessors, improved sensors, etc. An all in one is always risky because it could be deemed "obsolete" in short order.
The other solution would be to offer a fully digital solution with NO optical view. In this way 100% of the light would reach the sensor and the subsequent image would be transmitted through wires or circuitry to an electronic viewfinder that would be the final view. This would offer wonderful digiscoping opportunities, but the resulting unit would be a camera first and an optical piece second. Plus it would be expensive, and comparatively fragile (as compared to current optical views). Since the vast majority of the digiscoping populous utilize their scopes as an observational tool first and foremost, I think offering ONLY a view on a digital screen would be a big mistake. You would be making a big, expensive camera at that point which (IMHO)wouldn't be as effective as buying a DSLR body and long lens.
Best,
Jeff
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