More than just stills!

One advantage of digiscoping with many of today's modern point and shoot cameras is that you have the ability to shoot fairly high resolution videos as well as capture publishable stills! This versatility in the field is fantastic for being able to document not only a bird's field marks, but also capture odd behaviors. Check the sample video I attached below:

I "videoscoped" this Emerald (Blue-throated) Toucanet at Mirador La Paz, Costa Rica on October 7th. While no earth shattering behaviors are being displayed, you can clearly see the detail and potential fun you can have using this technique.

I took this little clip using a Leica APO Televid 77, through the zoom eyepiece, with the tiny Leica C-Lux2 camera (shown below) mounted with the Digital Adapter 2.

Leica C-Lux 2 camera

Once I have the subject (in this case the bird) in the scope, I pull the camera and adapter (already coupled together) out of my trusty hip bag and slide it over the scope eyepiece. In this way I move from viewing to imaging and back in mere seconds. Moving from video to still imaging is even easier. All it requires is turning the handy thumb dial two positions from standard imaging.

Now in the "Movie" mode, I double check my focus and simply press the shutter release button. The little C-Lux 2 records at 30 frames per second (VGA quality) until I depress the shutter release a second time or run out of memory. A 2 gig SD card, for example, will hold a continuous 25 minutes of video stream! Of course, I want to have my cake and eat it too, so with a video clip "in the bag", I flip back to photo mode and within 2 seconds of stopping the video, I have a high quality still image as well!

"Blue-throated" Emerald Toucanet now thoroughly documented!

All of this versatility and fun in the plam of your hand under 6 ounces! ;p

For more info on the fantastic little C-Lux 2 visit the Leica Camera website at:

http://www.leica-camera.us/photography/compact_cameras/c-lux_2/