Scopes at Last!!

new Leica APO Televid 82 mm scope, digital adapter 3, and C-Lux camera!

I finally received a final version of the NEW Leica APO Televid 82 mm angled scope, with the revolutionary 25-50x wide angle eyepiece! This is the first comercially available eyepiece to couple the versatilty of a zoom, with the eye-pleasing wide field of views formerlly reserved to fixed power models.

As soon as I was able, I took it and my new Leica D-Lux 4 camera out to get some initial test shots with one of these first production model pieces (as opposed to just a prototype).

test subject as seen with naked eye, C-Lux 2 @ 58 mm equivalent

As soon as I found a suitable test subject I took a test shot, by running the optical zoom on my C-Lux 2 camera to near "2x". At near "2x" the subject appears near the same size as it appears in the field. The actual 35 mm equivalent of the subject in the image above was 58 mm, meaning it is even slightly larger than it appeared in life! The subject appears as a slight gray spot near dead center of the image along the left bank of the canal.

adult Little Blue Heron digiscoped Babcock Webb WMA, FL

The image above is the same subject taken from the same location as the first image. In this second image, I coupled the D-Lux 4 camera to the front of the APO Televid 82 using the new digital adapter 3. I ran the camera zoom up to a max 2.5x, the equivalent of a 60 mm lens. Then I ran the scope eyepiece zoom up to a maximum of 50x magnification. When coupling two lenses in an afocal system like this, the overall focal length is easily calculated. Using the focal length listed in the EXIF data of the image above (60 mm equivalent), we simply multiply this by the power of magnification of the scope eyepiece (50x). So the image above was shot at the equivalent of a 3,000 mm (50 x 60 mm) telephoto lens.

Saying this is a 3,000 mm lens equivalent is impressive, but as always images speak louder than words. The dramatic examples above, show the amazing magnifying properties of digiscoping. It also shows the wonderful clarity the scope and camera are capable of!

adult White Ibis digiscoped @ Babcock Webb WMA, FL

Here is another dramatic example of the capabilities of the new Leica APO Televid 82 mm spotting scope and the D-Lux 4 camera. The first image is again taken with the Leica C-Lux 2 camera again at 58 mm as before. The white subject above is more obvious on a brown dirt mound with dead grass and again appears as it does to the unaided eye.

adult White Ibis digiscoped @ 3,000 mm equivalent, with Leica APO Televid 82 @ D-Lux 4 camera

The image above was once again taken from the same location as the test shot. The White Ibis image at bottom was taken with camera and scope zoom at maximum which in this case equates to a 3,000 mm telephoto lens equivalent. Beyond simple magnification, the lens quality is VERY apparent when looking at the subsequent image.