The Howland Picture Pages: Digiscoping

Last update: $Date: 2004/10/19 22:46:59 $ (UTC)

This page provides links to some information about our digiscoping gear. Digiscoping is the practice of hooking up a digital camera to an optical spotting scope, shooting through the camera lens and scope eyepiece to do photography at much higher levels of magnification, at much cheaper costs, than is normally possible with pure camera gear.

The following pages are available:

• Nikon Gear
• ScopeTronix Gear
• Pentax Gear
• Digiscoping Experiments -- first round; warning: lots of images on this page!
  • Summary: The Nikon CoolPix 5700 camera, ScopeTronix MaxView 40 eyepiece and 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain scope is not a good combination for digiscoping.
• Digiscoping Experiments -- second round
  • Not yet posted, and may never be; essentially confirmed the results of round 1.
• Digiscoping Experiments -- third round; warning: lots of images on this page!
  • Summary: The ScopeTronix MaxView 40 eyepiece works pretty well as a lower-powered alternative to the William Optics DCL-28, with the Nikon CoolPix 4500 camera and Pentax PF-80EDA scope. The ScopeTronix 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain scope does not work well with the CP 4500 and any eyepiece.
• Digiscoping Conclusions

A small but growing number of pages in the photo sections of this site contain digiscoped photos. The following digiscoping configuration summary chart links to some examples:

First Digiscoping Setup	Second Digiscoping Setup	Third (Current) Digiscoping Setup
Nikon CoolPix 5700 and MC-EU1 remote release ScopeTronix 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain spotting scope ScopeTronix MaxView 40 eyepiece and STAK50 adapter Manfrotto 190 series tripod, 222 ball grip head	Nikon CoolPix 5700 and MC-EU1 remote release Pentax PF-80EDA spotting scope ScopeTronix MaxView 40 eyepiece and STAK50 adapter Manfrotto 190 series tripod, 700RC2 fluid head, and 357 sliding plate	Nikon CoolPix 4500 and MC-EU1 remote release Pentax PF-80EDA spotting scope William Optics DCL-28 eyepiece Manfrotto 190 series tripod, 700RC2 fluid head, and 357 sliding plate
Summary: Configuration proved unsatisfactory; scope, camera and eyepiece are each good kit but the combo just flat out doesn't work together. In terms of support, the ball grip head also was too difficult to adjust with precision, and had too much slippage. Plus the whole scope + camera arrangement was very unbalanced on the head.	Summary: Much better than the first setup, the Pentax refractor scope is better suited for digiscoping than the "fast" Maksutov-Cassegrain reflector scope was. The new Manfrotto head and sliding plate were a huge improvement in spotting, tracking, locking and balancing the whole kit. However the CP 5700 camera proved to be a limiting factor in this configuration, ultimately not that satisfactory for digiscoping. Much better to leave this camera for shooting hand-held, where it is great.	Summary: The best of the three digiscoping setups I have tried so far. The CP 4500 camera doesn't have the drawbacks of the 5700 for digiscoping, such as large objective lens or externally moving lens elements. Plus the DCL-28 eyepiece threads directly to the camera, eliminating the need for yet another adapter, and permits use of much of the camera's zoom range without vignetting or fuzzy resolution. Good results with this setup, and probably will get better yet as my technique and eye improve. (Note: the ScopeTronix MaxView 40 eyepiece also works in this configuration, using an appropriate step ring to thread it to the CP 4500.)
See Digiscoping Experiments link above.	Digiscoped photos taken with this configuration: Cinnamon Teal Fulvous Whistling-Duck Northern Shoveler Pied-billed Grebe Wilson's Phalarope Yellow-headed Blackbird	Digiscoped photos taken with this configuration: American Goldfinch Black-crowned Night-Heron Boreal Owl Bufflehead Couch's Kingbird Green Heron Horned Lark House Sparrow Killdeer Mountain Bluebird Northern Flicker Northern Harrier Northern Mockingbird Olive-sided Flycatcher Prairie Falcon Ring-billed Gull Savannah Sparrow Spotted Sandpiper Tricolored Heron Willet Yellow-headed Blackbird

Here are a few links to digiscoping related web resources:

• digiscopingbirds, a Yahoo discussion group for technical aspects of bird digiscoping
• www.digibird.com by George Raiche is an excellent bird digiscoping site
• www.jayandwanda.com, the web site of Jay Turberville, has digiscoping info

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Unless stated otherwise, all photos and other content on these pages is copyright © 2002 - 2004 by Royce Howland.

Please don't steal anything for your own purposes, in particular if you have a plan for making fabulous stacks of cash in so doing. If you would like to use a photo or other content you find here, or just want to contact us about something, please send email to royce@3ge.com.