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Tucson Audubon Society
Digiscoping
Reprinted from the May-June, 2001 Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon Society.
Digiscoping
by Brian Gersten
You would love to document and share with your friend back in Tucson that perfect view
through your spotting scope of the White-tailed Kite you discovered perched on a post near
White Water Draw. You think: “My scope would make a high quality telephoto camera
lens, but could I actually take a photograph through that little eyepiece?”
Yes! Welcome to digiscoping - a term recently coined by a Frenchman, Alain Fossé. Digiscoping means digital camera scope photography. The lens of the digital camera is closely approximated to the eyepiece lens of the spotting scope and the exposure is made. A good quality picture suitable for display on a computer monitor or printing can result from this combination, but if your primary goal is to take magazine publication quality photos, then this technique is not for you.
The digital camera most commonly used for digiscoping is the Nikon Coolpix 950/990. It has the most favorable characteristics in terms of resolution, exposure control, cost, and lens quality and mechanics. Other cameras could be used, but not as easily.
As with film photography, the sharpness of the picture is greatly affected by movement of the camera or scope. If you just handhold the camera near the eyepiece, it is unlikely you will get a sharp picture. Some type of adapter is needed to make a stable but temporary connection between the scope and camera which brings the lenses safely together in a parallel alignment. Most digiscopers use a homebrew connection, since a commercial adapter suitable to all possible camera and scope combinations is not available. The adapter might be a section of an old pill bottle, a homemade aluminum bracket connecting the tripod and camera, or a step-up ring screwed onto the lens of the camera and jammed into the rubber eyecup of the scope eyepiece. To limit motion of the scope, it should be mounted on a sturdy tripod.
There are advantages to digiscoping. Many birders already own a spotting scope. The camera equipment is lightweight and inexpensive compared with a quality 35mm SLR and associated telephoto lenses. The digital combination has up to an 80X magnification power which allows for nonintrusive picture-taking from long distances. This is equivalent to shooting a 35mm camera with a 4000mm telephoto lens! You have the ability to take hundreds of pictures without any additional cost. The rule is: “Shoot a lot: after all, it’s free.” The instant results on the camera’s LCD are immediately discarded if not satisfactory. The pictures can be posted on the internet or printed in a few hours. You can personally process the pictures with a full range of photographic possibilities such as cropping, sizing, color correction, and blemish elimination with appropriate software such as Photoshop. You can document rare bird sightings.
There are also disadvantages to digiscoping. There is a rather long set-up time. The bird must cooperate and stay put for a few minutes if you have just arrived at its location. If you are already set up in an active birding spot, then this is not as much a factor. Digiscoping does not work for a bird closer than the lower focusing limit of the scope. The digital camera has a limited ‘film sensitivity’ and requires reasonably bright light for quality pictures. The LCD screen is difficult to view in bright sunlight, making it difficult to compose the picture although hoods are available that attach to the camera and effectively shield the screen. One must have a computer to download, manipulate, and print the pictures (see Moniotte’s site, referenced below).
At
left is a digiscoped picture of a Cassin’s Finch I took at my backyard feeder.
The satisfaction of digiscoping gives the birder a new twist on a beloved hobby. He or she becomes an artist, a documentor of rare (or common) birds, or a teacher of the joy of birding. If he also enjoys computers and/or photography, he can combine two or three hobbies.
For more technical information, please visit the web sites of Stephane Moniotte at www.md.ucl.ac.be/peca/test/a.html and Digibird at www.digibird.com/primerdir/primer1.htm. For a collection of beautiful digital bird pictures, visit Laurence Poh’s www.angelfire.com/pe2/digiscoping/index.htm. Follow the links to other sites for additional technical information and pictures.
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This page was updated on 02/09/06