Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 17:34:21 -0500 Reply-To: whimbrel@home.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Shireen Gonzaga Subject: Re: Pictures through spotting scopes MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Frank Boyle said: > I have used my Celestron C90 with a Pentax K1000SE adapter and the > results were less than gratifying. ... > The solution? Invest in a 400MM lens and ditch the digital camera. I've not had experience with scopes and camera adapters, but I have seen some really nice low-resolution images, suitable for posting on the web or mailing to friends, taken by digital cameras through scopes. I was particularly impressed with some pictures posted by a group of Malaysian birders. (Their shorebird photos left me *crying* !!! :-) I haven't seen the latest photos but you may want to browse some of the images at http://www.egroups.com/ Go to the "birdpix" newsgroup (http://www.egroups.com/group/birds-pix ) As far as 400mm lenses go, I have a Tokina 400/5.6. It's a nice lens but if you want to get decent pictures, you have to get really close to the birds. Unless you're using a blind (and that includes shooting from your car), it's pretty hard to get good results. And you need a lot of dumb luck--like that least tern that landed 2 feet from my car at Port Mahon and sat there for 15 minutes, giving me enough time to recover from my shock and shoot some frames! I've got all sorts of technical gripes about bird photography but I won't bore you with those sad details .... In summary: If you want really nice low-resolution images, keep investigating the scope/digital camera options. Check out the above-mentioned "birdpix" newsgroup on egroups.com . If you want high-resolution bird photos, and can't afford the equipment, let's start a support group to deal with our grief. :-) cheers, shireen -- Shireen Gonzaga Baltimore, MD whimbrel@home.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================