Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 21:34:51 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Re: Digiscoping In-Reply-To: <001f01c3e5bd$bd2983a0$827ef2d0@a4m0q8> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Ben, I also use an 80 mm Swarovski scope and think the Nikon cameras are WAY overrated. I have an Pentax Optio330 which works well and is so small I can forget I'm carrying it. That way I always have it when I want it. There is a lot to be said for a compact design. And now, a 6 Megapixel version of the pentax camera available. But you should never choose a camera based on what someone else says. Take your scope and tripod to a good camera shop (like Penn Camera) ask a competent salesman lots of questions and try different combinations until you find one that works. As you already know, seeing the viewscreen and focusing are two of the main issues. The third is doing what you have to do quickly enough so that the bird is still there. In my opinion, the only way to do that is to have a very sturdy tripod, buy a camera with an autofocus and use an eyeloupe. The eyeloupe allows you to hold the camera up to your eye as if it were a normal SLR. This way you don't need to move your head very far between looking through the scope (to find the bird) and looking through the camera (to take the picture). As you can probably tell, I am not a fan of adaptors for mounting the camera to the telescope because if you do that, it will take too long to remove and reinstall the camera. With practice you can hold everything where they belong. The eyeloupe also gives you enough magnification to get the camera focus almost right so the autofocus can take over. For the eyeloupe, 2x to 4x is enough, otherwise all you see are the pixels on the viewscreen. With my camera, if the light is good, and if the autofocus says the focus is good, and if the exposure is not too long, and if there is no wind, and if my optics are really, really clean, then the images are always sharp -- as much detail in the image as I can see directly through the scope. Of course sometimes its that branch in front of the bird that's nice and sharp. If you do not like eyeloupes, you can buy one of the widgets sold at places like http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendaview/promini/index.html and suddenly a bright, sunny day is the joy it should be. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================