LAST EDITED ON Jul-30-13 AT 07:00PM (MST)[p]Isn't it about time for a real discussion about digiscoping?
Ever notice how we are getting our butt kicked, in the quality department, by the birders?
Heck, I became a birder just to learn from them.
The hunting world seems to focus on "what adapter is the best?"
and "what scope should I buy?".
I don't care if you want to use your phone, your point and shoot or your DSLR.
It doesn't matter if you want to use the tines up adapter or the phoneskope adapter or a friggin tide bottle cap with a hole cut in it! (that does work by the way) Tide bottle caps fit the swarovski, kowa, vortex eyepieces. All you need is a little velcro.
Back to the point.
Your scope is your scope. Quit worrying about it, just use it.
The adapter doesn't matter. They all work if they get the camera in front of the scope.
Isn't A BETTER PICTURE the only thing that all of us want?
Its just tragic that we get stuff like this.....
There are people out there getting results sooooooo much better.
If you never have, go look at the Swarovki Digiscoper of the year contest.
This year they have 3 categories, reptiles, mammals, and birds.
You know who is going to win the reptile and mammal categories?
A birder.
Obviously our equipment is capable of much more than we are getting out of it. Just look at those pictures.
I have only been digiscoping for a few months now. But I am getting some decent results.
I have learned a ton on the birding forums.
The problem is, none of those guys are perfecting the techniques on big game animals.
I don't know of anyone who is working hard on getting the best results out of "long range" digiscoping.
I think the only way for it to make its way to this forum and others in the big game world, is to have a group of guys who figure it out and get awesome results out of it.
I have had several prints made in the last few months.
I have had digiscoped images printed at 200 DPI on a 20" X 30" photo paper. They are crystal clear, High definition when you stand 2 feet from them. No grainy look, no fuzzy areas.
If you are serious about digiscoping, and want to improve your quality, or can help me improve my quality, send me a pm, get a hold of me. Lets get together, like the birders do, and learn from each other.
I don't care if you digiscope a friggin muskrat today and a bull elk tomorrow, lets talk.
Part of the problem is the birders get together and go do this.
None of us are going to offer up our deer hole to a hoard of tripod wielding, nutbags.
But at least we can share techniques and tips.
What am I talking about?
Stuff like this. I will put one out there for you to chew on.
The first thing a future digiscoper thinks is, I have a spotting scope, I have this camera. All I need is the adapter and I am set.
The second thing that happens to a digiscoper is, he struggles to get good focus.
Having two focus mechanisms that don't work together is the nightmare.
But, did you know why its such a pain in the A#$?
#1, your eye is flawed. Even if its 20/20 vision, its gonna have some imperfection.
#2, your eye is different from my eye.
But did you ever think about how different your eye is from your camera lens?
Have you ever thought about the difference between a camera sensor and your eye?
It makes a difference. And it causes us to struggle with getting razor sharp focus.
Want an example?
I looked through my spotting scope, and I focused this flower to my eye. It was in perfect, clear, sharp focus.
Then I slipped my camera onto my spotting scope and took the picture.
(it is important to note that my camera lens has no focus feature. Its a pancake lens, its always in focus)
This is the picture it took.
So, why is it so out of focus?
Because "IN FOCUS" to my eye is not "IN FOCUS" to the camera lens.
If your eye is even more different from the camera lens than my eye, you may be even more out of focus.
Now, trying to get your cameras auto focus to get focused on the image in the spotting scopes eye piece,(that is out of focus to the camera)is going to be tough.
Lots of tweaking. Maybe the end result is you cant ever get really crisp focus.
This can be fixed if you understand why it is happening and how to fix it.
Your eye is made up of lots of curved surfaces.
Your spotting scope is made to me looked through with the curved surfaces of the eye.
Your cameras sensor is flat. Camera lenses are made to work with flat sensors.
There are tricks and tips out there.
If you care, lets talk.
Lets get rid of blown out highlights, washed out colors, and all the crap that is in our pictures.
Have a nice, digiscoped picture of that buck you shoot this fall. One that is good enough to hang on the wall next to the mount.
If you are a guide service, wouldn't that be nice to provide to your clients?
Ever notice how we are getting our butt kicked, in the quality department, by the birders?
Heck, I became a birder just to learn from them.
The hunting world seems to focus on "what adapter is the best?"
and "what scope should I buy?".
I don't care if you want to use your phone, your point and shoot or your DSLR.
It doesn't matter if you want to use the tines up adapter or the phoneskope adapter or a friggin tide bottle cap with a hole cut in it! (that does work by the way) Tide bottle caps fit the swarovski, kowa, vortex eyepieces. All you need is a little velcro.
Back to the point.
Your scope is your scope. Quit worrying about it, just use it.
The adapter doesn't matter. They all work if they get the camera in front of the scope.
Isn't A BETTER PICTURE the only thing that all of us want?
Its just tragic that we get stuff like this.....
There are people out there getting results sooooooo much better.
If you never have, go look at the Swarovki Digiscoper of the year contest.
This year they have 3 categories, reptiles, mammals, and birds.
You know who is going to win the reptile and mammal categories?
A birder.
Obviously our equipment is capable of much more than we are getting out of it. Just look at those pictures.
I have only been digiscoping for a few months now. But I am getting some decent results.
I have learned a ton on the birding forums.
The problem is, none of those guys are perfecting the techniques on big game animals.
I don't know of anyone who is working hard on getting the best results out of "long range" digiscoping.
I think the only way for it to make its way to this forum and others in the big game world, is to have a group of guys who figure it out and get awesome results out of it.
I have had several prints made in the last few months.
I have had digiscoped images printed at 200 DPI on a 20" X 30" photo paper. They are crystal clear, High definition when you stand 2 feet from them. No grainy look, no fuzzy areas.
If you are serious about digiscoping, and want to improve your quality, or can help me improve my quality, send me a pm, get a hold of me. Lets get together, like the birders do, and learn from each other.
I don't care if you digiscope a friggin muskrat today and a bull elk tomorrow, lets talk.
Part of the problem is the birders get together and go do this.
None of us are going to offer up our deer hole to a hoard of tripod wielding, nutbags.
But at least we can share techniques and tips.
What am I talking about?
Stuff like this. I will put one out there for you to chew on.
The first thing a future digiscoper thinks is, I have a spotting scope, I have this camera. All I need is the adapter and I am set.
The second thing that happens to a digiscoper is, he struggles to get good focus.
Having two focus mechanisms that don't work together is the nightmare.
But, did you know why its such a pain in the A#$?
#1, your eye is flawed. Even if its 20/20 vision, its gonna have some imperfection.
#2, your eye is different from my eye.
But did you ever think about how different your eye is from your camera lens?
Have you ever thought about the difference between a camera sensor and your eye?
It makes a difference. And it causes us to struggle with getting razor sharp focus.
Want an example?
I looked through my spotting scope, and I focused this flower to my eye. It was in perfect, clear, sharp focus.
Then I slipped my camera onto my spotting scope and took the picture.
(it is important to note that my camera lens has no focus feature. Its a pancake lens, its always in focus)
This is the picture it took.
So, why is it so out of focus?
Because "IN FOCUS" to my eye is not "IN FOCUS" to the camera lens.
If your eye is even more different from the camera lens than my eye, you may be even more out of focus.
Now, trying to get your cameras auto focus to get focused on the image in the spotting scopes eye piece,(that is out of focus to the camera)is going to be tough.
Lots of tweaking. Maybe the end result is you cant ever get really crisp focus.
This can be fixed if you understand why it is happening and how to fix it.
Your eye is made up of lots of curved surfaces.
Your spotting scope is made to me looked through with the curved surfaces of the eye.
Your cameras sensor is flat. Camera lenses are made to work with flat sensors.
There are tricks and tips out there.
If you care, lets talk.
Lets get rid of blown out highlights, washed out colors, and all the crap that is in our pictures.
Have a nice, digiscoped picture of that buck you shoot this fall. One that is good enough to hang on the wall next to the mount.
If you are a guide service, wouldn't that be nice to provide to your clients?
