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What is it?
Digibirding or Digiscoping is the use of a DIGItal camera to take photographs of BIRDs through a teleSCOPE.
Attaching the camera to the telescope means that you combine the magnification of the two - e.g. 20x telescope and 4x zoom camera results in 80x magnification!
It allows you get close-up pictures of birds that would normally be too far away for 'normal' cameras unless a hugely expensive (and heavy) telephoto lens was used.
The Digital Camera also means that you can take hundreds of shots and just delete the ones that are rubbish without the expense (and time) of getting films developed.
Why do it?
- Had an interest in bird watching for 20+years - it adds some structure to/excuses for days out.
- Had an interest in cameras and photography for at least as long.
- Recent Fiscal Policy change allowed procurement of a telescope - OK my wife at last said I could have one.
- Tried attaching camera to new 'scope and taking 'long range' bird pics - better than my 75-300 zoom lens but still couldn't get close enough shots
- Whilst searching for telescope/camera techniques on Google, I found Digiscoping.
- I run the local village web site and therefore had a digital camera.
- Needed an excuse to upgrade said camera
- More than mild interest in computers/Internet
How to do it
You need a decent telescope, a digital camera with an internal zoom and an adaptor to attach the camera to the eyepiece of the 'scope.
Oh yes, and you also need a steady tripod with a head that will allow 'close control' of the whole assembly.
My Equipment
- Camera - Nikon Coolpix 995
- Telescope - Opticron ES80 GA with 27xWW HDF Eyepiece
- Velbon Tripod (part of a deal when buying the telescope from In-Focus) + Hide Clamp
- Subsequently updated the head to a Manfrotto 128 to cope with the additional camera weight
- Eagle Eye Digimount Adaptor
- Eagle Eye LCD Shade
- Jessops Remote Cable Release and Arm
- RSPB Membership Card
- Mitchell Beazley Bird Guide
- Additional battery and camera memory card
- (fairly) infinite patience!
Camera Settings
As with everything, you don't necessarily want to cobble all the bits of equipment together, dash out and use them - and be disappointed with the results. So a little bit of research is needed to see what Hints, Tips and techniques can be gleaned from other people.
To start with there's the camera - mine is a Coolpix 995. Tabulated below is information I gleaned about Coolpix camera usage from the web sites of:
Eagle Eye(EE), Andy Bright (AB), Laurence Poh (LP), George Raiche (GR), Andy Holt (AH) - and mine (ME!)
Generally, blanks mean 'default setting'
;| FUNCTION | EE | AB | LP | GR | AH | ME |
| GENERAL | ||||||
| Mode | M-REC | M-REC | M-REC | M-REC | M-REC | |
| Quality | Fine | Fine | Fine | Fine | ||
| Size | Full | Full | Full | UXGA | ||
| ISO | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
| Macro/Distance/Auto | Macro | Macro | Distant | Macro | Auto | |
| SET-UP 1 | ||||||
| Monitor | On (30mins) | On (30mins) | ||||
| Flash | Off | Off | ||||
| ZOOM - Digital Tele | OFF | OFF | ||||
| Zoom - Start Pos | LAST | Wide | ||||
| Zoom - Fixed Aperture | Off | Off | ||||
| SHOOTING MENU 1 | ||||||
| White Balance | A Auto | A Auto | ||||
| Metering | Centre Spot/Matrix | Area Zone/Spot | Centre weighted | Centre weighted | Centre Spot | Matrix |
| Shooting Mode | Single | Single | Single | Single | ||
| BSS | OFF | OFF | OFF | |||
| Image Adjustment | Auto | normal | Auto | |||
| Saturation Control | Normal | |||||
| Lens | Normal | Normal | ||||
| SHOOTING MENU 2 | ||||||
| Exposure - AE Lock | OFF | OFF | ||||
| Exposure - EXP +/- | OFF/0 | OFF/0 | ||||
| Exposure - Mode | Aperture | Manual | Aperture | Aperture | Aperture | Aperture |
| Focus - AF Area Mode | AUTO | Manual | Spot AF | Manual | Manual | |
| Focus - Auto-Focus Mode | SINGLE AF | SINGLE AF | ||||
| Focus - Focus Conf | ON | ON | ON | |||
| Distance Units | ft | |||||
| Image Sharpening | Auto | 'medium' | off | Normal | ||
| Auto Bracketing | OFF | OFF | ||||
| Noise reduction | OFF | |||||
