User’s guide Digiscoping

The digital era has spawned a plethora of new technologies, revolutionising the way we capture and communicate information. Birding has been affected in many ways, from the way we store data on birds, record and play back their calls, and share our observations with fellow birders around the world. But for many amateur birders, one of the biggest changes has resulted from the replacement of film with digital cameras. In a series of two articles, Peter Ryan discusses the pros and cons of digiscoping and digital SLR cameras.

ntil recently it was axiomatic that you could be either a birder or a bird photographer. To take good Upictures of birds required an ar­senal of expensive equipment and endless patience. You would get to know your subjects intimately, but you’d hardly race around seeing large numbers of birds. The advent of digital cameras has changed this dramatically, by allowing even the keenest of twitchers to capture images of the birds they see. The revolution started with digiscop­ ing. This new approach to bird photo­ graphy uses compact digital cameras to capture surprisingly good-quality images through traditional birding optics – usually a telescope (often called a spot­ ting ’scope), but you can also take pictures through binoculars. For some time there have been adapters which allow a spotting ’scope to be used as a telephoto lens on a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera body, but the quality of the images isn’t competi­ tive because the amount of light coming peter ryan through a ’scope is not really adequate Attaching a digital SLR to a telescope may seem like a perfect solution to many of the for film photography. However, com­ problems of digiscoping, because you can see through the viewfinder. However, image pact digital­ cameras have small sensors quality doesn’t compare with that produced by a compact digital camera. which require less light than film does. Digiscoping makes it much easier to take digiscoping isn’t just for record shots. bright, sharp image with no chromatic opportunistic images of birds, because Virtually any compact digital camera can aberration. Telescopes with fluorite or you can use the full power of a spot­ take images through a telescope, but to high-definition (HD) glass and a large ting ’scope, and you don’t need to lug get good-quality images, you need to objective lens (at least 80 millimetres) around a large amount of dedicated cam­ make sure you have the right combina­ produce the best results for digiscoping. era equipment. tion of camera and ’scope. Picture qual­ Vignetting, the darkening of the The photographs in this article should ity is only as good as your lens, so you corners of the image, is a significant be sufficient to convince you that need a good telescope that produces a problem. You can overcome this by  august/september 2006 digiscoping 67 user’s guide to digiscoping digiscoping tips • Get a wide-angle eyepiece for your telescope. • Ensure that the camera lens is as close to the ’scope eyepiece as possible to ensure maximum image size (without scratching your ’scope eyepiece). • Record images at the camera’s highest resolution (but storing as a compressed JPEG rather than a raw TIFF file is an acceptable compromise). • Take a lot of pictures of each subject. • Use centre-spot focusing and claire spottiswoode (3) exposure metering (assuming the Using a ’scope and the camera’s zoom results in impressive bird is in the centre of the image). magnification, unheard of using even the largest telephoto • Expose for the highlights (under- lenses on an SLR camera. This Chaplin’s Barbet (right) is exposure can be compensated for barely visible in the fig tree (above, circled), but produced callan cohen digitally). an image of sufficient quality to grace the cover of a recent Vignetting, the dark ring around this Scissor-tailed Kite, is a common problem when • Use aperture priority mode, usually book on Zambian birds. the image produced by your ’scope is too small for the camera. You can overcome it with the largest possible aperture to by zooming in and getting a ’scope with a wide field of view and large exit pupil. maximise shutter speed. • Adjust exposures for backlit birds zooming in with the camera, but having slightly out of focus. However, most important, because in most instances it Left The real beauty of digiscoping and white birds, or consider bracket- a large exit pupil (the diameter of the digiscopers prefer to preset the camera is effectively limited by the ’scope’s exit is the ability to take photos of rare or ing exposures (if your camera offers image that emerges from the eyepiece of focus, which also reduces the delay pupil. So the best way to control expo­ localised birds in remote areas, such as this option). the telescope) helps. I strongly suggest between pressing the shutter and actu­ sure is to set an acceptable ISO (no more this Ruspoli’s Turaco, confined to a small • As in all photography, light is every­ using a fixed magnification, wide-angle ally taking the picture. Some cameras than 200), fix the aperture (no more area in southern Ethiopia. thing. The best images come from eyepiece rather than a zoom on the operate best in macro mode, whereas than f5.6) and allow the camera to select well-lit subjects that almost fill the ’scope. And if you must use a zoom lens, others give the best results when set to the best shutter speed. the camera against the eyepiece of the frame in the ’scope. Avoid long- you’ll get better results at low magnifica­ infinity. Note that the depth of field telescope and taking a series of shots. It’s distance shots on warm days: heat tion, because the image is brighter. is very limited, especially if the bird is iscovering the best combination largely hit and miss, but as it costs you shimmer is a killer, especially when Once you have a bird in the field of fairly close, so it requires some practice of settings for your camera and nothing, it’s worth a try. It is easier if magnified through a ’scope. view, you need to focus the image. First to get sharp images. telescope is only part of the skills your camera lens is only slightly smaller • Practice with your equipment so you ensure that the ’scope is focused on the Finally, you have to decide on the aD good digiscoper requires. As you’ll than the eyepiece of the ’scope, facilitat­ know how to use it when it matters. subject. Given that you’re often doing best trade-off between shutter speed soon discover, the biggest problem is ing the correct alignment. If you already • Use your birding skills to get you to this using the camera’s display, it’s not and sensor ISO (the digital equivalent aligning the camera with the telescope. have a compact digital camera (or even the right place at the right time. entirely trivial. You may want to use a of filmspeed). Small ISO gives better If the camera isn’t perfectly centred on seeing is through its display window. a camera on your cellphone), try taking 2x magnifier to aid focusing. The cam­ image quality, but requires more light, the field of view, you don’t get satisfac­ The images produced by these small LCD images through your ’scope or binoculars era can either be focused automatically thus slowing shutter speeds. Fast shutter tory photographs. Several devices have displays are often too dim to see easily in – you’ll probably be surprised by some of compete with traditional telephoto or preset. Autofocus works well in open speeds are needed to freeze movement been made to hold the camera in place. sunlit conditions, especially as you will the pictures you can obtain. At the very gear. Its main advantage is that you habitats, where there is little risk of and avoid fuzziness resulting from cam­ The simplest of these is an adapter ring most likely have the sun behind you, least it’s extremely useful for convincing can make use of your existing birding focusing on the wrong subject, and can era shake. Unlike normal photography, that allows you to screw your camera shining onto the camera screen. Serious sceptics about the validity of any rarities ’scope to capture images of rare or even compensate for the ’scope being with digiscoping aperture size is not too onto the eyepiece of the ’scope. But digiscopers overcome this problem by you may encounter. And by using your un­usual birds without resorting to lug­ this removes the spontaneity of being attaching a shield to the back of the cellphone camera you can really annoy ging around a vast amount of dedicated able to simply grab an image of what camera to shade the screen. Then there’s your mates by sending them an image camera equipment. It’s great for record­ digiscoping checklist you’re seeing through the ’scope. By the the problem of camera shake, which of your latest grip in real time! But note ing rarities, or for getting record shots time you’ve finished fiddling to get the increases with the magnification of the that your camera lens must be smaller on birding trips. You can spend a lot 3 Telescope – ideally high-definition, with at least an 80-mm aperture camera attached, the bird has probably image. To get really top-class results, you than the eyepiece of the ’scope. Many of of time and effort capturing striking and a wide-angle eyepiece flown. Another solution is to have the need to use a solid tripod and a remote the more upmarket digital cameras now images of birds, but if that’s your pri­ camera attached to the scope on a rotat­ shutter release (or use the camera’s self- have quite large lenses, allowing them mary goal, you should consider an SLR 3 Compact digital camera with a lens smaller than the ’scope’s eyepiece ing arm that allows it to be swung into timer delay – if the bird isn’t going to fly to have better built-in optical zoom digital camera. 3 Mounting ring to link camera to ’scope (optional) place once you have found the bird, but off!). By this stage, you’ve moved so far capabilities, but this renders them pretty 3 Shade box around camera’s viewing screen (optional) this requires a fairly sophisticated mech­ from the initial goal of being able to cap­ useless for digiscoping. 3 Several memory cards and spare batteries anism, custom-designed for the ’scope ture opportunistic images while birding The main problem with digiscoping is and camera you are using. that you may as well go the whole hog that it is clumsy, making it difficult to digiscoping websites 3 Heavy, sturdy tripod with a solid locking head This problem of aligning the camera and get a digital SLR. photograph moving birds. Until there’s www.digibird.com 3 www.digiscopingukbirds.homestead.com Computer for viewing and editing images is exacerbated because the only way you Despite these technical issues, much a spotting ’scope with a built-in sensor www.digiscoped.com can review what the camera is actually digiscoping is done by simply holding on which you can record images, it won’t

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