Digiscopin'

[COOSEFAN]

I ran out with my bro-n-law Sat. to help him stalk this buck. The buck is 4 inches outside his ears and probably has 24-25 inch ears! Just a hog muley, the stalk didn't work and I learned AGAIN how frustrating digiscoping can be! I sat there for an hour taking pic's of this buck while he bedded, trying different f stops and aperature settings and you name it. The best pic's I seemed to get were on the AUTO setting. I messed around so much with the camera, that when the buck finally turned ( for the first time in an hour) towards me, showing his width, the camera died! It takes me so long to turn the camera on, zoom in, and let the set-up stop shaking, that I just left it on for the whole time, not wanting to miss the shot or him standing up, big mistake. The buck sensed something was wrong when jimmy crawled to 80 yrds, and blew out of there, with me sitting 950yrds away ready to throw my scope and camera down the cliff! I never got a pic of the buck looking at me, but he did for a while when the camera was dead! I use the Canon G6 7.1 mp camera with the Zeiss swing out style adapter, and the Swaro STS 80 HD scope. I think my first problem is I'm setting this all on top of an Outdoorsman's tripod! It doesn't take much to get it shakin'. I have, and will use it next time, the Bogan with the fluid head, but it's so darn heavy but i'm sure alot more stable. This was only my fourth time digiscoping and my fourth time being frustrated as heck with it. I took hundreds of photos to get a few decent ones but none have ever been the quality I want. Is there any tricks to use or does anyone have any advice on digiscoping! Thanks JIM

[COOSEFAN]

You can see he's sleeping in that last photo and that his beams are both broken just after the G4's. This buck is 32-33" wide. These pics are the only decent ones out of the 100 that I took! Any advice on getting better quality photos? Thanks JIM

 

 

[Lance]

Great Buck! Looks good to me!

[DesertBull]

Does your camera have manual focus? If so, that might be better than trying to let the camera focus automatically.

 

Also, try using the self timer to take the photo instead of pushing the shutter release with your finger. That will cut down on a lot of the vibration.

 

Try not using any zoom on the camera and just use the scope's magnification.

 

Here are some more tips you.

 

Good Luck.

 

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=2508

[CouesWhitetail]

Jim,

 

Digiscoping is always tough to get decent focus. It took me awhile to get a technique that worked for me. I find that I get the best focus when I use autofocus and use the macro setting on the camera and hold the camera up to the scope and press half-way down. The camera will do it's focus, but it won't be crisp, so then I use the focus knob on the scope to sharped as best as I can. I assume your camera has an LCD panel that you can look thru to see if the focus is ok.

 

I also do the opposite of what DesertBull suggested with regard to zooming on the camera vs the scope. I find I get best result when I zoom with the camera but zoom the least with the scope. It probably varies with scope and camera, so you just have to find what works best for you. Using the timer setting on the camera is great only if you have an adapter that is holding your camera to the scope.

 

the best pics come from cameras that are mounted to the scope and use a timer. However, I don't have that kind of setup and most other hunters don't either. So I use the techniques listed above.

 

Another thing you can do is once you import the pic into some software, use the "unsharp mask" or "sharpen image" feature to sharpen it up.

 

Search the net under "digiscoping" and you will find tons of other info and tips.

 

Also, be careful you are not scratching the lens on your scope! My camera fits well over my scope lens so I don't worry about it. But with other scopes it's an issue.

 

Amanda

[Blackdog]

Try these settings:

Image mode: Fine or High

Metering:Spot

Continuous:Continuous

AF Area Mode:OFF

Auto-Focus Mode:Single AF

Flash:OFF

ISO Speed:Highest

 

Also, looks like your camera lens might not be flush with the spotting scope eyepiece.

[hunter4life]

I have the digital camera adapter for my swarovski ATS 65 spotting scope that screws onto the filter threads of the lens on my camera, a Nikon Coolpix 990. I set the camera to auto focus, but on the spot focus setting so that I can choose where in the picture to focus. I always make sure the scope is focused beforehand while i am wearing my glasses, it works better than if the scope is focused for my eyes with my glasses off. The camera lens should be zoomed in far enough to get rid of any vignetting (which is the outer black circle effect). The next thing i do is set the automatic timer and then hit the button and remove my hands from the camera so that any shake I caused by pushing the button is gone by the time the picture is taken.

 

 

I have found that the crispest pictures are taken at 20X-30X on the spotting scope and the quality goes down as the magnification goes up. Another thing that will mess with the autofocus on the camera is mirage. On hotter days where there is mirage the autofocus cannot choose a good focus and keeps adjusting, so you have to manually set the focus. I can get the whole setup out of my pack and have taken a picture in about 2 minutes. Your best pictures will probably come at 20X at distances of less than 300 yards, at least that is what I have experienced.

Here are some samples of pics I have taken in the past year here in NM.

An aoudad picture from 440 yards away.

 

An elk picture taken from 200 yards.

 

The pictures have lost some quality when i shrunk them to post them. In the original picture I can zoom in on the elk and see a fly that is sitting on his nose.

[reddog]

Shoot him!!! and then you can get all the pictures you want

 

Reddog

[azhuntnut]

Jimmy, I noticed if I stay below 30 power and then zoom all the way in using my camera seemed to make my pictures a little better. I think I also have my camera set on 100ISO. I just bought a new Canon S2 IS, but haven't had a chance to take any pics through the scope yet. It has an image stabilizer that is really supposed to help take some nice pics. Plus it takes some great video. Might be something to look at as a future camera. David

[COOSEFAN]

Thanks to everyone for your advice, it was very helpful! I have yet to take a picture under 900 yrds and I think thats why I'm not getting results like I want. I think I'm expecting too much at that range?! I have been using at least 40X and mostly 60X on the few times that I have tried digiscoping. Those are some beautiful pic's HUNTER4LIFE and DAVID took! I'm not familiar with that camera David, I just bought this Canon G6 for my wife for Christmas and her mom bought her one too!! SCORE FOR ME! I got a new G6 So I'll eventually learn what works with this camera in particular. I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow morning and I'm not taking my Zeiss adapter with me. I'm gonna try Amanda's way by holding it up to the scope, seems alot easier and she gets great pic's doing it that way too. Hey David, you need to go kill that pig rather than take pic's of em! Thanks again guys! I'll post my pic's of my 120+ mexico coues and his buddies in 9 days! JIM

[GRONG]

I've got the Canon G5 and I think it works pretty dang good for taking pics thru the scope. Here's a couple good ones I got this year thru the HD Shwerbinski. I'm still learning how to perfect it though. Thanks for the tips.

[GRONG]

Here's another one. The original ones look quite a bit better than these shrunken versions but you get the picture... no pun intended.

[Chef]

Thats a nice mule deer.

Great pics from everyone else too. I've tried to take pics through my spotter and am still learning. Haven't been successful yet.

[bowhunter4life]

are you sure it is not a coues deer?

[coueselk]

I use a Zeiss spotting scope with a scopetronics adapter and a Sony DSC-P32 camera.

Here are a couple of pictures I have taken.