Yesterday I tried to digiscope some birds out by Mormon Lake and mostly failed. However, I learned some things that will hopefully make the next attempt more successful.
So, first off, what's "digiscoping?"
No, it's not a new medical procedure. Basically, digiscoping is a fancy word for taking digital pictures through a spotting scope. You literally place the lens of your camera up to the eyepiece of your scope and take pictures through it. By combining the superior magnification of a spotting scope (up to 60x or more) and the versatility of a cheap digital camera you can get much closer to your subject for a whole lot less money. Obtaining the same kind of high magnification with a DSLR camera and lens system would cost thousands of dollars and probably still not give you the same results. All About Birds has a cool intro article on digiscoping that covers the basics.
To do it right you're really supposed to have:
- Spotting Scope
- Adaptor to keep the camera lens and eyepiece lined up and prevent light leakage around the lenses
- Tripod and tripod head to hold the scope steady
- Digital camera
Depending on how much you want to spend and how much skill you have you can get very good results. Mike McDowell's Digiscoping Gallery is an excellent example of bird digiscoping done right.
Of course, I don't own a spotting scope, don't have an eyepiece adaptor, and my semi-automatic digital camera lacks many of the manual controls that you really ought to have for digiscoping. What I did have was my pair of Bushnell birding binoculars, a Canon PowerShot SD790IS camera, and a couple of hours to spend at Mormon Lake looking for birds. What more could you ask for?
First up is what the camera saw without using the binoculars. The first one is an un-zoomed image with only a little color and level correction done in PhotoShop. The second is the same except using the camera's built-in 3x optical zoom. Can you see the Great Blue Heron? (click 'em for larger versions):
What? You still can't see the Great Blue Heron? Okay, I'll point it out to you (click for larger version):
Hmmm. It's still looking a little fuzzy. Let's try it again, this time using the binoculars:
Oooh, finally! There it is! It's still pretty small but there's definitely a heron standing there.
Of course, I had to try a zillion times to get a usable image that wasn't completely blurry, distorted, or had the colors shifted so badly as to be unusable. But, practice makes perfect and I've already figured out a few things to try next time:
- Use the built-in camera zoom in conjunction with the binoculars to increase the magnification and reduce vignetting.
- Use the funky little tripod adaptor that came with the binoculars to hold the binocs steadier and reduce blurring. Holding the binoculars in your left hand and then snapping the picture with the camera held to the eyepiece with your right is less than ideal.
- Use the focus-lock feature of the Canon to prevent focusing problems. I didn't know the camera could do this when I took the above pictures.
- Try the countdown timer for triggering the shutter to reduce camera shake.
Also, I want to try some closer subjects. Maybe with a little more practice I'll be getting some stuff worth keeping.
