Digital Pics through spotting scope

[300rum]

I was wondering if I just put my digital camera up to my spotting scope if it would work?  Have any of you tried it?  I am not looking for high quality, just something to track an animal or compare animals over time.

[Bscman]

Yes, you can...give it a shot and play with settings.
You'll probably get some haze, but it'll work.

Some higher end spotting scopes have adapters for just this reason!

[300rum]

I have a Leupold 12-40. It is about 4 years old though.  I will have to see if they make one.

[hunterbuilder]

I shot this pic through my Leupold spotting scope without an adapter. I was using a Pentax point and shoot digital camera and put the lense inside the eyecup.

[hunterbuilder]

I forgot.  The above picture was taken with my Pentax digital camera through my Pentax 8x42 binoculars. Same principal though.

[boots]

When you do this can you still look at the camera to see what is going to be in the picture? or just point in the general direction.

[wastickslinger]

You can look at the screen.

[300rum]

Thanks guys I can't wait to try it.  I have always kept a hunting log since I started hunting, I won't tell you how long but it is a book now.  I can't wait to take digital pics and put them in the log with GPS coordinates.  Can you imagine if I had all of my fathers info and my grandfathers info and my great grandfathers info over the years...............?  I would still get busted by that doe that I didn't see!   

[BC CHASER]

Here is a pic taken through my swaro 20-60x80 with my cannon rebel xt with no camera attachment.  These two bears were over 1500 yards away!  I put a stalk on them and got to with in 150 yards and the wind shifted and they spooked.  No I was not going to shoot them with the gun just the camera.

[klickriverchromer]

I've got a nikon 20x60x82 sp.scope and I saw they had an adaptor piece/that attatches just like a lense between the scope and a nikon cam. at camera land. 

[jackelope]

digiscoping is the right name  for it. you can buy specific attachments or universal attachments to mount your camera to your scope...zoomed all the way in with the camera seems to work best.

i have taken pics through my bino's and my spotter with mediocre results similar to the pic's above.

[MuleySniper]

That's pretty cool. Too bad an adapter for a Swarovski is so damned expensive. I don't think it is worth what they get for them.
MS

[huntnphool]

That's pretty cool. Too bad an adapter for a Swarovski is so damned expensive. I don't think it is worth what they get for them.
MS

 

[ZRS-8x42]

When you do this can you still look at the camera to see what is going to be in the picture? or just point in the general direction.

Typically, I use a compact camera so I can view through the LCD screen. When you take digiscoping pictures, try to use the minimal power of the scope, 15x or 20x. A camera with 3x or 4x will be sufficient. I wrote some tips on digiscoping for a workshop in the past few weeks. Please PM me if you are interested so I can send you the file.

[backwoods_boy]

here are some OK ones it works pretty good

[ZRS-8x42]

American Goldfinch taken with spotting scope.

[ZRS-8x42]

digiscoping is the right name  for it. you can buy specific attachments or universal attachments to mount your camera to your scope...zoomed all the way in with the camera seems to work best.

i have taken pics through my bino's and my spotter with mediocre results similar to the pic's above.

I have seen in another place people call digiscoping through binoculars as BAD Photography (Binocular Assisted Digital Photography). lol

This is my setup with adapter when taking that picture above


The camera I used is Canon SD790IS with image stabilization. The tripod in the picture has been upgraded to Manfrotto 3130 micro fluid head with 055XB body.

[Tony 270WSM]

I'd been wondering if it could be done as well. Nice to see it can be.

[ZRS-8x42]

This is the picture I took on a red-winged blackbird. The scope was set at 20x zoom. I didn't zoom the camera. To prevent the vignette, the viewing circle should occupy 50% of camera field when camera is set at 1x zoom.

[ZRS-8x42]

I have tried the following camera with my scopes, they all work well

Canon SD790IS, Casio Ex-Z80, Pentax Optio M50, Samsung L700.

The commonality of them is that they all have 3-4x optical zoom. I have tried some camera with 12x zoom and there is always vignetting at the corner.
It seems 3x/4x zoom is the magical number to get a good results from digiscoping.