My Digiscoping from Day one.

 

After having lost interest in Birding for many years, about one year ago, while I was keeping an eye on the Manx Bird Atlas website weekly updates, I was continually seeing a number of birds being observed that I didn’t even know occurred in the island.  My interest was re-awoken and, luckily, I still had my Kowa Ts 611 scope plus Swarovski tripod, so I began going out again about once a month.  Unfortunately, I still didn’t find anything different to the usual suspects so my interest waned again.  (Slack I know!).  Then in the winter of 2002, after a few emails to one of the island’s top birders (finally tracked him down :) ), he told me where I should be looking.  I went out the next day and instantly located the good birds people had been finding, like Long Tailed Duck, Slavonian Grebe etc.

At around this time I also bought my Dad’s Panasonic Dv camcorder from him.  I found by placing the camcorder on the scope eyepiece I could get footage of the birds I was seeing.  (I thought this would be handy in case I ever saw anything strange.)  Taking stills from the footage, I was able to get semi-recognizable pictures.  Certainly much better than nothing at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 Common Gull at Derbyhaven, Videoscoped

(Approximately 150 metres away)

 

 

 

As you can see though, there is heavy vignetting and to eliminate this with the Panasonic dv11 required high zoom levels. This then reduced the quality of picture to a white blob!  (I believe the vignetting problem is because the camcorder lens is larger than the eyepiece.  With newer Dv camcorders and their small lenses I think this might not be a problem anymore.)

Also, the poor overall quality I put down to the low pixel count camcorders have

(0.8 megapixel I think).  To get around this I had a go with my Fuji Finepix 2600

2 megapixel digital camera. 

 

 

 

 

 Oystercatchers at Castletown, Digiscoped with Kowa ts 611.

Approximately 100 metres away.
 

Not bad, needed a bit more adjustment on the scope focus though I think.

My interest in birding was back on the increase and this new found ability to get good record shots of birds I saw was a great bonus.

Then one day my Dad told me about another birding website also for the Isle of Man on

www.iombirding.co.uk.  I had a look and was instantly impressed by the photos they had taken and all the class birds they were finding.

I noticed that out of the four members, three of them had quality scopes, all of them with fluorite lenses.  After researching a bit more about fluorite lenses and larger scopes this made me realise that if I wanted better quality pictures a new scope was going to be required.   (How to afford one of these beasts was my next worry!)

Around about the same time (I think it was December 2002), I was spending a morning at Fort Island trying to get a decent videoscoping picture of the long staying Long Tailed Duck, when I spotted something break the surface of the water in the bay.  I grabbed the camcorder and sprinted off towards the tip of the island.  The large object then became three and I found myself recording a small group of Risso’s Dolphins.

 

 

 

 

Risso’s Dolphin at Fort Island.
 

The next day I sent the picture to a friend who forwarded it on to someone called Chris Wormwell at his work who was interested in dolphins.  I thought I have heard that name before and it took me a few hours to realise he was part of the Iombirding group.  After a few emails to him and a lot of pestering :), he gave me a lot of new information on places to visit.  (Very helpful these “experts”.)

With these new exciting places to visit, birding was now taking up a lot of my spare time so I decided to properly research a new scope.  (I was hoping that a new scope would help me see more details on birds that are tricky to identify but also allow me to get better quality video or digi-scoping pictures.)

After checking out many websites and speaking to Rob and Chris from Iombirding, I narrowed my search down to the Leica Televid Apo 77 and the Swarovski Ats80hd.

These are largely considered the top two scopes available today.

From what I found on the internet it basically boiled down to the fact that the Leica had a far better colour reproduction (is it reproduction or just production?) and the Swarovski was better in the sharpness department.  (This was through zoom eyepieces.)

With Leica bringing out a mark2 20-60x zoom eyepiece, which addressed the problems of the mark 1 eyepiece (sharpness and “tunnel vision” issues), I decided on the Leica.  The fact that it was two hundred pound cheaper than the Swarovski also helped.

Whilst I was doing my two months of overtime to pay for the scope ;), I kept looking on the internet (not at work I must add!) at other people’s photos with the Leica Apo77.  On all the sites I noticed they used digital cameras and on probably 90% of them they used the Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera.  I was absolutely gob smacked at the quality, so started researching this camera and its costs etc.

After a few days (weeks!) persuading the girlfriend plus selling my old Fuji digital camera I was able to raise the funds for the camera as well.  (Add on another month’s overtime!!).

A round of emails went out to optics shops and after receiving some good and helpful advice I chose Southwest optics (great shop!) to buy my gear from.  I now also needed a digiscoping adaptor.  This device screws onto the thread of the Coolpix and then slides over the scope eyepiece, therefore reducing the dreaded camera shake.

I had pretty much decided on the L.C.E adaptor and Southwest Optics agreed this was the best one to go for.  It’s relatively small, very easy to use and is one of the cheapest.

It was now March 2003 and within the week my scope, camera and accessories had arrived.  Unfortunately, the adaptor was still being manufactured but there was nothing to worry about as many people “handhold” the camera and get cracking shots.

Now the Nikon Coolpix4500 comes with a big manual and I am not surprised why.  There are stacks and stacks of options to adjust and it is an absolute minefield.   Luckily I found a website with a good selection of settings to start with.

http://digiscopingukbirds.homestead.com/DigiscopingTechnique.html

I changed all my settings to match these and took some pictures from my garden.

This was my first picture from the new set up.

 

 

 

 

 

Rooks at Castletown, Digiscoped with Leica Apo77

(Approximately 100 metres away)
 

Straight away I could see the quality from the scope and camera combination.

The next day I went out to Langness and took around 90 pictures.  (On a 128 Meg compact flash card this is about the maximum I can get out of it, set on the largest available picture size and fine jpg setting).

That day I quickly learnt that the manual mode was not for me so switched to aperture mode and have been using that ever since.  This is where you set the widest aperture available and the camera gives you the shutter speed.  I also figured out that using macro focus only worked well if the bird was largish in the frame so I switched to infinity focus.  This then required focus to be finalised on the scope rather than the camera and takes a bit of getting used to. 

Handholding the camera I found that using anything above 1/125th you have a good chance of eliminating the handhold shakes and getting a nice sharp picture.

On that second day I got this picture, the shutter speed was 1/263.

(Still my best Oystercatcher picture to date).

 

 

 

 

Oystercatchers at Fort Island, Digiscoped with Leica Apo77

(Approximately 50 metres away)
 

Leading on from this I also quickly came to the opinion that the light is the most important factor in digiscoping.  Put simply more light = faster shutter speed available. With sun shining on your bird you can get up to 1/1000th and you can practically guarantee a sharp picture.  With overcast conditions you are suddenly looking at 1/60th and a bird the same distance away now becomes almost impossible to get a good picture of due to the slow shutter speed not being able to eliminate the camera shakes.  Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin too much sunlight leads to Heat haze and I’ve found it very difficult to get quality pictures shooting through haze. 

Here are some examples of the early problems I hit and what I have learnt to do to rectify the situations.

 

 

 

 

Starling at Derbyhaven. Sunlight far too strong, I should have dropped the exposure compensation to probably -1.0.

 

 

 

Wheatear at Derbyhaven. Shutter speed was too slow (1/112th) therefore what should have been a good picture, came out blurred.  I think now, looking at this, I should have zoomed out a touch, which would have got some shutter speed back and in theory the picture could have come out sharp

 

 

  

Hen Harrier at Langness.  In my mass panic to take a photo I completely forgot to refocus the scope!!!!  The bird flew about 1 second after taking this shot so I am still kicking myself about this one:(

(Also note the bonkers vignetting; trying to handhold this was a nightmare!) 

 

 

 

Redshank at Langness.  I focused on the pebbles in this picture instead of the bird so the Redshank is all out of focus.  There are two ways to fix this problem, either I could have focused correctly or if shutter speed was permitting I could have upped my aperture to get a greater depth of field.


 

Many of the Camera shaking problems then disappeared as my digiscoping adaptor finally arrived.  This allowed me to take pictures down to 1/60th and get sharp results.

To get lower I found the only way was to buy a Nikon Remote shutter release.  At the first opportunity I went out to Langness one evening and a Short Eared Owl appeared and landed in the grass about 30 metres away.  The sun was going down and the light was very poor so I didn’t fancy my chances.  When my camera was showing me 1/15th on the shutter speed I felt like crying :). 

Nevertheless, I had a go and to my amazement this is what I got. 

 

  

 

Short Eared Owl at Langness, Digiscoped with Leica Apo77

(Approximately 30 metres away)
 

If I attempted that shot without the remote the whole thing would have been extremely blurred.  Not something I wanted to happen with a S.E.O. on the ground!

To take this picture I also dropped my Iso to 400, I normally take all my shots on Iso100 but if light is fading or its overcast sometimes the only was to get a decent shutter speed is to drop the Iso. (This does increase the “grain” in the picture though.) I would say 400 is about the lowest you want to go but saying that I did have to use Iso 800 one rainy day at Langness to get a record shot of a Snipe.

 

 

 

Snipe at Langness, Iso 800.

As you can see the quality is very poor but as a means of getting a recognisable record shot it definitely has its uses.

(Approximately 70 metres away)
 

Usually, I use a 20-60x zoom eyepiece and spend the majority of my birding and photographing at 20x.  This lets in the most light and gives you the best chance of having good shutter speeds available.  However, when light/shutter speed permits (increasing the zoom on the scope eyepiece reduces the shutter speed), I try to zoom up to 32x.  According to the internet most of the top digiscopers recommend 32x as it gives the greatest detail without loosing too much light. 

I do find though that I get severe vignetting at 32x and at the moment I am using a half way house of around 25x.  (This seems to have the same level of vignetting as 20x.)

I must point out though, vignetting only occurs when the camera is fully zoomed out. (The camera lens can’t get to the point of actually touching the eyepiece which would physically remove the black circle frame.)  I’ve found about 2.5 times on the camera zoom completely eliminates the problem.  Of course camera zoom also reduces the shutter speed!  All part of the fun of digiscoping though I reckon :)

 

 

 

Sandwich Tern at Ballaghennie. 

This is an example of the vignetting at 20x on the eyepiece and 0 zoom on the camera. 

(Approximately 150-200 metres away)


 

I have found it possible to get a photo using 60x zoom on the eyepiece.

Obviously you need a sunny day which gives you a chance but the camera shake (even with the digiscoping adaptor on) at that magnification does pose a big problem.

 

 

 

Kestrel at Langness at 60x magnification. 

Definitely recognisable, again probably only useful as a last ditch effort to get a record shot.

(Approximately 400 metres away)
 

Also do not think after the picture is taken that is it.  Apart from having to upload them to your pc and delete all the duffers “post production” is also required.  This is where you use a paint program like Paintshop Pro or Photoshop to crop out the evil vignetting, do a bit of sharpening or even adjust levels to make a dark picture light again!  Very handy when you have just taken a Short Eared Owl picture and it comes out pitch black :). Be warned though, you can lose hours playing with your pictures.

 

Since getting my new gear in March (it’s now June) I have taken approximately 3000 pictures (equal to 25 a day! Blimey).

I would say on a good day I get 1 or 2 good pictures out of every 10.  Recently I took 76 pictures of a Sedge Warbler and got 5 good ones from it.  I am being a lot pickier nowadays though :). It’s a good job its digital or I’d spend a fortune in getting the film developed. 

On the accessory side of things I have 2 Nikon official batteries and not once have I used up both while out taking pictures.  I’ve never tried it but I think the batteries would last about two hours if the camera was left on continually.

I also bought a LCD sunshade from America for the camera.  This was because the LCD on the Nikon is really pants when the sun is shining directly on it.  With the sunshade you not only have no glare but it also has a 2x magnifier in it which helps you see if your pictures are actually in focus on the LCD.  (I don’t use this much which is pretty obvious as the Isle of Man is not renowned for its brilliant sunshine.) 

I also found on occasions birds can come too close or are hopping about in a tree close by so digiscoping them is not possible.  In order to deal with this situation I bought a 3x Nikon Teleconverter which I am still getting to grips with.  I can see its potential and always take it with me wherever I go, but have only been able to get test shots in the garden so far.

This is probably the best one.

 

 

 

Herring Gull at Castletown, 3x Teleconverter.

(Approximately 10 metres away)
 

I’m now at the stage of trying to expose my shots correctly using the exposure compensation settings and learning how to compose the photo appropriately.

I mainly use a website called www.birdforum.net .  It is a place where 2000+ birders post information and answer any questions regarding anything really. Very useful as a learning tool!

I now go out most nights and weekends looking for new and exciting birds to photograph.  If no cropping is involved then it is possible to get superb quality prints to A4 size, especially on glossy paper.  Very handy for a hard copy collection!  I sent some of the pictures I had taken to Chris in the Iombirding group and he liked them so much he bought the company…. err I mean he invited me to join the group.

I am going to get around to attempting videoscoping again soon since my new scope’s eyepiece is much larger than the old one.

I think this might be the answer for trying to capture some sea birds flying past as my digiscoping attempt failed miserably. (See below!)

 

 

 

Manx Shearwater at Langness, Digiscoped with Leica Apo77

(Approximately 500 metres away)
 

As you can probably tell, the costs mount up big style when you take up digiscoping.  It also it eats a pile of your spare time but to me it’s the best money I have ever spent and I am enjoying every minute of it. 

Hopefully, in the distant future I will have gathered sufficient knowledge to be able to get great pictures and maybe make a career out of it.

Unlikely I know but a nice dream :)

Pete.

 

 

Wheatear at Langness.  My best photo to date.

(Approximately 8 metres away)