Anyone here do Digiscoping ?

[BBoi]

And if so, what equipment do you have and what settings do you use please.

I'm currently shopping around for the right kit and it's a bit of a minefield. I found a 52mm fit universal eyepiece clamp called an F-Mount on ebay from some guy in poland, the price looks right but i'm hesitant to buy without asking advice first.

I'm also considering a 20-80 x60 spotting scope. The aim is wildlife shots and lunar/astral shots, but i've heard lots about A series cameras failing to focus properly, suffering from fringing or just not being good enough to get a nice sharp shot.

Thoughts ?

[DigitalDisaster]

There are some beginners guides on this site. www.scopetronix.com
Have you checked them out. I've been working on a setup to do this but an F/10 8" telescope has to much magnification for my S1. I need to pick up a spotting scope sometime and give it a try.

[BBoi]

I wrote to scopetronix a short while back, but the email bounced and was returned as undeliverable. Will give it another go, though I thought £18 for a single 58mm step ring to add on an eyepiece holder was taking the mick a bit.

[DigitalDisaster]

I think I actually bought my 52mm to eyepiece adapter from www.cameraconcepts.com at a star party I was at. I feel that their website is not very user friendly though. It might be easier just to try and contact them.

[DAS@G]

BBoi I would recommend that you get as much information as possible on digiscoping before laying out any money on cameras or scopes. As we all know good glass is expensive and that equally applies to spotting scopes. I would recommend that you have a look at www.birdforum.net (http://www.birdforum.net) as there is an excellent section there on digiscoping, spotting scopes, cameras etc etc. I have been digiscoping for around 2 years now and consider myself just a beginner. I use a Swarovoski ATS80 with a DCB attachment for holding the camera and up until a couple of months ago used a Canon A40 2mp camera for my shots but have recently uprated my camera to a Fuji F30 which is excellent. The A40 was also very good but being only 2mp "blow ups" on the computer don't get very large before pixelating occures. Generally cameras with an optical zoom of up to 3X may be suitable. I also have a G6 but unfortunately this does not work for digiscoping. Hope that helps.

[DigitalDisaster]

I agree with DAS@G. I haven't done a lot with my setup but I have also found that anything over 3x optical zoom doesn't work very well. By the time you get zoomed in enough to get rid of vignetting you're at to much magnification with a higher power zoom camera.

[DigitalDisaster]

You should be able to get some good results with your A640 once you get what you want figured out and find the adapters you need at a reasonable price.

[BBoi]

Thank you both, I try to use optical as much as possible, i'm not a great fan of digital zoom. I'll check those links out and let you know how I get on.