I am a proud owner of Zeiss 85 Fl telescope and want to make more use of it than just birdwatching. I also want to use it as a telelens for bird photography. My idea has been to get a CP4500 camera and an adapter for "digiscoping". But now the DSLR cameras have dropped considerably in prise making them more affordable (i.e. Canon 300D). Zeiss produces camera adapter that would make the scope a 1000 mm F12 lens (+1,6x internal magnification in DSLR).
Is it difficult to get reasonable photos with the DSLR setup? I do not think I have seen a single DSLR+scope picture in the Gallery! Why is that? Is the reach comparable in the two setups?
With the DSLR route I would be able to get me some 300-400 mm lens for the many cases scope photography is just not handy enough!
Hi Gaukur,
I have the Zeiss 85fl , photoadapter and dslr but haven't really put it to much use as yet....it's been very overcast down here and one aspect that you'll notice straight away is that you need plenty of light to get satisfactory results. The main problem is that f12 is a very small aperture and the image in the dslr's viewfinder is very dark with the scope attached, you may have a dslr that's good at high iso speeds but the main problem is trying get the subject perfectly focused with such a dim view.
I'll give it another try next week, hopefully it will be a bit brighter down here (sunday is supposed to be good).
Magnification wise, a dslr with a 1000mm in front of it is a match for digiscoping with a scope eyepiece of 20x.
Look for photos in the gallery by Neil Fifer, I did notice that he had taken some photos with a dslr+swarovski scope... it's nice and bright down there in Australia though.
Regards,
Andy
Andy's hit the nail on the head. In Scotland in winter with a DSLR + fast(F4) 500mm lens + 2x convertor (effectively 1000mm F8 lens) I struggle to get good shots even with ISO 400 setting on a typical Scottish mid-winter day. Those that I do get are a consequence of the image stabilisation function on the Canon lens (I'd imagine the mid-Winter situation in Iceland might be worse -unless you've got snow cover reflecting incident light!!) The slightest movement on a 1000mm effective lens produces image blur. In SLR photography the guide to preventing this is to use a fast shutter speed with the rough rule of thumb being to use the speed closest to the reciprocal of the focal length-in this case 1/1000sec-impossible with an F12 minimum aperture. Image stabilisation will allow you to steal 2-4 stops (> 1/250-1/60sec) depending on the support for your lens. I wouldn't bother with a telescope adaptor & DSLR > better to go for the DSLR + TELE lens if your Bank Manager permits it!!