super zoom

Nikonewbie

Senior Member
Has anyone tried this? It's only 79$ plus $29.99 shipping.

How will the pictures turn out?


s-l1600.jpg
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Not going to say its no good but :D digiscoping is a whole different discipline,its mainly used for stationery birds over long distances,i cant see it being a lot of good at that price and even less use on anything but stationery subjects.
 

Nikonewbie

Senior Member
Mike, I understand your opinion and the price point but I am a firearm enthusiast and have a very nice spotting scope so I am paying 79$ for the attachments unless I can find them but I would think they would be selling for at least 50$. Most of my subjects are stationary, well all are really. That setup would equal approximately 6000mm and Nikon's equivalent cost's upwards of 10k$$.

I am not the professional photographer and I am retired with nothing to do. I have spent over 25k$ if not more; last year just on firearms, remote control gas cars and planes, metal detecting equipment and other crap and now it is photography and it all comes from "boredom" I have a brand new Garrett metal detector that cost over 700$ with accessories and it hasn't even been used, so tossing a hundred bucks just to satisfy my bored mind isn't a thought. I just started in the field of photography and I wanted to buy the best camera but I know I did not "need" it. I want to take a picture of everything because coming from a point and shoot 75$ camera to the Nikon D3200 is a high tech move for me. I love beautiful pictures, it doesn't matter of what just love the fact of peoples imagination and productivity of taking a picture:)

See how I just ramble on and on, yeah it's from boredom and I'm up all night and sleep till 2pm, I get so upset sleeping till then but I have nothing else to do;)

I hate the 100* summer and love the cool weather we are getting so I'll hopefully get up early until winter hits, well I'm ending this conversation:eek:
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
How will the pictures turn out?
Well that's going to depend a lot on you. As a fellow firearms enthusiast I can tell you once you attach this to your spotting scope you will lose auto-focus and you'll have no metering, so you will be shooting in full manual mode.

Quality of the image, assuming you do your part, will probably be acceptable but I wouldn't expect anything extraordinary. That's not to say you won't GET extraordinary but I certainly wouldn't go into this expecting it.
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Nikonewbie

Senior Member
so we go back about 20 yrs in time and do it by eye and on the fly. I think it will be worth it completely. The photos will tell me what I am doing right and wrong. I can live with that:)
 

Nikonewbie

Senior Member
WORK!::what::

Man, I would not be dependable and would not do something if I was told if I did not want to do it. It's a different game when I worked because I "had" too then doing work when I do not "need" too, and when you are in that position your whole attitude changes. I could not see me being told to do something by some smartass 20-30yr old. I am not saying all 20-30yr old people are bad it's just throughout my life I have seen a lot and I was self employed which makes your attitude not so favorable.

I guess I should have just said "no":D
 
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aroy

Senior Member
The spotting scopes are designed for the resolution of the eye, not film or modern digital sensor. So the images will be soft. Secondly even for spotting scopes this is a relatively cheap one, so the quality as a camera lens will be quite bad.

As you seem to be indulgent as far as hobby is concerned, why not get the Nikon 200-500mm zoom. This lens will give you outstanding images and you can zoom it up and down. When you grow tired of it you can always sell it off.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
so we go back about 20 yrs in time and do it by eye and on the fly. I think it will be worth it completely. The photos will tell me what I am doing right and wrong. I can live with that:)
You'll just be shooting in Manual; many of us do it routinely. Keep an eye on your histograms and you should be able to dial-in decent exposure settings pretty quickly. What you will be able to use to great effect will be Auto-ISO. You'll have a fairly small aperture with that scope and you're going to want to keep your shutter speed relatively high, probably in the 1/500 range to ensure sharp shots. Focusing will be manual.

The technical term for what you want to do is digiscoping and it's fairly common. Googling that term should turn up plenty of assistance with things like settings and techniques for getting the shots you want. I've never gotten into this myself, but I've seen it done on a number of occasions and with the right kit the results can be quite good.
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Wolfeye

Senior Member
LOL! I read the "fine print" from one of those ads and I'd say it's a huge warning that the images will likely be crap. It states:

Don't get too bogged down and frustrated if you are out on a days digiscoping and your images are disappointing, there are many factors including the weather that can hinder your performance, remember why you are there - because you enjoy experiencing nature!


 

Nikonewbie

Senior Member
Mike I believe it as well, it just takes "putting your time in" just like any hobby, you can put wings on a box and it will fly, barrel rolls, vertical take offs and dog fighting won't be as elegant as an F-16 but it can fly from point A to point B with no problems.:D
 

Nikonewbie

Senior Member
converting camera lens MM to spotting scope power (X)

I have ordered the attachments for attaching my Nikon D3200 to my spotting scope also known as (Digiscoping) so I was wondering if anyone knows the conversion for example; Taking a 200mm lens and converting to get the Power X of a scope.

I have read that a 200mm camera lens is equaled to a spotting scope at 8X but there are others conflicting this and it just ends up going back and forth, does anyone know the conversion?
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
Re: converting camera lens MM to spotting scope power (X)

I'm trying to think of the geometry involved, here.

I would expect that the magnification factor should be relative to a “normal lens”, with the “normal lens” being 1×. Since the sensor in your D3200 is 23.2×15.4 millimeters, the purest “normal lens” to go with it would match the diagonal of that sensor, which would be √(23.2² + 15.4²) or 27.846mm—let's call it 28mm.

From there, I think it's a simple linear relationship. Where…
  • N = the “normal lens” focal length for the sensor, or in other words, the diagonal measure of the sensor itself (28mm in the case of your D3200)…
  • F = the focal length of the lens in question…
    …and…
  • M = the magnification factor…

The conversion would be…
  • M = F÷N
    …or…
  • F = M×N

So, on your D3200, a 200mm lens would be equivalent to a scope having a magnification factor of 200÷28 = 7.14×.
 
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Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
Re: converting camera lens MM to spotting scope power (X)

It occurs to me, now, that there may be one more factor, that I haven't accounted for, and for which I cannot account; having to do with the optics of the adaptor that connects the spotting scope to the camera. Most likely, it's a fixed factor, that would be multiplied by N to work it into my formulas. Let us call this factor A.

So, to modify my above formulae, now we have…


Where…
  • N = the “normal lens” focal length for the sensor, or in other words, the diagonal measure of the sensor itself (28mm in the case of your D3200)…
  • F = the focal length of the lens in question…
  • M = the magnification factor…
    …and…
  • A = This unknown correction for the adaptor itself.

The conversion would be…
  • M = F÷(N×A)
    …or…
  • F = M×N×A

I cannot make any good guess as to what the value of A might be, but perhaps if you were to contact the manufacturer of the adaptor, show them my math, perhaps they can provide this missing value.
 

salukfan111

Senior Member
I'm interested in how this turns out for you. I did something similar to take pictures of Osprey 700 or 800 yards away and it just didn't turn out well.
artificial nest.jpg


From a practical standpoint, something like a crop sensor camera, 400mm f/3.5 lens with a pair of tc300s stacked in series is probably what you are looking for. You could probably even find a used 600 mm you could put a teleconverter or two on. You could get a 300mm f/4.5 and a tc200 which is a great combo (I've recently purchased a tc 16a to make this lens auto focus).

NikonÂ*nikkor Ed 600mm F 5 6 AI s AIS Lens EX | eBay
This thing with a tc1.6x (auto focusing) would give you 1440mm f/~8 (including the crop factor).
 
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Nikonewbie

Senior Member
Re: converting camera lens MM to spotting scope power (X)

Bob, are you talking about the T-Mount adapter? The piece that connects to the camera?
 

Nikonewbie

Senior Member
I ordered the attachments for the spotting scope to the camera and I have been surfing the internet and found some incredible pictures taken via Digiscoping. It is an art among itself, you cannot just hook it up and start taking pictures. There is a lot of info that needs to be learned so I'm just surfing and getting some information that will guide me through this.
I do not understand why some people say it isn't worth it unless they have buyers remorse from spending thousands when digiscoping is turning out some incredible pictures that camera lenses cannot match and it is less than 10% the cost.

If you start out with a spotting scope that has excellent glass what is keeping the pictures from coming out excellent? I know with digital equipment these days it is a lot cheaper than spending money on film and development and we can see the results instantly without added cost.
 

salukfan111

Senior Member
I ordered the attachments for the spotting scope to the camera and I have been surfing the internet and found some incredible pictures taken via Digiscoping. It is an art among itself, you cannot just hook it up and start taking pictures. There is a lot of info that needs to be learned so I'm just surfing and getting some information that will guide me through this.
I do not understand why some people say it isn't worth it unless they have buyers remorse from spending thousands when digiscoping is turning out some incredible pictures that camera lenses cannot match and it is less than 10% the cost.

If you start out with a spotting scope that has excellent glass what is keeping the pictures from coming out excellent? I know with digital equipment these days it is a lot cheaper than spending money on film and development and we can see the results instantly without added cost.
Keep us informed.
 
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