Digiscoping

Oh, how I love reading the posts and looking at the pictures on birdchick.com! Sharon does this thing called "digiscoping." It's like the next step for photographers who specialize in bird photography. Yeah, my 300mm telephoto is a nice lens, but I've been most happy with shooting "larger" wildlife with it, such as my trips to the zoo. It's tough to get close enough to a bird to get a sharp, frame-filling photo of just BIRD. I'd look at the pictures on birdchick.com and think, how on earth does she do it? What kind of camera does she use?

Well, it's not the camera, really. She attaches her camera to a spotting scope, a special kind of telescope. Digiscoping is the process of taking digital photos through a spotting scope.

To give an idea of the magnification, my camera lens zooms to 300mm. A spotting scope can achieve zooms up to 6,900mm. No wonder she can get so close up!

Sharon's digiscoping setup currently costs about $3,000. Oy. I'm sure it can be done more cheaply (as she says her equipment was top of the line when she bought it), though like cameras and lenses, it seems the advice on the street is buy the best one you can afford.

Someday! :)

It looks like a basic digiscoping setup can be had for under $500. I probably wouldn't know the difference! After googling around a bit...

A non-high-def digiscoping setup that would work with my camera, turning the digiscope into a telephoto lens: $370 + tax. This consists of:

• Zhumell 20-60x 80mm Spotting Scope (fogproof and waterproof) - $299
  
• Camera adapter for the 80mm Spotting Scope (to enable to scope to be used as a telephoto lens) - $49
• T-ring mount for Canon EOS cameras (to attach the camera adapter) - $17

Maybe I'll get a nice tax return this year and can get a digiscope in time for spring bird migration!!!