Aftr I received some favorable comments and helpful suggestions re: the Cuban pygmy owl that I recently posted, I thought I would post a few more digiscoped images for critique. This is the pale race of American kestrel found in Cuba, and photographed as before with a Sony DSC-W5 5MP point and shoot with an adapter, wedged into the 30X WA eyepice of a Kowa 773 spotting scope, and hand-held while I released the shutter. I decided not to post-process the background, as everything I could easily do woud probably make it look worse.
ExposureTime: 1/125
FNumber: 4.5
ExposureProgram: Program AE
ISO: 100
ExposureCompensation: +0.3
MeteringMode: Center-weighted average
that is one wild background. i thought for sure it was PS! the bird here feels a little tight in the frame top and bottom. you could crop a little from the right side. looks really good for digiscope!!
I actually like the bg Looks so different but pleasing !!! I'm amazed at the quality you are getting with your set up !!! I know its not easy !!! Big Congrats !!!
Lovely bird, it works very well with the bg colors. Good sharpness.
Very nice. I am thoroughly impressed with your ability to hand hold the camera steady to the scope.
Very nice
Cheers
Gail
Thanks for the comments. Digiscoping is very hard to do, and the proportion of keepers is much less than with a dSLR and long lens. But sometimes it does work, and can allow for closer bird portraits without too much cropping than the more conventional methods. There are a few people (whom I haven't seen on BPN) who really seem to have it down to a fine art and can produce very sharp images. There are various adapters on the market, to connect up various p&s cameras to spotting scopes, but the ones I have tried are more of a nuisance than a boon, and if I'm very careful with shutter technique, I can generally achieve what I want hand-holding (of course the scope is on a tripod).
Generally I think digiscoping is more used by birders who already have a scope and sometimes like to photograph birds, than photographers for whom the image is more important than the bird sighting. (I'm slowly morphing from one to the other).
Another digiscoped image - "Cuban" kestrel
