Digiscoping 15th June 2004

I receive masses of e-mails regarding digiscoping asking for advice. I am not an expert, in fact I have not even made novice stage yet. Today I received all the bits needed to take proper digital pictures (bracket, arm, cable release, viewer etc) after spending almost a year making up my mind to do so. Within half an hour of playing I had gone from this picture below, taken without all the accessories in September 2003 (It's good isn't it

. Have a guess, answer at the end) to the second picture below. A Woodpigeon on a neighbour's roof 50 yards away in poor light.

For more technical advice I am indebted to Simon Mackie who sent me the following advice.

"I'm not an expert on anything but I'll try my best and that count's for a lot I suppose. I've just this minute e-mailed a chap in Somerset with a page of camera settings, there must be a need for a forum or page dedicated to the subject (www.birdforum.net is good). I used a default group of camera settings from Eagle Eye optics who also supplied all my camera fittings. I'm not saying it just because they are on my links page but I've gathered together a few useful sites in one place that should help with all manor of Digiscoping questions .My main bone of contention with Digiscoping is sharp images and like you I saw all these fantastic images on Birdguides or Surfbirds and wondered how people were managing it as all I could take were blurry ones. Well the thing they don't tell you is that they take up to 10 photo's for every one you see published. The problem with any high magnification photography is camera shake ,get rid of the camera shake and your photo's become bird book quality overnight! Sounds simple but in practice you have to use every trick in the book and some more.

I'll give you a few pointers but as with everything the best way to do it is practise.

Always have the aperture fully open so that in turn gives you the fast shutter speed you will always be looking to get.

Try to practise in good light ,not always easy in England but you'll find that you get all your best photo's in good light ,the test is getting good photo's in bad light!

Play with the ISO settings as you can get a faster shutter speed BUT the finished image may be grainy ,it's a matter of compromise.

Take a shed load of photos on every trip ,you can always delete at home but never invent images. Often you'll find you get one great image with the last shot you take.

You may like to copy the following settings and carry them in the field as I do ,just as a prompt. Hope this helps, Simon Mackie".

The settings outlined below will give you an ideal place to start from when using your Nikon Coolpix 990/995/4500 ( CP4500 settings may be located slightly differently to the CP990/CP995 ) with a DigiMount Adapter. Once you have got used to the way your camera works with your particular scope you will be able to experiment to find the precise settings that suit you.

Aperture Priority: Always ON and invariable turned right up to maximum aperture (smallest f) to get fastest shutter speed.

ISO: In order of preference depending on light and / or wind (camera shake) 100 then 200 then 400. 100 of course gives slowest shutter speed but a better image quality.

Focus: AF Area mode: AUTO Auto Focus: Single AF AF Focus Confirmation: ON (the little red brackets are quite handy for knowing where the camera has focused e.g. vegetation or the bird.)

Start Up Position: LAST (Invariably the maximum optical Zoom) Fixed Aperture: OFF

Monitor: This needs to be set to stay on - Menu button, down to S, Auto Off set to 30m

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The following notes on Imaging Software have been received from Dave Pearce who is a regular and welcome contributor to the site.

The following notes cover the use of Imaging Software which, in my opinion, is often essential in getting a good image. It should assist in getting as sharp an image as possible. An image may have low contrast due to low light or when the bird is distant. Here the power of Imaging Software becomes important. Once the image has been loaded on to the computer, with suitable software, the digital image can be enhanced and sharpened. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements which came with my Nikon Coolpix 995. The contrast and brightness can be enhanced by various amounts whilst watching how the image is affected. When you are happy with the result, the image can be also be sharpened using a combination of various parameters. Again trials are required for the best results depending on the original image. If the light was good, the bird filled the frame and there was no camera shake then little if any improvement is required. If the bird was distant or the light was poor then significant enhancement may be required.

The following examples show both the original and computer enhanced cropped images so the improvement can be seen.

The Avocets were photographed from Fretherne and were distant in the middle of the river and only filled (from memory) about 25% of the frame). In addition the photo was taken into the sun.

The Grasshopper Warbler was photographed on Cleeve Hill late in the evening when the sun had gone down. At least the bird was quite close.

The singing Redstart was typically under the canopy and light levels were consequentially low.

Note: If you want a brilliant FREE Photo handling program you can get IrfanView off the net. Mike.

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The mystery bird was the Severnside Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Here's a better image taken by Paul Bowerman, which was found at Northwick Warth, South Gloucestershire by Paul. Paul's Severnside Birds can be found at Severnsidebirds.