Readers of Surfbirds will have been impressed with the high quality of the digital videograbs that are regularly displayed on our Stop Press Rarity Pages. During October, you will have seen the stunning digital pictures brought to you from the ringing room on Fair Isle. The Fair Isle camera was kindly loaned by optics expert and birder Trevor Codlin from the London Camera Exchange. In response to numerous enquiries from birders on where to begin, Trevor has written this very thorough article to help birders make the right choice when it comes to "digiscoping."

The Introduction For many years now, birders have been using still cameras to capture images of the birds they have been watching. Most telescope manufacturers produced a photo attachment that would allow a camera to be fitted in place of the eyepiece. Good results were achievable but a little hit and miss, and you never knew if the picture had come out until you had got your film developed, by which time the bird had already gone.

Video camcorders then became more affordable and compact and it wasn’t long before birders were using them to film the birds they were watching. Attachments were soon available to enable filming through the telescope, but where most telescopes only offered low eye relief and camcorders still had fairly large front lenses, it was still a fairly difficult process to get decent results. Then came the digital age. The ability to capture good quality images via camera and camcorder has never been easier. The need to carry around long telephoto lenses when all you want are good quality record shots is no longer required. With the aid of a still digital camera or digital video camera you can now get results instantly through your telescope. In this article, I will endeavour to pass on what I have learnt over the past year whilst experimenting taking pictures with digital cameras and camcorders through telescopes.

The Products

The Still Digital Camera

(Nikon Coolpix 880, the latest 3.3 million pixel camera from Nikon)

A digital still camera records images onto a digital film (memory card) rather than a traditional 35mm film, images can viewed instantly using the camera or via a computer. Most of the cameras on the market are fully automatic and as easy to use as a compact camera, they have a varying range of features and store the images onto a range of different media.

The quality of the image produced is governed by the number of pixels that make up the picture. For a good quality still picture, you do not really want less than 2.1 million pixels, but obviously the more you have the better quality the image will be. With a camera of 2.1 million pixels or more you should be able to produce good quality prints up to 10 X 8 inches from the pictures you have taken. The latest cameras on the market are boasting in excess of 4 million pixels, but at a price. The quality of these images is really quite stunning and will compare favourably with some of the best 35mm prints around.

The Digital Video Camera

(Sony PC100, Mini DV camcorder giving excellent quality video and still images)

Unlike the still Digital Camera, the Digital video Camera records the moving image on to a very high quality video tape. Whilst recording this image, you also have the option of taking a still picture which is recorded onto the same tape. Some models, however, also have the ability to store still images onto a memory card. These are usually much lower resolution than can be achieved with still cameras, but still quite acceptable. As you may have already seen on this website or in some birding journals, the results produced are good enough for a record shot or confirming identification of difficult species.

Video footage is becoming the preferred format for many birders. Not only do you get the moving pictures, but you are also able to study behaviour and calls, as well as simply sitting back and enjoying the memories of the bird from your armchair. Video cameras usually offer a magnification that is far in excess of most still cameras, giving you the ability to get much closer to your subject, unless of course you are prepared to spend thousands on long telephoto lenses.

This greater magnification can be increased still further by attaching your camera or video camera directly to your telescope eyepiece, giving rise to the new birding term of "Digiscoping."

The Method

The easiest way to explain how to take pictures through your telescope is to simply tell you to hold your digital camera/camcorder to the eyepiece. By doing this you will immediately see some sort of result, the trick is to try to find out which camera is going to be more suitable for the scope you are using.

The other problem is to try to find a way to hold the camera/camcorder steady, due to the size of the magnification you are dealing with one of the biggest problems will be camera shake.

Three cameras proving to be very popular for digiscoping at the moment are the Nikon coolpix 800, 950 and 990. These three cameras have much smaller front lens elements than most of their competitors and will therefore easily fit into the eyepiece of most telescopes. The 950 and 990 both have a swivel type body allowing for the cameras’ lens to be angled down into the eyepiece of the scope. They also have internal optical zooms, this means that when you attach the camera to the scope and turn it on, the front element of the lens does not move forwards. This allows for a solid attachment of camera to scope.

Once you have your camera in place, you then have to zoom the lens into the telephoto position. Not only will this increase the magnification available to you, but it will also remove the vignetting effect. Sometimes you will find that this cannot be removed by just zooming up the camera. However, once you have transferred the pictures onto your computer, your image manipulation software will enable you to crop the picture.

The amount of light needed to produce a decent shot is also worth bearing in mind. Digital film does not have an ASA rating like 35mm film. However, some cameras do have an ASA adjustment. When choosing a digital camera it is worth buying one that has a manual override. This will allow you to set up the camera to suit you, and will certainly help in producing better results. Once the picture is taken, you can immediately view it on the cameras screen and if it's no good …delete it.

Attaching a video camera to a telescope is just as simple. Once again, the size of the front element of the video camera, and the eyepiece lens will have a bearing on the results. Many of the video grabs that have been previously seen on this website have been taken using a combination of the Sony PC3 and a Leica APO Televid scope. This combination is widely regarded to be one of the best available for this purpose. The eye relief of the Leica eyepiece is excellent, allowing for filming without any vignetting. The 20x eyepiece used with the televid is even better.

When you have finished filming and are settled in at home you can then set about editing your film. Software is available for you to grab still images and edit your film on your PC for as little as £90/ $100.

The increased use of digital images in birding, whether its from a video camera or still digital camera is set to rise. Already some publishers are using digital images in their latest books. In my opinion this can only be a good thing, resulting in more people taking photos of the birds they are seeing. If only for the rarities committee, the task of assessing future submissions will be a lot simpler if they are supported by photographic evidence.

To attach a video camera to a telescope, many people use something as simple as a piece of elastic. It is hooked around the prism and then double- wrapped around the camera. Once in place, you just turn on the camera and start filming. With the combination that I use, the best results are achieved by using the camera on the wide angle setting and using a 30w on the scope. These results do produce vignetting but this is easily cut out with the image software that I use.