What is digiscoping?
Digiscoping involves using a camera to take photographs through the eyepiece of a spotting scope. Rather than simply relying on your own memory of the subject observed, you can capture it for posterity on your digital camera's memory chip. With the right equipment and a little practice, you will soon be achieving impressive results. And, as with all digital photos, digiscoping images can later be reviewed on your computer and then archived, edited or even e-mailed.
The digiscoping technique was not developed by photographers; it was actually discovered by chance by wildlife watchers. At the end of the 1990s, Asian birdwatchers came up with the idea of holding their digital cameras up to the eyepieces of their spotting scopes. The results were better than expected and provided a starting point for further refinement of this interesting photographic technique. The days when cameras were simply held up to the eyepiece by hand are long gone. Nowadays, adapters are used to connect the spotting scope up to the camera. An increasing number of nature lovers and amateur photographers are discovering the benefits of digiscoping for themselves and experiencing a completely new dimension in photography.
How does digiscoping work?
A spotting scope’s main function is to present a magnified image to the eye of the observer. Light enters the large objective lens at the front of the spotting scope and exits through the eyepiece as a circular column of light, which is referred to as the ‘exit pupil‘. This column of light is photographed by the camera and the scene that would previously have been observed only by eye is captured as a digital image.
The fields of both photography and long-range optics include a variety of different, yet often compatible, systems and technologies. Both compact cameras and single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras can be used for digiscoping. The latest SLR models are technologically refined, compact and lightweight, and offer almost unlimited creative control. Compact cameras, by contrast, are often easier to use because the majority of the settings are made automatically. They are also smaller and lighter that SLRs, which may be an important factor when buying a camera. Swarovski Optik offers adapters for both compact and SLR cameras.