Digiscoping - first steps

My first foray into digiscoping (apart from some pretty awful iPhone scoped images) occurred over the weekend. A family weekend away to the North Norfolk coast was the perfect excuse to try out a recently purchased Swarovski UCA (Universal Camera Adaptor) attached to my scope, in order to photograph waders on the foreshore.

The two photographs below of Sanderling in their summer breeding plumage, wading in a shallow salt pool left by the lowering tide were taken on Holme beach and were probably the best of a fairly mediocre cluster of photographs I took on the day. To be fair, the light conditions were poor with overcast skies and a stiff westerly breeze to contend with, which shook the tripod causing vibrations to the camera and made focusing on a moving subject quite difficult - this was probably not the best day to choose for trying to get acclimatised with the new digiscope set up!

On the positive side, I was pleased with my first efforts (you can identify the birds and they are almost in focus!) and the digiscope set up worked how I had hoped. Setting up the equipment was quick and straight forward and I liked having the option to switch between a standard digital camera or a digital SLR if I wished to. A balance rail attached to the tripod, particularly if using an SLR camera, would be a necessity to prevent all the weight being at one end, whilst also increasing stability. With time, practice and better weather conditions I hope to improve on my initial efforts, only time will tell!

 

Set up:

• Swarovski HD 80mm scope
• 25-50x wide angle lens
• Sony Cyber-shot 13.6 mega pixel camera

Apart from the opportunity to test the digiscope, I was also aware that something of interest could potentially turn up while I was in Norfolk, and I didn't have to wait too long before I received news (thanks Hawky) of a Blyth's Reed Warbler (basically a Reed Warbler with a better song) at Warham Greens. This is probably not the best looking of birds and had it not have been so close to where we were staying I may have given this bird a miss, but I'm glad I didn't, as listening to its song alone was worth the short trip.

Brief and distant scope views of a Black-winged Stilt at Cley NNT reserve, viewed from high up at the visitors centre overlooking the marsh was also good to see, it was just a shame this bird was so elusive as this would have made a great subject for digiscoping...maybe next time!