Wildlife Photography -which camera, which lens?

[royinidaho]

Browndog,

Here's a pic through a Leica LRF and Cannon PowerShop ABS.
Bedded moose at 505yds and mommy under the tree to the left. Camera was set on wide angle. Which makes the digilens about 7X


Here are some bedded elk about a mile away. Same set up with camera set at max telephoto, about 3 times 7 or 21 power.


Here's one of a little friend of mine that turned out as about a good as this fella's gonna get. Same camera setup.

[Bart B]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd consider Nikon's 70-300 digital lens for about US $150.

[/ QUOTE ]

Check out: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/70300af.htm

I've seen this one online for about $120.

[lovdasnow]

yes there is an adapter that screws onto the spotting scope, and that clamps onto the camera. Although, as mentioned earlier, you can just hlod your camera up to binocs, or a scope, and get decent pics. I've done it with my wind river binocs, and had some fun with it, but you wont reach a really high level of clarity as you would with a scope and camera mount.

[Ian M]

Dog,
So happens I was invited to a seminar on Digiscoping last summer put on by Nikon. Here is a link to some of their toys:

http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/news...oping_e_04.htm

What Nikon has going for them is they build both the spotting scope, camera and ideal interface device. Makes for almost fool-proof imaging. I have all of their lenses, a camera and scope and it is a slick system. Plus you can use the camera for your kid's birthdays and the spotter for hunting.

They are going to sell two kits, all ready to go. They make two sizes of ED Fieldscopes and fit two digital cameras to them, about a 5 and 7 meg or maybe higher now since it is a few months since the seminar.

I can take some images of the digiscoping system and pass them on if you wish. Trick is they have a special digiscoping lens on the spotting scope that has a massive groove in its outer shell for locking the interface to. The camera fits like a glove in the interface. I manged to break off the cable release but replaced it easily.

Good luck with your decision - the Field Scopes are incredible spotting scopes by the way.

Going for a drive next week.

[Brown Dog]

All,

Great replies...my eyes have been opened!

Digiscoping definitely looks to be what I'm after and ..Ian...that link to Nikon is just spot-on...means I can print it off and go to my camera shop and not sound like some day-dreaming lunatic!

Very many thanks!



..enjoy your drive!

[meichele]

There are a couple digital cammera adapters at this link:

http://www.swarovski-optik.info/inde...20262&css=
You must select "Telescopes" from the pull down box.

[Underclocked]

Pretty lousy pic I guess, but took this shot of some cattle that were well over a half-mile away with a Kodak Z740 (a relatively cheap camera).


All these pics were taken out my truck window with just a nervous hand hold.

http://home.mchsi.com/~nita_k/Kodak/FarrScape.jpg

http://home.mchsi.com/~nita_k/Kodak/FarScape.jpg same scene zoomed.

It's terrible in low light, but is lightweight, affordable, and does a "reasonable" job for the money.