Caren and all,

I'm not at all sure why you'd want to do this. You are compromising tremendous amounts of quality doing this. The quality of the glass in a scope, even a high end swarvoski AT80HD or Leica Trinivid 77 does not compare to what you would find in a high quality Canon or Nikon SLR lens (and i'm not talking about some massive zoom lens here, but rather something along the lines of a Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM or Nikon 500mm f/4 AFS ED-IF or some such similar lenses...300mm f/2.8, 600mm f/4, 400mm f/2.8 etc). There are SLR to Scope adapters but they make the scope either a f/8 or f/11 lens and not a very good one at that.

There are several good reasons I stopped digiscoping and they are image quality, image quality and image quality. Digiscoping is fine if you are looking for record shots, or maybe even 3x5 prints, but most of the digiscoping cameras have a few flaws, one major one being the lack of being able to shoot in RAW. The other major flaw is the fact you are shooting through many extra layers of glass, you can't use fill flash, you are stuck with generally fairly slow shutter speeds, the digiscoping cameras don't have near the detail resolving power of SLR lenses, and many others.

For examples of what can be done with a digital SLR (Canon Eos10D for most of the shots, Canon 1D MkII for some of the California shots that i've taken recently) and a 400mm f/5.6L USM lens (1100$ Canon Lens), feel free to look at my website at www.avianphotos.org

When one considers the cost of a Swarvoski AT80HD scope (You need a HD, ED or some other apochromatic type glass in order to really digiscope, if you want any sort of quality at all that is. Otherwise you are losing even more detail and also getting a large amount of chromatic aberration problems, which exist even with APO/HD/ED type glass, just in somewhat smaller amounts), and add the cost of a Nikon Coolpix 995 or 4500, and then add the cost of adapters, etc You are easily approaching what I spent on my 10D + 400mm f/5.6L lens, and the quality you are achieving is dramatically worse. I can easily print 13x19, and on uncropped images probably go to 16x20 without much difficulty on my 10D. The 1d MkII images I can easily print 17x22's and probably 20x24's without much problem.



Chris Fagyal
Senior Software Engineer
United Defense, L.P. ASD (UDLP-GSD for 6 mo)
Fridley, MN (San Jose, CA for 6 mo.)
(763) 572-5320
(408) 289-3840 (For the next 6 months)
chris.fagyal at udlp.com

>>> "carenp" <carenp at totalise.co.uk> 07/16/2004 09:10:10 AM >>>
given the subject with coolpix and other smaller cameras, i was wondering if
anyone had succeeded in attaching SLR cameras to swarovski and leica (or
other well-known) scopes?

from what little i've seen so far, the scoping manufacturers have not
created attachments that allow SLRs to digiscope... i've sent several
emails to swarovski and leica, with no reply...

i've heard from anacortes it is possible. however, i've not seen or heard
from anyone who has actually done it... are there tweeters out there who
have attached SLRs to their scopes and not only lived to tell the tale, but
printed or sold high-quality images?

or, is this a matter of size? i know you can attach SLRs to telescopes,
usually using a standard t-mount, but most telescopes are far too bulky or
heavy to be portable enough for birding...

thanks in advance...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
usually found at juanita bay park, kirkland, WA
carenp somewhere near the vicinity of yahoo and dot com