HI Ted and Tweeters,

As a longtime digiscoper (since March 2002) and fairly extreme
experimenter and tinkerer, here are my recommendations:

1) Look for a camera with OPTICAL image stabilization. You won't
have to get or make any type of device to attach the camera to the
scope. Just hold the camera up against the scope's eyepiece and pull
the trigger.
2) Shop locally. You will pay a little more than buying on-line but
if you have problems with the camera in the first couple of months,
you will be able to take it back with no questions asked. Take you
scope into a store (Best Buy, Target, etc.) and aim their cameras
through it. Zoom the camera out to 3X. If you get vignetting (black
around the image), try a different camera. The Panasonic DMC-FX3
that I have is pretty good. Just about any camera with optical image
stabilization should work. Try them first. I bought one of the
small Nikon CoolPix cameras recently. It could not zoom out far
enough to eliminate the vignetting.
3) Experiment with the camera settings. Take several photos of a
sign or mailbox at all of the different settings the camera comes
with. Use the one that works best.

It is not difficult to take good photos. It is addictive,
though. My wife complains ("comments" might be a better word) that
not only do I go birding now, I come home and spend many hours at the
computer processing my photos and loading them onto my website. It
is lots of fun seeing my photos go by on our screen-saver!

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA




* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/