Best optic to video through?

[ColtonJohnson]

Just want to get peoples opinion

 

[Stalker69]

I've tried kowa, and a buddy has a Swarovski. Nether are what I would call very good photos. They aren't bad, but lacking. We have pretty much given up trying to film through them. Trying to find a good camera to take, with a large zoom instead. Even if it means leaving the spotter home.

 

[canyonhunter47]

What kind of distance are you talking?

Imo pictures for digiscoping even with a quality spotter and newer iPhone look like old flip phone pics - you can see the animals and even judge trophy quality but not good quality as a photo. Fwiw, I’ve never tried the adapters for camera body to spotter though.

You could use a supertelephoto lens on a full-frame camera in the 600mm range and a 2x teleconverter to get around 1200mm focal length but that’s probably only going to get you to equivalent of 24x or so (assuming 50mm ~= 1x FF). You might be able squeeze a little more effective zoom out by cropping the image if the resolution is high. That’s gonna run you in the mid-teens for an f4 prime lens (best results) and probably a minimum $2.5k-ish for a f6-6.5-ish zoom lens and 2x teleconverter (not including cost of camera body for both options!).

 

[Stalker69]

Agree the photos and video through the spotters have a definite “ haze” to them. No, you don’t need to spend that on a camera. Plus the size and cost is crazy with a 600mm lens( I don’t want to pack that in) We have been looking at ( haven’t found one locally yet to put our hands on) the Nikon p950 or the p1000. The 1000 has like a crazy zoom range like 3000mm ( which is more then the 60-70 power of our scopes, I believe) and from just researching on the internet, the video ( I would use mostly) doesn’t look bad at all. And there about a 1000.00, 3 pounds, and not horribly big, especially for such a huge zoom. ( there is a video in the photography section a guy posted using it at 300 yards on some deer, and it for sure is quite a bit better then ours through the spotters) And that’s a lot cheaper then our scopes, if it works half way decent.

 

[mjlimey]

Agree the photos and video through the spotters have a definite “ haze” to them. No, you don’t need to spend that on a camera. Plus the size and cost is crazy with a 600mm lens( I don’t want to pack that in) We have been looking at ( haven’t found one locally yet to put our hands on) the Nikon p950 or the p1000. The 1000 has like a crazy zoom range like 3000mm ( which is more then the 60-70 power of our scopes, I believe) and from just researching on the internet, the video ( I would use mostly) doesn’t look bad at all. And there about a 1000.00, 3 pounds, and not horribly big, especially for such a huge zoom. ( there is a video in the photography section a guy posted using it at 300 yards on some deer, and it for sure is quite a bit better then ours through the spotters) And that’s a lot cheaper then our scopes, if it works half way decent.

What lens on the P1000?

 

[Stalker69]

It’s a bridge camera, so it’s a fixed lens, non removable.

 

[mjlimey]

It’s a bridge camera, so it’s a fixed lens, non removable.

Thanks.

 

[MisterOrange]

I have taken a load of video using my Galaxy smartphones through my Swarovski ATS 65HD. I think it does a really nice job. Here's a link to my youtube page, there's a bunch of videos shot with this setup for you to look at. I had a Nikon Coolpix P900 for a couple years and it did well inside of 300/400yds, but left a lot to be desired if you wanted to shoot further than that IMHO. It also didn't do nearly as well in low light as the spotting scope setup does.

 

[MisterOrange]

For comparison, here's a video from the Nikon Coolpix P900 at 380yds on a deer, and one at 840yds on steel

 

[Western Outdoorsman]

My Vortex RZR HD 20-60x85 spotting scope paired with my iPhone takes some pretty good pics. I just send it in to Vortex yearly for a deep cleaning.