I want to preface this by stating that I AM NOT AN EXPERT. I DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING and if you do not agree with the things in this post, I apologize in advance for offending your delicate sensitivities.
Also, there are many people out there who know more than me, have more experience than I do. I would invite you to add to this, I would love to learn from what you have discovered.
There are two parts to this.
Gear basics, and Settings basics. If you already have your gear, skip to settings. If you are looking to get into digiscoping and need to get set up, read both. It may help you find the right gear.
Digiscoping set up basics.
The gear.
You have a scope.
Depending on the size and quality of the scope, the images seen through the scope will be of a certain level of quality.
If your scope delivers a certain level of quality to your eye, you should be able to capture this same level of quality with a camera.
Second step, choose a camera.
The camera is the part of the digiscoping set up that actually captures the end result.
The camera should be chosen based on several factors.
The use of the pictures taken.
Equipment already owned.
Size and weight of the camera.
If you desire a high level of quality that would allow you to print your photos at a size of 18 inches X 24 inches, you may need to consider what makes one camera better at this than another.
If you simply text your photos to friends, to be viewed in smaller formats, a large photosite camera may be overkill.
What you will get into is the world of camera sensors.
Warning, don’t get caught up in the mega pixel phenomenon.
Photosites are the tiny light sensitive spots on a camera sensor that gather information and create the photo.
The size of your photosites are determined by how large the sensor size is, and how many photosites they cram onto that sensor.
Why does this matter?
Larger photosites are capable of better dynamic range, better low light performance, create images with less noise, and capture more accurate information.
These things all determine quality.
So, if you would like to use you cell phone camera, you should know that the sensor in the cell phone is very small.
Even though it may have a large mega pixel count, the large mega pixel count simply means that each photosite on the sensor is smaller in order to fit more photosites on the sensor.
This will effect the quality of the image.
Sensor size comparison chart.
View attachment 17730
This may not matter to you, based on your intended use of the photo.
If you do want to increase your options, you can select a camera that has a larger sensor, and good size photosites.
After you understand the importance of sensor size, and its relation to mega pixels, you can begin to look at the cameras user adjustments.
A camera with a wider range of adjustment or even better, fully manual controls, will allow you to increase the quality of the images you capture.
Typically cell phone cameras have very small sensors and limited controls. You can get more control with many apps.
Point and shoot cameras typically offer a wide range of sensor sizes and megapixel ranges. They have increased levels of control with some models offering full manual control.
Point and shoots are most common and have the widest range of adapter options.
DSLR cameras typically have even larger sensor sizes, and the most manual controls.
They are typically the heaviest and bulkiest options, with the least adapter options.
Why does this matter?
Automatic settings on the camera are run by a program.
When the camera is built, the engineers take into account the lenses and the sensor and the processor and the programs that run the automatic photo modes are programed to understand the situations the camera is likely to encounter.
One thing that no camera has programmed into its auto mode is digiscoping.
When you put that camera behind the spotting scope lots of things happen and the cameras programming tries to use its rules to choose the best settings to use to deal with its new conditions.
The problem is that the program has no rules to help it understand the spotting scope.
So, the more controls you can manipulate, the better the odds you will be able to help the camera get the best result.
Third step find an adapter.
You have a scope.
You know what you want to do with your photos and have a camera that will allow you to do that.
Now its time to get the camera behind the scope.
The best adapters are the ones that allow you to attach your camera to the scope quickly, and with repeatability.
Aligning the camera with the eyepiece and positioning the camera the same distance from the eyepiece should be easy to do.
You want to be able to look through the scope, slip the camera into place, take a picture, and slip the camera back off. Animals tend to move so ease of use and repeatability make a big difference when choosing an adapter.
There seems to be countless options in the adapter world.
Choose one that works best with your specific scope, and your specific camera.
One item to consider for cell phone digiscopers is the frequency of cell phone changes.
lots of people update their phones every two years.
As the companies change the phone widths, thickness, and heights, the adapter you choose may no longer work with your new phone.
You should be aware of this when choosing an adapter.
You may want a universal style adapter. You may be fine with buying a new adapter with phone changes.
Also consider the photo file sizes and data plan limits.
Sending lots of photos may cause unwanted charges on your bill.
The bottom line is that you should choose a camera that meets your needs.
Then find the adapter that works best with your scope/camera combination.
Then learn how to use the camera controls to get the best results.
Digiscoping basics.
Camera control.
Regardless of your scope and camera type, you will likely find that you will get better results by manually adjusting the camera settings.
For cell phone users, there are many applications that can be bought to give you more control over your cell phone camera.
There are some apps that are marketed as “digiscoping” apps. These are not always the apps with the widest range of adjustment.
Look at photography apps that give you the most control over your specific camera.
However extensive or limited the adjustments, using the adjustments will help you get better images.
For point and shoot and DSLR camera users, understand your cameras processor.
The sensor on your camera interacts with the light waves to capture the image, the processor is the computer that converts the signals into data.
Its the brain that does the organizing.
These types of cameras come with software programmed into the processor.
If you use your camera in the auto modes, the processor programming is trying to find the optimal setting combinations to get the best image.
The digiscoping problem is that the scope tends to confuse the processors programming because there are now two lens systems in front of the sensor, the camera lens and the spotting scope lens.
So, since you have given your camera processor a situation that the software has no programming to help it understand, you usually will get poor image quality due to settings selected by the processor software.
This is usually seen in your images as overexposed images with washed out colors and a soft look to the edges.
Some of you readers just had a light come on. Those are your images! Good news, now you know whats causing it.
So, lets fix it.
Its going to get technical and its going to long. I will try to be as basic and clear as I can.
You camera has some settings that will allow you to improve your images.
First, lets talk about aperture.
This is simply the size of the hole in your camera lens.
Your spotting scope has a front end that is a certain size. Example 80mm. Your camera has an adjustable opening. This is called aperture.
You will want to let as much light as possible through the scope and then through the camera lens.
To do this, you need to open your aperture.
The aperture setting is displayed in a F value. Example, F1.8 or F4.0, F5.6, F11, F32.
The larger the F number, the smaller the opening in the lens is.
Set your camera F value to a small number.
This will open the lens as much as possible and let more light in.
You also have a setting called white balance.
This is a setting that compensates color quality based on the type of light that is around.
Very few of us will ever digiscope indoors. So the settings for florescent light we wont want to use.
But, you will see a big difference in the colors in your images if you use the shade, clouds, and direct sunlight settings.
If you take an image under sunny skies with the cloud cover settings, you will find that the image is not the same as the actual conditions.
This is the first setting I will set.
If I know its going to be clear sunny skies all day, I will set this before I go out.
If I encounter an animal sitting is a shaded area, I will switch it to the shade setting.
Same for cloud cover.
This really does make a difference.
Try it and watch the image on your screen change.
Now you have the software set to the correct type of light, you will want to look at the handshake between ISO and shutter speed.
With your aperture open, you are getting lots of light. This will help.
You now need to use that light to get enough of on the sensor. We are talking about exposure time and the effect of the ISO setting.
This is where it gets kind of technical.
ISO is the cameras sensitivity to light.
In low light, you can raise your ISO, making the camera more sensitive to the low light conditions. The side effect of high ISO is usually noise that is displayed as grain in your pictures. This is where having larger photosites, which are less prone to noise, comes in to play.
You need a high enough ISO to get a fast shutter speed, but not so high that you get lots of noise.
So, the shutter speed is the time that the shutter is open and the light is hitting the camera sensor.
The longer it is open, the more likely your images are to have camera shake from wind, or the subject move, or some other factor cause blurred images.
The ISO and shutter speed work hand in hand to control the light.
Here is the long and short of it. Knowing where to set these only comes with experience and practice.
The more you try it, the more you get a sense of where things will need to be.
The best advice I can give you is to set your ISO at 400 to start with. Then adjust your shutter speed until the picture is not too light, or too dark.
If your shutter speed is too slow and you get motion blur, increase the ISO to the next level and then increase the shutter speed until the image is not too light or too dark.
If you are not getting motion blur, drop your ISO to 200 and adjust the shutter speed to get the exposure correct, and see if you get blur.
I try to use the lowest ISO setting I can get away with. Lower ISO numbers generally give better results, as long as the shutter speed is not so slow that the images are blurred.
ISO 400 seems to be a good place to start learning from.
Thats about it for the basics of camera settings that we digiscopers use all the time.
But, there is one other camera dilemma that we should discuss here.
The DUAL FOCUS issue.
New digiscopers often struggle with getting images in focus.
We have been discussing camera adjustments that deal with the capturing of the light waves.
But, there is also the focusing of the camera and the focusing of the scope.
If one is out of focus, trying to get the other one in focus is maddening.
So, first focus your scope with the camera off the scope.
Then place your camera on the scope.
Now, if your camera is equipped with an infinity focus setting or a manual focus setting, you are in luck. You can use the auto focus and hope it gets it right, or you can go manual and adjust the camera focus to match the scope focus. Or you can set the camera focus to infinity focus and let the lens try to get everything in focus all the time.
Cell phone cameras generally have no options here.
A screen tap tells the software where to try and autofocus.
Here is the tricky bit.
In focus to your eye may not be “in focus” to the camera.
So, when the camera is properly focused on the image coming through the scope, the image may not be in focus in the picture.
Why? Its the dual focus problem.
Everyones vision is different. Have you ever taken over your buddies spotting scope to see what he is looking at and found that the image was not in focus?
It was in focus to his eye, but not to your eye.
Same goes for your camera. You look through the scope and focus the scope to your eyes liking. then you put the camera up to the eyepiece and try to focus the camera lens to your eyes settings, not to the camera lenses needs.
Most people have never thought of a camera lens in this manner but it makes sense when you think about it.
So, you get the scope close to focused with your eye.
then place the camera on there and try to focus as best you can. But to get those super sharp, crystal clear digiscoped images, you may have to tweak the scopes focus a little bit to fine tune it.
Then you may have to slightly tweak the cameras focus again to get even sharper.
This is why non autofocus options are nice. You can manipulate each focus with a hand and get the dual focus mechanisms perfectly in tune.
Or take the easy route and set the camera to infinity and just focus the scope. Thus eliminating the dual focus issue.
Some of you may now have had a light come on that said “thats why my images are never in really sharp focus”.
This is a practice issue. I am going to put out a bit warning here.
For new guys, this is super frustrating.
Its slow, its cumbersome, and it often results in the worst thing.... by the time you focused the scope, put the camera in place, adjusted the ISO, set the shutter speed, focused the camera and fine tuned it, the animal has moved out of the scopes field of view.
Then the process starts all over again. Or worse, the animal has gone over a ridge and you gotta tear down, pack up, and you got nothing.
You will only get faster by doing it and doing it some more. the more you do it, the faster and more efficient you will get at it. Also your settings choices will be more accurate the first time and you will spend less time adjusting.
But that will only come with trial and error, practice and more practice.