Digiscoping Birds - Januari 2003

Birds - Januari 2003

This is my first 'real life' birdwatching/digiscoping test. All pictures were made the past few weeks during a holiday across South Australia.

The pictures are organised in two series: (1) resized images and (2) cropped images. The aim of this overview is not to be aesthetically perfect, but to offer insight in the possibilities of the Maxview40-SwaroATS65-CanonG2 combo. No Photoshop post-processing has been applied.

What did I learn?

Focussing is the hardest part. First, to actually find the bird. And second, to get a sharp image. Having the scope focussed with the 20-60x eyepiece, does not mean it is correctly focussed with the Maxview40 eyepiece. A higher resolution LCD display would be welcome.
(+) Once focussed, the limited depth of field allows for some nice effects.
(+) Most of the time there is no need for a shutter release. Just point and shoot. (Obviously, pointing is not trivial.)
(-) The combined magnification power (34.5x) is good, but often a bit more would be welcome. The G3 makes it 45x. Eyepieces with shorter focal length may help as well.
(+) All images are 4Megapixel images without vignetting, perfectly suitable for (enlarged) printing.
(-) The whole setup comprises quite some bits and pieces and takes time to set up.

1) Cropped images

These images are cropped to 1024x800 pixels. They show the actual pixels as they are registered by the camera.

Kookaburra	Black-faced Cormorant	Grey Butcherbird
Black-shouldered Kite	Black-shouldered Kite	Silver Gull (Juv.)
Crested Tern	New Holland Honeyeater	Silvereye
Yellow Rosella	Yellow Rosella	Silver Gull
Gallah	Gallah	Apostlebird

2) Resized images

When the bird practically fills the entire picture, there is no point in cropping. These images were merely resized topublish them.

New Holland Honeyeater (Juv.)	Australian Pelican	Grey Currawong
Kookaburra	Grey Butcherbird (Juv.)	Noisy Miner