DIGI-SCOPING
Overview
The nature of image capture with digital compact cameras means Opticron Telescopes to be used as high magnificationTelephoto lenses for wildlife photography. There are some limitations to this conversion however as viewing eyepieces are not specifically designed for taking photographs with digital cameras. As a result it is often difficult for a viewing eyepiece to project a large enough dia. path of light into the camera lens and onto the CCD within. This results in a partial image being created in the camera and a condition known as vignetting or circular image within the available rectangular image frame. Vignetting can be 'cropped out' of the final image using photo editing software but the final image is still equivalent to using a narrow field eyepiece.
To get the best results:
1. Choose a camera with a small lens diameter. The smaller the lens diameter the more of its' surface area will be covered by light exiting from the eyepiece. Commonly camera lenses of diameter less than 20mm give best results and camera lenses over 30mm in diameter will require at least 3x optical zoom to attain a 'full frame' image.
2. Use the optical zoom function on the camera or camcorder to effectively reduce the aperture of the lens to 'match up' with light exiting from the eyepiece. Remember the higher the optical zoom setting, the higher the magnification of the final image.
E.g. 20x eyepiece plus 3x optical zoom = 60x magnification.
[Assuming 1x setting = 1x magnification.]
The nature of image capture with digital compact cameras means Opticron Telescopes to be used as high magnificationTelephoto lenses for wildlife photography. There are some limitations to this conversion however as viewing eyepieces are not specifically designed for taking photographs with digital cameras. As a result it is often difficult for a viewing eyepiece to project a large enough dia. path of light into the camera lens and onto the CCD within. This results in a partial image being created in the camera and a condition known as vignetting or circular image within the available rectangular image frame. Vignetting can be 'cropped out' of the final image using photo editing software but the final image is still equivalent to using a narrow field eyepiece.
To get the best results:
1. Choose a camera with a small lens diameter. The smaller the lens diameter the more of its' surface area will be covered by light exiting from the eyepiece. Commonly camera lenses of diameter less than 20mm give best results and camera lenses over 30mm in diameter will require at least 3x optical zoom to attain a 'full frame' image.
2. Use the optical zoom function on the camera or camcorder to effectively reduce the aperture of the lens to 'match up' with light exiting from the eyepiece. Remember the higher the optical zoom setting, the higher the magnification of the final image.
E.g. 20x eyepiece plus 3x optical zoom = 60x magnification.
[Assuming 1x setting = 1x magnification.]
Note. In addition to eyepiece magnification and camera lens diameter, variables such as eyepiece eyerelief and F.O.V together with individual camera zoom lens mechanisms all play an important role in achieving the best overall 'set-up' for this type of Telephotography so individual testing prior to purchase is recommended whenever possible.
3. Best eyepiece options. As a general rule, the following eyepieces provide the best overall images with a wide range of different compact digital cameras. To help they have been graded according to particular requirement.
1. Overall image quality:
HDF T / HDF 40810
2. Flexibility across the widest range of different magnifications:
HDF T 40862 zoom
3. Taking pictures at lower magnifications:
40929 DTL
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