camera advice please

[dafi]

I have been digiscopeing for the last threeyears and enjoying it heaps. The gear i use is realy basic. I use a 2mp kodakcx6230 shooting thru a tasco 15to45 x 50 scope. The scope is one of the strait thru type.The tasco gives verry little ca compered to my bigger 45degree scope although i only use the mag up to 30x or so. The camera is set on macro and i use one or more times mag to frame my subject. Most of my digi scopeing is of birds and my quick release plate is bolted to my tripod head for security[after several close calls and one expensive acident]. This is quite limiting in the field . When i need to use the better scope. So i think this maybe the time to change to a dslr. However my problem is that i know nothing about dslr's and need some advice. Could some one tell me what lens size would be equivalent to the mag of my scope?. Recomend a camera body that would serve a total beginer. Bearing in mind that cost is a serious issue to me.Any other relevant advice would be verry welcome as well.Thanks Daf

[nirofo]

Originally Posted by dafi

I have been digiscopeing for the last threeyears and enjoying it heaps. The gear i use is realy basic. I use a 2mp kodakcx6230 shooting thru a tasco 15to45 x 50 scope. The scope is one of the strait thru type.The tasco gives verry little ca compered to my bigger 45degree scope although i only use the mag up to 30x or so. The camera is set on macro and i use one or more times mag to frame my subject. Most of my digi scopeing is of birds and my quick release plate is bolted to my tripod head for security[after several close calls and one expensive acident]. This is quite limiting in the field . When i need to use the better scope. So i think this maybe the time to change to a dslr. However my problem is that i know nothing about dslr's and need some advice. Could some one tell me what lens size would be equivalent to the mag of my scope?. Recomend a camera body that would serve a total beginer. Bearing in mind that cost is a serious issue to me.Any other relevant advice would be verry welcome as well.Thanks Daf

Hi dafi

Welcome to WPF.

I'm afraid your jump from digiscoping to DSLR photography is not as straight forward as you imagine, to obtain an equivalent image magnification on a DSLR combo compared to that available through digiscoping you would need a monstrous lens, which quite frankly is not available, even if such a lens were available the cost would be enormous. Having said all that it's possible to obtain excellent images with a more modest set up, I don't know what your financial situation is, or what sort of price range you are looking at. but you should be able to knock up a useable DSLR and lens set up for approx £1000 to £1500. A DSLR camera body which will give you all the quality you need such as the Nikon D80 or Canon EOS 400D, coupled with a quality big zoom lens such as the Tamron 200-500 will give you a good entry into DSLR wildlife photography. A combination such as this is capable of excellent results, but you will need to learn new skills in bushcraft in order to get close enough to your subject. Add a short zoom such as a Nikkor 18-70 and a 1.4 converter such as the Kenko Teleplus DG 1.4X Pro 300 and you're set up. The rest is up to you and the subject.

nirofo.

[dafi]

hi nirofo thanks for that.Very intresting and i will cost out the options on the net. Im a bit stuned by how expensive it is as my current set up only cost a couple of hundred quid. A bit scary to say the least. Never mind if you dont ask you dont find out i supose cheers. daf

[Andy]

There is some good news from a switch from digiscoping to dslr photography, in that your ability to crop and enlarge the subject with a photo from a dslr is far greater than that from a compact digital camera, even with similar pixel counts.

Another benefit is the noise factor at higher iso levels, meaning you can get excellent results with a dslr camera up to (and past in some cases) ISO800.

nirofo's reply is spot on, in that you will need to work on the fundamentals of getting closer to the subject but the rewards will be very high with a dslr and even a modest lens. Certainly the Tamron 200-500 and the Sigma 50-500 should be top of your list as far as reach for ££.

cheers,
Andy

[Joe]

Hi Dafi,
There are several options to get a similar sort of magnification, and produce some excellent digi photos.
May I suggest one
step one; Buy a Canon 350D (8mpixel) or 400D body (a little more expensive but 10 mpixel)
Look for these items secondhand
Tamron SP500mm mirror lens, Tamron SP convertor , Canon EF/eos mount for Tamron. these items are no longer available new (except mount)
But it'll get you similar magnification without spending thousands

just a thought?
hope this helps

[nirofo]

Originally Posted by Joe

Hi Dafi,
There are several options to get a similar sort of magnification, and produce some excellent digi photos.
May I suggest one
step one; Buy a Canon 350D (8mpixel) or 400D body (a little more expensive but 10 mpixel)
Look for these items secondhand
Tamron SP500mm mirror lens, Tamron SP convertor , Canon EF/eos mount for Tamron. these items are no longer available new (except mount)
But it'll get you similar magnification without spending thousands

just a thought?
hope this helps

I'm afraid your interpretation of image magnification is way out, first of all a 500mm lens coupled to a 1.4 converter only gives you 700mm, if you then multiply this by 1.6 which is obtained from using a Canon EOS 350D or 400D DSLR (sensor size ratio), you have a fixed maximum telephoto of 1120mm. The Tamron 500mm lens that you quote is a fully manual mirror lens with a fixed aperture of f8, with the 1.4 converter attached it becomes f11. I doubt also that you will have any metering modes through the camera, necessitating the need for a separate hand held exposure meter. The image magnification available when digiscoping, using a conventional spotting scope and a digital compact with built in zoom lens is far greater than this.

nirofo.