Binoculars UK Ltd. Telephotography with Opticron

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Home > Spotting Scopes » Opticron Spotting Scopes » Telephotography with Opticron

Telephotography with compact digital cameras & camcorders - Overview

The nature of image capture with digital compact cameras means Opticron telescopes can be used as high magnification telephoto 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 will be equivalent to using a very narrow field eyepiece.

To get the best results:
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.

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 [assuming camera default setting = 1x magnification.]

Note. In addition to eyepiece magnification and camera lens diameter, variables such as eyepiece eyerelief and field of view plus individual camera zoom-lens mechanisms all play an important role in achieving the best overall 'set-up' for this type of telephotography. There is therefore no substitute for individual testing.

Eyepieces 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.

	Opticron PANASONIC LUMIX FS40 Digiscoping Kit This kit is compatable with all Opticron Scopes, featuring the Panasonic Lumix FS40 Camera with 50065 DCC Adapter or 41114 Photoadapter Push-fit SDL (28mm thread). More Information »

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