Question About Digiscoping

[Elkoholic307]

Are you guys taking pics with the spotter on the lowest power?.. Then use the camera's optical zoom to get in close, or a combination of the two?

[Elkoholic307]

that's right, I upgraded from the Zeiss to the Vortex.

My hunting partner has the Leupold 12-40X60HD. Because of this we have had both spotters side by side over and over again. And over and over, my partner comes over to the Razor when he wants the best view. So much so he is currently selling his Leupy and buying the Razor HD, only the straight version.

Don't just take my word on the Razor HD. Talk to the scope's owners. Read the reviews. Birdwatching magazine tested all of the top scopes and put the Razor HD as the equal to the Swaro, Leica, and Kowa 77. They also noted the superiority of the Kowa 88. Cabelas has a pretty detailed Razor HD review where the buyer went from a Leica to the Razor. Vortex has the best warranty in the business ... the best.

Consistently, people love their Razor HD spotters ... me included. Also take a look at Tines Up's videos and see what spotter they are using.

Backtracking a little bit...

I saw that you said you upgraded on a different thread and meant to ask you about it. It floored me! That statement pretty much says everything, but like you said I'm not taking your word for it. I've been reading reviews and everything I possibly can on the Razor and have not come across anything negative about the scope. The one and only bad thing I have read is the cover for it is flimsy. But, I noticed Tines Up had a King's Desert Shadow cover on theirs, just like King's sells but only for Swaro scopes.

I'm glad you mentioned the Gold Ring; it reinforced my thinking. I currently have the non-HD version and have been pretty pleased with it. After reading up on digiscoping I learned that I will definitely need some sort of HD glass. So, I was either thinking Gold Ring HD or Razor HD. 40x isn't quite enough for me but it works very well for it's weight and size; which is why I liked it. I have been teeter-totting between the two but have always been leaning toward the Razor. I think I just need to man up and start packing the bigger and better Razor, haha.

[Bitterroot Bulls]

I try to use as low of a magnification as I can with the spotter, then zoom the camera up to 5x. The best quality pics and video I get are at the lowest magnification on the spotter eyepiece, and the camera zoomed just enough to remove vignetting. If you need more magnification, and are out of camera zoom, you can always turn up your scope a little bit.

It is all about getting as much light as you can to the camera sensor.

[GrantMan]

I got the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH2 to digiscope with my Razor spotting scope. I am more than impressed with this set up. Amazon.com has good prices for Lumix cameras.

[Bitterroot Bulls]

That camera looks like a great digiscoping value, Grantman! The 4x max zoom is just about right.

[GrantMan]

Yes it is a good value.

One thing I will add to this thread is to get a camera with a good view finder. The Panasonic has a nice view finder, before I got that camera I was using an older Kodak camera with a small view finder and the image would get washed out in the sunlight which made it very difficult to focus on the subject.

[GrantMan]

I got some video this last weekend using the Panasonic camera and Vortex Razor spotting scope.

Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08oKOGQAjqI

It was taken about 500 yards out with 20x on the scope and the camera has no zoom for the video.

It turned out much better than I anticipated. I also got a bunch of pictures of antelope about 1300 yards but the mirage and wind blowing vibrating the tri-pod degraded the quality a bunch but I was still able to zoom in enough on the computer after downloading to confirm my field scoring.

[Drhorsepower]

Sorry about bringing an old topic up but this is a great place to ask opinion.

I have a leupold gr 12x40. Non hd.

Camera set up Nikon dslr with 18-55 lens and 70-300 lens.

I am interested in digiscoping. I am wondering if buying the adapter for my cameras small lens would be worth it or should I spend the money on a teleconverter. I do not know what will produce a better photo considering i do not have the hd version of spotter. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

An no I'm not going to buy a razor hd as much as I would like to

[Bitterroot Bulls]

I don't think that setup is going to work too well with a big camera/lens and a small spotter. I know Leupold makes an adapter for point and shoot cameras and the 12-40. I think going the point and shoot route would be better.

Teleconverters are generally awefull.

I also see Tines Up is making one for Leupold Gold Ring spotters:

http://www.tinesup.com/catalog/item/7381735/7696183.htm

[Elkoholic307]

An no I'm not going to buy a razor hd as much as I would like to

C'mon, everybody's doing it...