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Digiscoping Equipment

2003 and Earlier

I purchased a Nikon Coolpix 700 digital camera for Jean in June 1999. In March of 2000 we travelled to California and took many digital photos of the desert vegetation there. In April 2000 I showed the pics at a regular monthly meeting of the Victoria Natural History Society, Victoria BC Canada, and said to fellow member Derek Marven that it would be great if these cameras had 500mm lenses for bird pics. He’d been looking at the early digiscoping websites and said if you have a scope just stick the camera in its objective lens and snap the picture. So, with an old Bushnell Spacemaster 60mm with 15/45 objective lens on April 29 2000 here is the first result – a Glaucous-winged Gull – not great but convincing evidence that the technique had potential.

Glaucous-winged Gull
Figure 1 - Glaucous-winged Gull; my first digiscope photograph.

In 2001, son Douglas, a tool and die maker, designed and machined an adapter to a 20X Wide Angle objective of the Bushnell with the CP700. The body is aluminium with steel insert thread for attachment to the scope housing and an exact fit for the diameter of the CP700 lens. In summary the equipment is as follows:

Spacemaster Spotting Scope and Nikon CP700 digital camera
Figure 2 - Spacemaster Spotting Scope and Nikon CP700 digital camera.

2004 to Present

Most of the photos taken to January 1, 2004 used the Spacemaster/CP700 digiscope set-up. Since then I have used the following equipment:

Swarovski Spotting Scope and Nikon CP4500 digital camera
Figure 3 - Swarovski Spotting Scope and Nikon CP4500 digital camera.

Usual settings for Nikon CP4500: 20X eyepiece, Camera Programmed Auto, Continuous, Centre Weight Focus, ISO 200 (usual) and ISO 100 in brighter conditions.

Web Site Design

Son Donald McLeod of Millbrook, Ontario, Canada designed and maintains this website. He can be contacted at dondev.com

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