More digiscoped Bittern.

A Bittern is posing in the reeds about 70 meters away. It is standing completely still with a touch of weak winter sun warming it from the south east. On a crisp January morning such a sight is bound to gladden the heart and quicken the pulse of a newcomer to the art that is digiscoping. 

 

Taken at 400mm for comparison.

 “Canon fodder!” I hear some wag cry. Well, you would have thought so wouldn’t you? I struggled again to get a good focus and though I had plenty of time with the bird completely still and in plain view, I just could not seem to get it crisp.

Digiscoped at 16x magnification.

I was using live view on the Canon 50D which allows me to zoom in to 10x magnification to check the focus. The scope sports a 16x eyepiece so between them I had an image on the screen of 160x with which to judge the focus. A fine adjustment knob on the scope crisped up the reeds in front of and behind the Bittern, but sadly not the bird itself.

Am I expecting too much? Surely this situation is exactly what digiscoping is for. Any tips will be very gratefully received and I shall persevere to get it right when I get another chance.

All the photos have been posted in their original state, then cropped to the same degree for comparison.

Then I started mucking about and tried to zoom the scope in as far as I could. This one was at about 36x magnification.

Eventually, after trial, error, more error and some more trialling, but mostly error and a lot of photoshopping, I got this one. This is closer to what I was hoping for, but there is still some way to go and I have been hit by the realisation that there is more to this digiscoping lark than just poking a camera down a scope.

To those who contest that that digiscoping is not an artform, try it for yourself. If it works for you, please come back and tell me how you did it!