Digiscoping Tips

"What is digiscoping?"

Simply put, it is taking photos (still or video) through your scope with a digital camera. There are a few scopes on the market with built-in cameras, but their objective lens are on the small size (55-60mm) as well as megapixels (~3 MP). Improvements will evolve in the future, but unless you're using your scope primarily for digiscoping and don't want the hassle of separate components, don't bother with built-ins.

It is possible to just simply hold your camera up to the back of your scope and click away. However, depending on what your photographing, it may be difficult to hold your camera steady enough to take the shot and it not be blurry. To help with this, there are mounting brackets to stabilize your camera. They even have ones that will swing your camera out of the way when you want to look through the scope without the camera, but then bring it back again for the shot of a lifetime!.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. On the two following videos below, Clay Taylor, Swarovski Specialist, describes digiscoping, and how to do it effectively.

On the second video, Clay continues talking about what cameras and spotting scopes to choose when getting into digiscoping. This is a must see tip for every photographer who wants to take better pictures in the field using their spotting scope and digital camera.

Go to Spotting Scopes Part I

Go to Spotting Scopes Part II

Go to Choosing Bird Watching Binoculars

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