B&H has a lineup of "Expanded Digiscoping Kits", which have all you'll need to begin the addictive hobby of digiscoping except for the digital camera. The Swarovski ATS-65 HD Expanded Digiscoping Kit is the absolute ultimate in high performance and minimal weight, including the ATS-65 HD spotting scope with 45° angled viewing, a fixed eyepiece ideal for digiscoping, the Gitzo 1157 tripod legs with the Swarovski FH101 head(a perfect combination for control & low mass) and the wonderful Swarovski #49209 digital camera adapter. Brilliant performance in a size that is easily carried upon an allday excursion, with the capacity to switch between plain viewing and digiscoping in an instant.
The ATS-65 HD spotting scope features elements with extra-low dispersion glass. This provides an image with remarkable color fidelity, right to the edge of the subject. Having this advantage, you'll be able to employ the digital camera's zoom mechanism to the maximum, with great resulting imagery. In particular, color fringing is nearly eliminated. Subjects with intricate patterns will have crisper delineation-something enthusiastic birders will greatly appreciate.
B&H is only offering 45° angled scopes in these packages for two key reasons-angled scopes allow you to simultaneously share the viewing experience upon the camera's screen as it happens, and they allow a much lighter, shorter and less expensive tripod to be used. Because of the effective focal lengths easily achieved in digiscoping, often surpassing the pulling power of even the longest of telephoto lenses from SLR cameras, it is impractical to have your tripod's center column raised.
It is simply impossible to describe in these paragraphs every digital camera that can be used with the Swarovski ATS-65 HD Expanded Digiscoping Kit, because so many digital cameras exist. The short answer is that many, many cameras work with the system, and the location of the adapter's tripod screw for the camera can be adjusted in three directions(laterally, vertically and towards and away from the eyepiece).
Digiscoping requires practice and good technique to achieve results, but in time those results can be remarkable! You must take great care to not induce sharpness-robbing vibrations: wherever possible use an electronic release or remote control to fire the shutter, and if your camera does not allow this then practice firing the shutter while causing the least possible vibrations. If your camera offers a manual focus mode, choose the manual focus and set the focus to infinity. If your camera offers a manual exposure mode, choose the maximum aperture of the lens (to facilitate the fastest possible shutter speed) and experiment with the shutter speed until exposures are good. Increasing the ISO of the camera will also assist in increasing the shutter speed.
- ±2.7" (±69mm) Lateral tripod socket adjustment range
- 2.16-4.13" (55-105mm) Fore/aft tripod socket adjustment range
- 2.76" (70mm) Maximum distance between eyepiece & tripod socket