One priority to select a camera for digiscoping is aperture priority and the lowest possible f-stop. The diameter of the lens opening (or aperture) is referred to as the f-stop. Most compact-level or point-and-shoot compact digital cameras have f-stops ranging between f/2.0 and f/11.0.
Aperture priority mode is a setting on your digital camera that, when activated, forces your digital camera to automatically set the shutter speed based upon the aperture setting that you have provided to your camera beforehand. You have to first select an appropriate aperture setting; otherwise you might lose some nice shots!
It’s better to stay close to f4.5, which allows much faster shutter speeds of up to 1/1000 but most often around 1/60 to 1/250. You need this faster shutter speed in order to catch those fast moving and rapid movements of small birds and also on-the-fly shots. You usually don’t need the flash because it is more related to your scope’s objective diameter than your camera due to long distance.
You also need to apply multi shot setting because you will benefit the most by taking a couple of shots from each scene. You should find it under the drive mode setting of your camera. This way you can shoot 10 to 15 pictures quickly, one after another, focusing over and over again.
For better control on the quality of your pictures, it is better to have a release cord to use when you want to keep your digiscoping set as still as possible. You should be able to manage the focus of your camera, which means being able to turn the focus options on, to allow selection of focus area and location of light readings. Some simple focus settings that you can usually find under most compact digital cameras are Evaluative, Center, Weighted, Average and Spot, which is our point of view.
Due to quality loss of the original image, while using digital zoom it’s much better to start the camera zoomed up just under the full zoom before attaching it to the adapter or the eyepiece. But this can lead to dark images and you’ll lose much light this way. So incase you are not under good light condition you can zoom back to find the proper lighting for the best capture of the scene. This really depends on the condition and there are a couple of ways to get around this issue.
You can change ISO setting (which was known as ASA film speed) of your camera to make it more sensitive to light in low light conditions. The higher the ISO rating, the more sensitive the image sensor is to light. But since higher ISO results in more digital noise, you should also have f-stop and shutter speed settings under control and matched with your new ISO setting. You have to keep in mind that there are only three ways that you can control the light flow in your camera.
• ISO settings
• Shutter Speed
• Aperture value or f-stop
So if you want to eliminate digital noise then you should work around the other two settings and conjure up the right image clarity.
This means that your digital camera’s manual settings should give you the options to change ISO, shutter speed and f-stop values at the very minimum. Nikon’s CoolPix 950 is known to be one of the best digital cameras for digiscoping.
Vignetting is another problem source that affects your digital images while digiscoping, and it occurs while trying different zoom options. You can use your image editing software to cut or crop the dark glow off your image while post processing your images. You can use fixed eyepieces to reduce vignetting, but with variable eyepieces you have a better chance of getting a closer feel of your target. Don’t forget that the more zoom you do, the darker your image will become. You can fix some of it in the postproduction stage using PhotoShop or fireworks.
http://www.opendigitalphotography.com/Digiscoping/Digiscoping-Buying-Guide/Birding-Digital-Camera-Digiscoping.html
