Digiscoping

[Al Agnew]

I recently acquired a 30-70X Swarovski spotting scope, and I love it.  But where I'm getting the most use out of it out here in Montana is digiscoping with my Iphone.  I got an adapter that you put the phone into and then it attaches to the eyepiece of the scope.  The thing is a little tricky, because focusing the scope by looking at the screen on the phone isn't as easy as it would seem, and you absolutely need a tripod, while a remote shutter button for the phone is a big help, too.  But I have those things, and Mary and I spent a day in Yellowstone Park this week, trying it all out.  We had a great day of wildlife viewing, with wolves and bears, both black and grizzlies.  A bison had just died, and was about 100 yards off the road, and there was a pregnant, collared wolf on it.  This is a picture I got with the scope and Iphone:

 

Compare that to a pic I took with my SLR and 500 mm lens with 1.4 extender (so 700 mm):

However, the phone optics aren't nearly as good...here is an enlargement of the same picture taken with the SLR and big lens...note the better detail:

 

On the other hand, the phone really handles low light situations better.  This bear photo couldn't have been taken with the SLR and big lens; the bear was under a big evergreen tree and it was late in a cloudy afternoon, so it was very dark.  The bear was about 200 yards away, so not only would it have been very small in the frame, but it would have been very dark or would have required a very slow shutter speed, which doesn't work well with animals that are probably in motion.  But the phone compensated for the lighting very well.  This was not even at full zoom on the spotting scope, but was zoomed in on the phone itself:

So while the stuff I've taken with the phone and scope has not been publishing quality, for my purposes of getting reference for paintings, it's been pretty amazing.