Am I doing digiscoping wrong? (1 Viewer)

[johnsawyer]

Hi all!

I recently purchased a spotting scope (Athlon Talos 20-60x80mm) but I’m stumped as to why my digiscoping attempts at 20x zoom turn out like this. Whether I use a phone adapter or just hold my phone to the lens I get serious vignette-ing, and I need use my phone camera's digital zoom to see, which really reduces quality. Interestingly, when I go up to 60x zoom, the vignetting nearly dissapears?! I would've thought this to be the opposite but I'm very new at this stuff and don't know where to find answers to this.

I've played around with the eye-cups to no avail. My questions is do I just have a crappy scope (it's definitely a budget quality scope) or am I doing something wrong? Included is photo from the scope at 20x zoom, as well as a photo at 60x zoom.

 

[wheatearlp]

Do you use the zoom on your phone to try and reduce vignetting?

 

[johnsawyer]

Yes, I usually need to bring my phone's digital zoom up to 2x to have a manageable picture, but this comes with a sharp drop in image quality/pixel count. I just find it strange then when my scope eyepiece is zoomed 60x i get a smaller vignette - shouldn't the pupil be smaller at higher zooms?

 

[wheatearlp]

What phone do you have? I tend to zoom up to somewhere around 3.5-4.0 (Google Pixel phone) and take handheld pics. through my 'scope (Kowa TSN-773 with zoom eyepiece). Sometimes zoom in on 'scope, sometimes not. Depends on distance to bird, light conditions, etc. I then edit (crop, sharpen, etc. with in-phone software).
I also depends on what quality photos you want, i.e. what are you using them for?
One of mine from this morning attached, but don't ask me what the zoom was on either phone or 'scope. Bird was about 120-130 yards away.

 

[Ruff-Leg]

You're always going to get some vignetting - circular image projected to a square sensor. I find that zooming before taking the photo makes it more difficult to handhold - I crop and adjust exposure in post. It takes practice, but these images from my Pixel 8 Pro through a Nikon Monarch ED 82A with a 38x WF eyepiece show what's possible.

(The Coop was pretty close!)

 

[Peerke]

You're always going to get some vignetting - circular image projected to a square sensor. I find that zooming before taking the photo makes it more difficult to handhold - I crop and adjust exposure in post. It takes practice, but these images from my Pixel 8 Pro through a Nikon Monarch ED 82A with a 38x WF eyepiece show what's possible.

(The Coop was pretty close!)

View attachment 1639275View attachment 1639276

Nice shot. I am searching for a new phone and want to use it also for digiscoping. Pixel 8 Pro is one of the phones I am looking at. It seems that the 9 Pro has no big advantages camera wise, so 8 Pro will be fine. Other contenders are Samsung S24 or Iphone 14 Pro, but I would like to stay away from Iphone if possible. Don't like the apple workflow on phone and laptop/desktop.

Seeing this picture makes me confident that the 8 Pro is good enough for me. Thanks for sharing.

 

[KaleBikkel]

Look for a phone with a optical zoom lens.
I us a samsung s22 ultra with a 3x optical zoom lens.

 

[Peerke]

Look for a phone with a optical zoom lens.
I us a samsung s22 ultra with a 3x optical zoom lens.

So a Samsung S24 or S25 would be a better choice? The Pixel 8 Pro has a 5x optical zoom lens, but 5x would be a bit too much I guess????

Do you have some examples of your shots KaleBikkel (vroeger, bij de commando's ).

 

[KaleBikkel]

 

[KaleBikkel]

So a Samsung S24 or S25 would be a better choice? The Pixel 8 Pro has a 5x optical zoom lens, but 5x would be a bit too much I guess????

Do you have some examples of your shots KaleBikkel (vroeger, bij de commando's ).

Shoot wide open, for maximum of light.
The s22 als has a 10 x optical zoom but thats to much.
Every heat movement or something like that wil also be 10 times bigger.
Only when it is close you can get some sharp images.

But i also shoot movies at bigger distances, aprox 1000-1600 meter and thake a screenshot.
This wil give you nice "proof" images but not pixelsharp pictures of fluffy feathers,...

the nest is shot at 1600 meters.
the bird to close, only a headshot was possible.

 

[KaleBikkel]

So a Samsung S24 or S25 would be a better choice? The Pixel 8 Pro has a 5x optical zoom lens, but 5x would be a bit too much I guess????

Do you have some examples of your shots KaleBikkel (vroeger, bij de commando's ).

I like to try a s25 ultra, but i had to wait till i drop my phone,....😁

 

[KaleBikkel]

550-600 meters

 

[Peerke]

I like to try a s25 ultra, but i had to wait till i drop my phone,....😁

Thanks for your pictures Kale. I have a A72 with 3x zoom. It has no more software updates and the camera is not that good. Have to upgrade, so trying to find a suitable one.

Helpful this thread.

 

[Ruff-Leg]

Nice shot. I am searching for a new phone and want to use it also for digiscoping. Pixel 8 Pro is one of the phones I am looking at. It seems that the 9 Pro has no big advantages camera wise, so 8 Pro will be fine. Other contenders are Samsung S24 or Iphone 14 Pro, but I would like to stay away from Iphone if possible. Don't like the apple workflow on phone and laptop/desktop.

Seeing this picture makes me confident that the 8 Pro is good enough for me. Thanks for sharing.

One nice thing about the Pixel Pro camera apps is that they allow one to manually choose which camera lens to use. I have found that the default 1x lens works best; the 5x not so much.

 

[Peerke]

One nice thing about the Pixel Pro camera apps is that they allow one to manually choose which camera lens to use. I have found that the default 1x lens works best; the 5x not so much.

Thanks for the tip. I believe the Samsung app Expert RAW has that possibility too. It will be the Pixel 8 Pro or the Galaxy S24/25. I just can't work well with apple workflow, so only Windows here. There are also some nice cameras to find on e.g. Xiaomi phones, but ...

I tried digiscoping with a DLSR too, but in bright sunlight it is very hard to get the focus correct. The display of my Canon 6d ii is just not bright enough.

Phonescoping is much more easy, and the videos you can shoot with phonescoping is not bad at all. The still image is just not that good I think. A72 is not so good.

 

[KaleBikkel]

Try to find the focal length of the phone lens. For the s22 ultra that is 69 mm for the 3 x zoom and 230 times for the 10 x zoom. If you then multiply this by the zoom factor of your telescope you have an idea of what you can compare this to with a system camera. With 30 x zoom of my telescope I am then at 2070 and 6900 mm. But FOV also becomes a lot smaller. So something close is harder to find with your phone on your telescope than something further away. What do you get with 5 x optical zoom,....?

 

[lmans66]

Digiscoping

DIGISCOPING....

www.atlanticaudubon.org

 

[Peerke]

Try to find the focal length of the phone lens. For the s22 ultra that is 69 mm for the 3 x zoom and 230 times for the 10 x zoom. If you then multiply this by the zoom factor of your telescope you have an idea of what you can compare this to with a system camera. With 30 x zoom of my telescope I am then at 2070 and 6900 mm. But FOV also becomes a lot smaller. So something close is harder to find with your phone on your telescope than something further away. What do you get with 5 x optical zoom,....?

The Pixel 8 Pro has a 5x zoom with a focal length of 113 mm. That would be 1921 mm when combined with the 17x eyepiece I have. The Samsung S25 has 3x zoom with a focal length of 67 mm. That would be 1139 mm.
I also have a 23x fixed eyepiece and a zoom 17-54 x. The zoom has less FOV but is as sharp as the fixed eyepieces.

I learn from Imans66 that a good adapter is important too to get sharp results.

 

[Peerke]

Digiscoping

DIGISCOPING....

www.atlanticaudubon.org

A good read on a dull monday morning. Thanks for posting. Interesting stuff.

 

[Peerke]

Here one with the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. This is one of my first video shots I made. Just started, as you can see (I forgot to zoom in a bit to avoid vignetting). And one of the Song Thrush. The Thrush was at least 50 meters away and on top of a large tree.