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Do you ever look at a distant object and imagine a breathtaking image that you could have captured of it only if you had a better camera lens? Many passionate photographers feel helpless in such situations. That’s probably because they are short on a budget and cannot afford a high-resolution camera. Well, to all those photographers, we have a solution for you! That is, you should start looking for the best spotting scopes for digiscoping. If you are wondering what a spotting scope is, keep reading.
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Best Spotting Scopes For Digiscoping
1. Ultima Zoom Spotting Scope By Celestron
The Ultima Zoom by Celestron offers an objective lens of 80 mm. It is large enough to focus more light than a standard camera lens. This enables the scope to increase the picture brightness and provide you with a large field view. This helps you cover all the required details.
You can zoom in through the eyepiece up to 20-60 times the original angle. The focusing wheel of the scope is quite convenient to use. You can adjust it even when it is attached to a camera. This lets you make any final adjustments you want to get the perfect picture.
This spotting scope comes with multi-coated optics, which further adds to the brightness of the image, reducing the chromatic aberration for a high-quality image. The T-mounter provided with the spotting scope helps you connect it to your camera easily.
One drawback of the product is its unbalanced weight. The spotting scope gets challenging to manage due to its unbalanced weight and has to be constantly readjusted. This requires you to have a sturdy tripod to do more capturing than setting.
Pros
- Produces high-quality image
- Has multi-coated optics
- 80 mm large lens
- T-mounter
- easy to focus
- affordable
Cons
- Unbalanced weight
- The lens often loses clarity during use
- The lens cap keeps falling
Verdict
The Celestron Ultima is a good choice overall. It is affordable than its competitors and provides better quality too.
2. Spotting Scope By Landove
This spotting scope by Landove is known for its amazingly zoomed-in images. It has high magnification power, which varies between 20x to 60x. Its coaxial dual focus dials directly zoom in to your target for a detailed image even from a distance of 1000 yards. This ensures quick and clear images with comfort and ease.
This spotting scope has an 80mm objective lens with BAK4 prism. Landove has added 80mm green film inside the spotting scope. The film surrounds the objective lens, eyepiece, and prism to protect them from dirt or damage. This enables a clear and crisp image. The scope has a sunshade feature too, preventing the lens from any damage due to sunlight. You can easily clean the lens if you need to by simply taking it out from its holder.
The manufacturer has added an extra eyepiece in the package for you to use if the older one gets damaged. It also includes a tabletop metal tripod and a rotating tripod mount to help you get the desired position to capture an image. Moreover, it has a carrying bag, and lens covers to protect them.
Landove has made this product even more desirable by adding a smartphone holder. You can take pictures and share them with your family and friends on the spot. The holder is removable, and you can use it with other devices like binoculars and microscopes. However, they must be suitable for an eyepiece with a diameter ranging from 25 to 46mm.
The fog-proof and water-proof body of this spotting scope make it highly weather-friendly. So you can easily take it out in even the toughest weather conditions. The exterior of the scope is made up of good-quality, non-slip rubber, which makes it easy to hold the scope. Its anti-shock feature further adds to its protection.
Pros
- Has high magnification power of up to 20-60x
- Lightweight
- Easy to carry and use
- Weather-friendly
- Comes with protective equipment
- Durable construction
- Has a multi-coated lens
- Removable smartphone holder
Cons
- Has a narrow FOV
- The smartphone holder requires improvement
Verdict
Landove offers well-built and improved features in its spotting scope. However, its price might be a problem if you are not willing to start with a high investment. Not that it’s too high, but a little higher than its competitors.
3. Gosky Spotting Scope
This spotting scope by Gosky offers a good value for your money. It has a 60mm objective lens with multiple layers of coating. The green film does surround not only the objective lens but also the eyepiece and the prism. This guarantees a brighter and clearer image.
The magnification of this scope ranges from 15 to 45x only, which is comparatively a little less. However, it still offers a good focus. The lens is easy to zoom in and out.
This spotting scope is highly durable due to its magnalium structure and rubber fitting. It is water-proof and fog-proof and can withstand severe weather conditions, which makes it quite reliable. Its anti-shock protective rubber covering enhances its protection and handling. You can protect the eyepiece by simply expanding the eyepiece shield.
The device comes with a smartphone holder, which lets you share pictures and videos the moment you capture them. The scope also has a carrying bag, two lens caps, straps, and a cleaning cloth. You also get a tripod and a user manual with the scope.
Pros
- Variable magnification
- Smartphone holder
- Durable construction
- Can withstand severe weather conditions
- Comes with protective equipment
- Multiple-coated lens
Cons
- Lower magnification
- Tripod needs improvements
- The smartphone adapter could be improved
Verdict
Gosky’s highly durable and reliable spotting scope is a good choice for beginners. It is easy to use and affordable too.
4. SVBONY Spotting Scope
It has a big objective lens with a diameter of 80mm. This large lens collects more light and forms a clear and bright image even from a distance of about 1000 yards. It has a wide field of view at 82.9-48ft/1000 yards.
The lens is coated with multiple layers of green film to protect as well as the Bak4 refractive prism from any dirt particle and ensures a crisp image. This combo of the protected lens and prism increases the transmission of light for a high-contrast image even in low light.
This spotting scope is highly water-proof. It remains completely unaffected in one-meter deep water for thirty minutes. It is also fog-proof for you to take amazing images in the fog too. The rubber covering on the exterior protects the spotting scope from severe weather conditions.
The eyepiece is angled at 45 degrees to get a good view comfortably. You can easily adjust the viewing angle up to 90 degrees by loosening the knob and moving it to the desired position and then tightening it there. Do not forget to tighten it back because you will lose your angel otherwise. It is also essential for getting a clear focus of the object.
The eyepiece has a twist-up eyecup mask. It is suitable to use with or without glasses. This also solves the issue of falling eyepiece by keeping it at its place. It also has a telescopic hood which can help to direct the light to the desired angle and avoid losing it. This spotting scope comes with a carrying bag.
Pros
- Quite affordable than other competitors
- Has a wide field of view
- A big objective lens with a diameter of 80 mm
- Rotating body
- Weather-friendly
- Durable structure
- Multi-layered lens
- High magnification
- Good customer service
Cons
- Does not come with a tripod stand
Verdict
SVBONY offers high magnification and durable structure and great performance at a rate lower than its rivals.
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What Is A Spotting Scope?
A spotting scope is a modified telescope that produces magnified and upright images. It is excellent to use for distant photography. You can attach a spotting scope to an image capturing device like your smartphone or camera. There are some significant differences between an astronomical telescope and a spotting scope. For example, spotting scopes are small and highly portable. They require a tripod stand rather than a specialized stand, which a telescope requires. These differences make a spotting scope suitable for daily uses.
There are two types of spotting scopes.
- Straight body spotting scope: Their eyepiece and objective lens both are present in the same plane. copeThey feel like a monocular.
- Angled body spotting scope: Their eyepiece is at a 45 degrees angle from the body. This offers greater comfort than a straight body spotting scope.
You can choose a straight or angled spotting scope for digiscoping based on your preferences and requirements. Both of them produce similar images.
What Is Digiscoping?
Digiscoping is the act of connecting a spotting scope to your digital or mobile camera. It turns your simple camera into an exceptionally powerful image-catching device. Hence, you do not have to fret over buying a DSLR or its expensive lenses. Moreover, spotting scopes are available at very affordable prices that hardly make a fraction of a DSLR’s lens price.
Benefits Of Digiscoping
Digiscoping has many advantages over conventional photography. They include
- Spotting scopes are much lighter than camera lenses and are easy to carry around.
- With digiscoping, you can achieve a magnification of up to 4000 mm.
- Digiscoping enables you to capture wildlife from a secure distance without being noticed.
- You can use spotting scopes for hunting and target shooting as well.
- Birding with spotting scopes has become a common practice.
- You can also utilize digiscoping in surveillance.
Digiscoping can take you to a whole new level of photography at a wallet-friendly cost. So, if you decide to enter the world of great and innovative photography, we have a list of the best spotting scopes for digiscoping that you can start with.
Tips For Digiscoping
Check the light: A low light can cause blurry images. For a brighter image, you need more light passing through the scope.
- Lens diameter: lenses with a larger diameter produce brighter images. They are able to gather more light resulting in good pictures. A lens with over 80 mm can serve better than 65 mm lens.
- Try to avoid zooming in: Your image quality can vary due to zooming in. That’s mainly because a lens loses light when you zoom in. It is better to take a larger image and crop it later than zooming it in when capturing.
- Prefer motion over stills: Often, photographers try to capture the motion of a flying bird in an image. For that, you can use the special shooting feature that captures continuously to cover the whole motion. However, a better option is to shoot a video. It will enable you to achieve the whole motion easily. If it is a bird, you’ll be able to identify it without any trouble.
- Use a tripod: A tripod is a safe and convenient option to take clear images. Your image can be blurry because of your own vibration. You can eliminate this vibration by using a tripod.
- Use filters: You can use filters available with the spotting scope to add an artistic effect in your images.
- Keep practicing: Taking photos does not cost you anything once you have got the device in your hands. So do not stop practicing.
Conclusion
Digiscoping has gained a good familiarity among enthusiastic photographers and birders. It is a great solution for people with limited resources and budgets.
Celestron is rated as one of the best spotting scopes for digiscoping. It is a good choice for people with a good camera to enhance their photography skills. It offers all the required features for the best overall performance.
The Landove’s 80 mm spotting scope is an excellent option to be considered if you have a better smartphone. If you are looking for something, even more, cheaper than SVBONY is the right choice. It is the best budget spotting scope for digiscoping. Whichever spotting scope you choose, you can try following the tips mentioned for better performance.