HARDCORE OUTDOOR-GEAR RECOMMENDATIONS-GEAR REVIEWS FOR HIKING, SEARCH AND RESCUE, MILITARY, HUNTING: Digiscoping

HARDCORE OUTDOOR-GEAR RECOMMENDATIONS-GEAR REVIEWS FOR HIKING, SEARCH AND RESCUE, MILITARY, HUNTING: Digiscoping - Zeiss Photoscope

Digiscoping - Zeiss Photoscope

Not a great picture I admit but it was my first attempt at "digiscoping" and it isn't all that bad considering I wasn't using any kind of bracket to hold the camera up to the eyepiece of the spotting scope. Look closely and you can see a decent Coues Deer buck above and just left of the Agave plant.

It seems that the two hottest things in hunting right now have to do with photography. The first is the new trend of pictures of couples (man and woman) showing up in product catalogs, advertisements, DVDs and trophy shots.  Not entirely sure what the point of it is or what it says about the sport or even how long it will continue but it is interesting to note that I, your intrepid, ever vigilant, keen eyed observer am aware of it.  And now, so are you.

The second is digiscoping or the use of digital cameras and high power spotting scopes to take long distance photographs of game or birds or oh I don't know, maybe couples hunting together.  Whatever the subject, this is the wave of the future I think and it goes right along with helmet mounted action cams that record all kinds of action sports and activities destined for Youtube stardom.

Equipment to make digiscoping easier and produce better pictures is progressing. Brackets and adapters are evolving for all the popular model spotting scopes and some manufacturers like Swarovski have developed wide angle eyepieces and HD glass to help things along but the truth is that it is still kind of a hassle to put the camera on to take pictures and take it off to go back to observing and so on and so forth.  Well, that hassle and the risk of missing the perfect picture while in mid change over provided the impetus for a technological solution. Why not put a camera in the eyepiece with a small LCD screen? Zeiss did and called it the DC4. It was good but not quite great so they came out with a completely integrated design.

Yea, that is pretty much what I said too. Talk about your slick set up. World class glass with a built in digital camera, flip out LCD view screen and a remote control to work everything including the shutter button so there is no user induced vibration to botch the pretty pics. Nice, huh?

Enter the Zeiss Photoscope 85T* FL. Instead of the incremental product improvement that is usually meted out to us in dribs and drabs over a few years, somebody at Zeiss mashed the peddle to the metal and unleashed this on us.

I do not profess to know much about cameras, I am the guy they had in mind when they designed point and shoot digitals, but I know what easy is and this sure looks like it. The specs that I understand sound good. Variable magnification from 15 to 45 power. 85mm objective lens. Fluorite glass. Triple zoom. Wide angle eyepiece. 7 megapixel. SD card storage. A 6.5 pound package. Sounds impressive to me. About the only thing it doesn't have is the ability to capture video and it may in fact do that for all I know.

Not for everybody I know but for some, you early adopters know who you are, this is kind of a big deal. It should be out late this summer or early fall just in time for deer season. And how much will this bad boy run you? Somewhere in the neighborhood of, stand by, hold your hover, strong message to follow. $6500.

I am not recommending this, yet, because I have not used it in the field. Hint. Hint.

Thanks.

Wade Nelson
Editor

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