scope for canon 5d

[santana007]

Hi
i`m after a scope for a canon 5d i want it for nature shots and having seen some pics of the moon on here + being an Armstrong would like to know which is the best to go for for both quality and value for money ., low end £200 to a max of £1000 . what does anyone recommend . and please add why and links

cheers in advance

Rog

 

[jgs001]

Rog, that's a really hard one to answer. So you want to use it as a spotting scope and do you want to use it for Astro work as well ?

 

[santana007]

Rog, that's a really hard one to answer. So you want to use it as a spotting scope and do you want to use it for Astro work as well ?

Hi

if at all possible yes .. not to up on this kind of kit , give me a normal lens and i`m fine .

i have a canon 100-400 is , but just wondered if a scope would add another dimension .

Rog

 

[jpwone]

Rog

I recently converted a Skywatcher Pro (600mm f7.5) to use on my cameras. The actual 'conversion' is easy enough. EOS to T mount adapter and a 2" 50mm (to bring the focus range back to earth). I also fitted an AF confirm chip to the adapter which does make focusing a little easier.

There is a wealth of knowledge (mainly aimed at birding) at

http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=305

look for posts by Paul Cornfield who has done a lot of work on this and uses it for birding and astro. He has a thread running which shows all his work to date called 'Some digiscoping experiments'.

 

[santana007]

Rog

I recently converted a Skywatcher Pro (600mm f7.5) to use on my cameras. The actual 'conversion' is easy enough. EOS to T mount adapter and a 2" 50mm (to bring the focus range back to earth). I also fitted an AF confirm chip to the adapter which does make focusing a little easier.

There is a wealth of knowledge (mainly aimed at birding) at

http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=305

look for posts by Paul Cornfield who has done a lot of work on this and uses it for birding and astro. He has a thread running which shows all his work to date called 'Some digiscoping experiments'.

cheers for that ,
i can see it isn`t going to be easy to chose what i go for

Rog

 

[jgs001]

Rog, I'm using a 400mm spotting scope for my Astro work. It works really well for clusters, star fields etc, it is, however, a mare to focus, saying that so is a camera lens with AF on stars.. To be honest, the scope is less important for Astro photography than the mount. To do long exposures of the night sky, you either need something like an Astrotrac (a special arm mount designed for use on a rigid tripod) or a heavy duty equatorial mount that is designed to track the sky and follow it's rotation.


Something like this with one of these will allow possibly up to two minute exposures. If you want to go longer, you are getting into more difficult territory that I'm not familiar with, but you'd need a second scope, something like a modded webcam and a laptop with some specialist cabling. However, get that right and you can get some real long exposures (15 to 20 minutes).

Not sure on the spotting aspects though, never looked into it.

 

[santana007]

Rog, I'm using a 400mm spotting scope for my Astro work. It works really well for clusters, star fields etc, it is, however, a mare to focus, saying that so is a camera lens with AF on stars.. To be honest, the scope is less important for Astro photography than the mount. To do long exposures of the night sky, you either need something like an Astrotrac (a special arm mount designed for use on a rigid tripod) or a heavy duty equatorial mount that is designed to track the sky and follow it's rotation.


Something like this with one of these will allow possibly up to two minute exposures. If you want to go longer, you are getting into more difficult territory that I'm not familiar with, but you'd need a second scope, something like a modded webcam and a laptop with some specialist cabling. However, get that right and you can get some real long exposures (15 to 20 minutes).

Not sure on the spotting aspects though, never looked into it.

cheers

that looks like some nice kit . my wife looked at me and said happy birthday and happy xmas . so i have an ok . but i`ll have to have a good look at other kit . it`s all in the budget at the moment but i have a habit of going outside what i interned .

i take it this scope would be no good for nature photography

rog

 

[jgs001]

Rog... not sure to be honest, I've never tried it using a scope. The 2 speed focuser would help, but I'm not sure the focal length is any better than you already have. It's also possibly heavier and doesn't have any IS.

 

[santana007]

Rog... not sure to be honest, I've never tried it using a scope. The 2 speed focuser would help, but I'm not sure the focal length is any better than you already have. It's also possibly heavier and doesn't have any IS.

ok cheers

looks like this is going to talk a lot of thought and hunting around before i take the plunge

Rog