Should I Sell My Canon 500D And Go For A Digiscope?

[rjmartin]

Hey Everyone

I have owned several SLR cameras over the last 4 1/2 years or so (from the Nikon D50 to the Canon 450D) but then I had to sell up during 2009 due to the need of funds. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase an SLR camera back a short while ago ....

I bought my Canon 500D at the end of December 2010 from Jessops and shortly after I bought the 55-250mm IS lens. Now I will be honest I am on a budget (I am a student) and so therefore can not afford these fancy 400mm L lenses etc.

Now the problem is I primarily like to photograph wildlife (a good 90% of my photos are of wildlife) and I am finding that 250mm isn't long enough ....
(In the past I only photographed sports/portraits and didn't have this problem ....)

As I say - I don't have the budget to buy anything more powerful so I have come up with a couple of ideas.

1) Is there any type of adaptor that you can buy from Ebay/Amazon etc that can be fitted to my 55-250mm lens to allow extra zoom (I know it would deteriorate quality)?

2) When out recently I was speaking to a gentleman who told me he had, had an SLR camera and when in a similar position he sold up and moved to a digiscope .... does anybody have any experiences of these?

Any help/advice would be most appreciated

Cheers, Rob

 

[artyman]

Whilst a digiscope will get shots from a distance the IQ will not be as good as a DSLR, also not as flexible as it takes time to set up and wait for the vibrations to stop by which time the bird has flown off or moved so it's refocus time again. Perhaps thinking of alternatives, a hide or good camoflage, better fieldcraft or set the camera up closer to a known spot and fire remotely. Or save for a longer lens.

 

[Stumpy]

Whats a digiscop then? Never heard of them.

 

[postcardcv]

Whats a digiscop then? Never heard of them.

digiscoping is taking photos through a telescope, for many years it was mainly using compact cameras but the current batch of EVIL cameras are also very good for it. Digiscoping can be a good option for bird photography, yeah it takes a bit longer to set up but you can get very good results. It can be expensive though as to get really good results you'll need a good scope and they don't come cheap.

 

[rjmartin]

Thanks for the answers so far .... other opinions would be welcomed too

 

[Stumpy]

digiscoping is taking photos through a telescope.......... to get really good results you'll need a good scope and they don't come cheap.

Thank you. I live and learn.

(Sudden mental image if it gets popular, of newspaper reports of lots of photographers getting shot because wooden tops thought they were setting up rocket launchers/Bazookas)!