I have been watching some Spotted Flycatchers and decided to try and get some pictures of them. I have experienced conditions from raining, dull and overcast, to brief bright sunshine. I felt that they would provide a good opportunity to test my photography equipment out and see which gave me the best results. I'm pretty sure all the equipment is capable of better pictures than I can get out of them, but my ineptitude as a photographer is a constant variable thoughout these tests.
I started with my iPhone 6S connected to my scope with the Novagrade adapter.
These were from a batch of the best ones from my iPhone through the scope.
I revisited a few days later with my Canon G3X bridge camera. As the light was poor I mounted the camera on a lightweight tripod so I could get away with slower shutter speeds and lower ISO's. These were all taken into the digital zoom region of the bridge camera. What Canon terms "fine digital.” These pictures turned out better than I expected considering poor light under the tree canopy and the distance involved.
However, the real star of this particular shoot out was the little Nikon P300 compact camera mounted to my scope. This little Digiscoping camera has long been discontinued by Nikon, but I may look for a second hand one as a spare.
All these methods of capturing a picture of a distant bird have their pros and cons. However, for sheer versatility, the Canon G3X still wins hands down.
