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        Discussion Area 討論區 >> Photo Gallery 相片分享 I >>  Kowloon Park Peacock
        
(Message started by: Bob Thompson on Jul 8^th, 2006, 8:49am)

Title: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 8^th, 2006, 8:49am

June 2006
Kowloon park
Digiscoped using Nikon 8400 camera and Swarovski ATS 80HD scope, 20-60x eyepiece and DCA adaptor - Manual focus
http://static.flickr.com/62/184413661_8494b36f7a.jpg

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Little Dolphin on Jul 8^th, 2006, 10:08pm

Sharp and clear!

By the way, you seem to be fond of this peacock.

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 8^th, 2006, 10:22pm

on 07/08/06 at 08:49:20, Bob Thompson wrote:

Digiscoped using 8400 and Swarovski ATS 80HD scope, 20-60x eyepiece and DCA adaptor - Manual focus
[/img]

Dear Bob,

Nice and sharp photo! Could you tell what is 8400? I am soucing a camera for digiscoping but I seem couldn't find any 8400 model in the camera shop today. Thanks.

Etta :)

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 8^th, 2006, 11:02pm

Etta, the Nikon 8400 is an out of date model but is very suitable for digiscoping with a Swarovski scope. A nikon adaptor tube couples directly to the Swarovski DCA camera adaptor. The Nikon 8400 is a 8 megapixel camera and is able to achieve reasonably good results. The shot of the Peacock is from about 30 metres away

Little Dolphin, with the unpredicable weather lately, Kowloon Park is an ideal birdwatching area, as you are able to quickly reach shelter from the rain.

Yes the Peacock with all its beautiful colors makes an ideal photographers model. I noted even our number 1 photographer KK Hui has recently been shooting the peacock

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by isaac_chan on Jul 8^th, 2006, 11:02pm

Nikon Coolpix 8400

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 9^th, 2006, 7:11am

Etta,

Before you spend ANY money on a camera, you must check out this mans website, the photos are outstanding for the equipment he uses

http://koti.welho.com/tlaurins/phonescoping/

Bob

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Little Dolphin on Jul 9^th, 2006, 10:13am

on 07/09/06 at 07:11:59, Bob Thompson wrote:

Before you spend ANY money on a camera, you must check out this mans website, the photos are outstanding for the equipment he uses

Wow. :o

I'm not really convinced the photos were shot by that "camera". :P

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by anonymous_guy2 on Jul 9^th, 2006, 10:43am

Really nice shot............ digiscoping is definitely reaching new levels

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 9^th, 2006, 11:19am

But Guy, I cant get flying wasps as you can. Those flying shot on www.lamma.com.hk are extrodinary

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 9^th, 2006, 3:14pm

Thank you Bob and Isaac for all the informations. :)

on 07/09/06 at 07:11:59, Bob Thompson wrote:

Etta,

Before you spend ANY money on a camera, you must check out this mans website, the photos are outstanding for the equipment he uses

http://koti.welho.com/tlaurins/phonescoping/

Bob

This is amazing! The photo quality is really out of my imagination!! :o

Actually, I have a habit that I do not use an adaptor to fix my camera on the scope for my easy observation and take site photos and close up shots as flexible as I need. Therefore I stick with the CP995 (internal zoom?) which I couldn't find any better substitute in the market alike in recent year. But now, my 995 is getting out of order...

Now, I switch to reserch the snapshot photo quality of those handy vedio cameras, maybe can suit my need. Any advise? :)

I think below is the best quality of my CP995+Carl Zeiss diascope 85T that I could manage. ;D

http://netta.cyberec.com/kitesvy6/19my6/2191w.jpg

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 9^th, 2006, 3:19pm

on 07/09/06 at 11:19:48, Bob Thompson wrote:

But Guy, I cant get flying wasps as you can. Those flying shot on www.lamma.com.hk are extrodinary

It's eye catching indeed. :D :D :D

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 9^th, 2006, 7:42pm

Etta,

There nothing wrong with the quality of your shot, on monitor it looks a little light and if you have the software maybe you could slightly blur the background so it is not as busy.

Bob

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 10^th, 2006, 1:37pm

on 07/09/06 at 19:42:35, Bob Thompson wrote:

Etta,

There nothing wrong with the quality of your shot, on monitor it looks a little light and if you have the software maybe you could slightly blur the background so it is not as busy.

Bob

Dear Bob,

Thanks for the guiding, I am going to take a try! :D

Etta

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by KK Hui on Jul 10^th, 2006, 4:56pm

Etta,

Played with your image a bit in PS. Here is a quick and dirty job of it. See if it works for you ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v22/kkhui/2191w.jpg

What was done: Cropped vertically, applied Gaussian Blur to background, slight sharpened. That's it! ;D

KK Hui FRPS
www.geocities.com/kkhui_001

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 10^th, 2006, 6:27pm

KK, I think Etta will be thrilled with the result, I would be. Considering you are only working from her relatively lo-res web posting, it definetly shows what you can do in Photoshop, with so knowledge.

Would you consider running a short course on Photoshop techniques, if I remember rightly you held an evening lecture a year or so ago, but that was too short. I would be prepared to pay to learn some of your post shooting techniques

Bob

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 10^th, 2006, 9:30pm

Thanks KK for your time and teaching, I've learnt a lot (KK had also taught me steps and tips other than the above quick guideline, I got to practice...) :)

on 07/10/06 at 18:27:19, Bob Thompson wrote:

Yes, I do want to attend the workshop too! :D

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by World Cup 2006 on Jul 15^th, 2006, 12:00pm

Yes, a great idea about the PS workshop. Hope KK has the time. :)

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 29^th, 2006, 3:13pm

on 07/08/06 at 08:49:20, Bob Thompson wrote:

June 2006
Kowloon park
Digiscoped using Nikon 8400 camera and Swarovski ATS 80HD scope, 20-60x eyepiece and DCA adaptor - Manual focus

A test on digiscoped using Fujifilm F30 (hand held) and Carl Zeiss diascope 85T. Image was cropped and scaled down to 60%. No colour or sharpen edition. This Hair-crested Drongo was sort of close.

http://netta.cyberec.com/kwatch/tko/19jul6/1044w.jpg

It was not easy to point the camera to the centre of the eye piece by hand held. A distance around 15-20 mm between camera len and eye piece was needed, otherwise couldn't focus. The reflection of light on the eye piece would be photographed unless sheltered. :P

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 29^th, 2006, 3:58pm

Etta,

Neil has a Fujifilm F30, I am sure he will respond with some useful tips for you. In the mean time have you tried making a cardboard collar so that the camera will fit securely to the scope.

Another tip is not to zoom very much with the scope eyepiece, on my Swarovski I never zoom more than 30x.

Also dont use a high ISO, 100 or 200 is fine although Neil has taken some at 800.

The photo of the peacock at the head of this thread is "cropped" from this shot

http://static.flickr.com/53/179121054_702c78ae01_o.jpg

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 29^th, 2006, 4:43pm

on 07/29/06 at 15:58:51, Bob Thompson wrote:

Dear Bob,

Thanks for all the precious advise and I'm hoping for Neil's advise on using the F30 too. :D

The original photo of the peacock is marvellous. In fact, I have been searching for a second hand CP8400 on the net...

Agree, I usually do not zoom the eyepiece (20X) and use ISO 200 (400 when needed) in order to take good quality photo. Had took a try on zoom the eyepiece when testing the F30, it's funny, there appeared a 'swirl' effect on the photo background that the Nikon CP995 won't likely present. Here attached sample:

http://netta.cyberec.com/kwatch/tko/19jul6/0688bw.jpg

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 29^th, 2006, 4:58pm

Strange effect Etta, it looks as though the camera rotated when you pushed the shutter

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 29^th, 2006, 5:12pm

on 07/29/06 at 15:58:51, Bob Thompson wrote:

In the mean time have you tried making a cardboard collar so that the camera will fit securely to the scope.

I'd made one by a paper cup... got to improve it or buy an adaptor (economic one).

http://netta.cyberec.com/kwatch/tko/19jul6/7894w.jpg

(May ask help from Hendrix....) ;D

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Bob Thompson on Jul 29^th, 2006, 5:16pm

Etta,

Important thing to remember when using paper collar (toilet roll etc) is that the camera is set to STAY ON you dont want it to POWER OFF, other wise it may do damage to the lens but hitting the scope eyepiece

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 29^th, 2006, 5:25pm

on 07/29/06 at 17:16:59, Bob Thompson wrote:

Thanks for reminding, I made the paper adaptor for this reason too.

Since F30 is a new model, I couldn't buy a spare battery at the moment, I let it auto off to safe power. (Though it's a 1800mAh long life battery, can take photographs for hours.) :)

Title: Re: Kowloon Park Peacock
Post by Etta on Jul 29^th, 2006, 5:35pm

on 07/29/06 at 16:58:45, Bob Thompson wrote:

Strange effect Etta, it looks as though the camera rotated when you pushed the shutter

It just like that... maybe not match with the zoomed eyepiece and produce a tele 'fish-eye' effect? ::)

Another sample:
http://netta.cyberec.com/kwatch/tko/19jul6/1023w.jpg