Hey guys. I researched the heck out of this and got nowhere. I wanted a way to video shots on critters at 1k+. I figured some of you guys may be interested in this setup. I asked for help on birding forums and guys on youtube who were filming animals at really long distances. I couldn't find anybody who was using this set up, so I jumped in and found out first hand.
I finally got a chance to test my new digi scope set up on a live animal. I can video, in HD, things up to a mile, probably, and have them clearly visable. Heat waves are tough on this set up though. I am using a Canon t3i with a t-mount to a Zeizz diascope adapter (1000mm equilevent) on a 85mm Zeiss spotter. There isn't any image stabilization, but I also didn't have to shell out 10's of thousands of dollars on a huge tele-photo. The 1.6 crop camera has a digital zoom thats internal (3-10x). This function is unique to the T3i. It works really well with only minimal distortion at 10x zoom. Up to 7x zoom it isn't noticable. 1.6 crop x 1000 adapter x 10x zoom = a 16,000 equivalent. This doe was probably 500 yds away and my rig was at max zoom. I'll need a better head to make this work. You also need good light to make it work. My hope was to video shots at 1k yds+ and be able to see impact and the animal in good detail and clarity. The rig shakes real bad if you have to focus, zoom, or pan, but the video was surprisingly clear for being zoomed so much. Another thing is the focus. I have to manualy focus the spotter. I am looking at a 2.5" viewer trying to focus it. I'll eventually get a heavier head and get better at the focus deal. I may make a balance beam to have a better balance ont he head. It will move the mount on the spotter back to balance the weight of the camera. Any ways, enough blabbin, here is the test video.
For comparison, the bear video on my youtube channel is at 300yds on 32x zoom on a panasonic camcorder.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-0grgGPGy0]Antelope doe video through digiscope - YouTube[/ame]
I finally got a chance to test my new digi scope set up on a live animal. I can video, in HD, things up to a mile, probably, and have them clearly visable. Heat waves are tough on this set up though. I am using a Canon t3i with a t-mount to a Zeizz diascope adapter (1000mm equilevent) on a 85mm Zeiss spotter. There isn't any image stabilization, but I also didn't have to shell out 10's of thousands of dollars on a huge tele-photo. The 1.6 crop camera has a digital zoom thats internal (3-10x). This function is unique to the T3i. It works really well with only minimal distortion at 10x zoom. Up to 7x zoom it isn't noticable. 1.6 crop x 1000 adapter x 10x zoom = a 16,000 equivalent. This doe was probably 500 yds away and my rig was at max zoom. I'll need a better head to make this work. You also need good light to make it work. My hope was to video shots at 1k yds+ and be able to see impact and the animal in good detail and clarity. The rig shakes real bad if you have to focus, zoom, or pan, but the video was surprisingly clear for being zoomed so much. Another thing is the focus. I have to manualy focus the spotter. I am looking at a 2.5" viewer trying to focus it. I'll eventually get a heavier head and get better at the focus deal. I may make a balance beam to have a better balance ont he head. It will move the mount on the spotter back to balance the weight of the camera. Any ways, enough blabbin, here is the test video.
For comparison, the bear video on my youtube channel is at 300yds on 32x zoom on a panasonic camcorder.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-0grgGPGy0]Antelope doe video through digiscope - YouTube[/ame]
