Stephen Ingraham (who?)

the unofficial site for birders and digiscopers using Zeiss equipment.

Getting Satisfying Results (excellent images)
with the Zeiss Camera Eyepiece DC4.

Stephen Ingraham
Birding and Naturalist Product Specialist
Carl Zeiss Sports Optics.

The Camera Eyepiece DC4 is first instrument that allows true observation and image capture through the same eyepiece. It makes what was a very difficult and cumbersome process with convention digiscope equipment into a relatively easy and highly satisfying experience in the field. The automatic, center weighted exposure metering and the sophisticated DXO image processing software built right into the camera handles difficult lighting situations (backlight, high contrast, etc.) and difficult subjects (white plumage, black feathers or fur, etc.) with only minor attention…rarely requiring any intervention for an acceptable exposure. The wireless remote allows image capture without taking your eye away from the eyepiece or your hands off the focus…or, when you can step back, vibration free shutter release. With no moving mirror (like the ones in DSLRs), there is no added vibration caused by the camera. The wide field, true 40 power eyepiece provides wonderful observation, and the reach you need for frame-filling images. And, again, the DXO Image Science processing delivers the same rich color and detail in the image that you see in the eyepiece.

In many ways the Camera Eyepiece DC4 mounted on the ZEISS Diascope is the ideal long-range image capture system, capable of results that will amaze and delight you. However, it is a form of long-lens photography, and long lens photography has its own set of issues which will require your patience and some practice to overcome.

In long-lens photography of any kind, including image capture with the Camera Eyepiece DC4 and the Diascope, motion is your enemy. The slightest camera and scope motion…whether it is induced by wind, passing vehicles (even hundreds of yards away), people walking, you touching the scope, whatever…will degrade the image. Subject motion is just as bad. At the magnifications involved there are times when it is simply impossible to get a satisfactory image of an actively feeding or preening bird or game animal.

You need to adjust your expectations, your methods, and your attitude.

First, your expectations:

Ten satisfactory images out of every 100 exposures is GOOD!

If you expect the first and only image of a bird or animal to be satisfactory, then you are doomed to disappointment. Long-lens photographers take a lot of images of each subject, and sort out the good ones at home. They expect 90 of every 100 exposures to be unsatisfactory…most are satisfied if 1 in 100 images is a real “keeper”. With the DC4 you should expect to average, as your skills improve, at least 10 satisfactory images from each 100 exposures.

Do the math. That means if you really want an image of a bird or animal you need to take at least 10 exposures (and 25 is safer).  Begin taking images when you first focus on the subject. Continue to take images until the subject moves out of range. After the first few shots, you can sit back and wait for interesting behavior, but, even then, don’t be satisfied with one shot a particular behavior. Take several. Take 10.  Expect most to be unsatisfactory. Hope for more (which is where the attitude comes in)…but don’t count on it!

Over time, if you keep at it (there is the attitude thing again), you will bring back a satisfying number of satisfying images. The DC4 makes it easier than with almost any other image capture system you could use…but begin with realistic expectations.

As far as methods go: Follow these guidelines.

• Use the heaviest, steadiest, most stable tripod you are willing to carry. (heavy aluminum, solid carbon fiber, wood…in that order, with wood being the most stable…and don’t neglect the head…the best, most stable fluid head you can afford.)
• When possible, take your hands off the scope a full second before capturing the image (not always possible when focusing on moving subjects…therefore take many more exposures of moving subjects)
• Wait for the still spot…observe the subject in the LCD and time your exposures for those instants when the wind dies, the passing cars are at the greatest distance, the tripod has stopped vibrating from the last time you focused, God is in his heaven and everything is right with the world…and, of course, when the subject is still…and (positive attitude) doing something interesting.
• Find stable ground. If possible, avoid shooting from boardwalks, tree stands, raised platforms, etc. You want your feet, and the tripod, on solid ground. Asphalt and other paving materials transmit vibrations very well. Move to the verge. Better yet, move at least 40-50 feet from any roadway with passing traffic. Where appropriate, use the spikes on your tripod legs. Keep well back from surf at the beach. You feel the force of the ocean with every breaker…and your tripod feels it too.
• In a worst case, especially in a high wind, try touching the scope lightly to dampen vibrations (and take a lot of images!)
• In the worst worst case, weight the scope and tripod: carry plastic bags with handles (the kind you take frozen stuff from the grocery home in) and a short length of rope. Fill the bags with whatever is handy and hang them on either side of the scope/tripod with the rope passing over the balance point of the scope above the tripod head. And take a lot of images.

Attitude:

Don’t give up!

Don’t give up if your first few experiences with the DC4 don’t live up to your expectations. Expect success, but be reasonable in your definition of success, and reasonable in your assessment of the effort and time it will take. The DC4 is capable of capturing the kind of images that will satisfy you…frame-filling, sharply detailed, with accurate and vivid colors…the kind of images you have always dreamed of capturing.

Visit my gallery.

Over time, you will accumulate a set of images to equal or surpass what I have there. It doesn’t get any easier than the DC4 makes it. Believe it. Work at it. It will happen!