Digiscoping: Reaching out, at a cheaper cost

The term Digiscoping may have been coined by a frenchman called Alain Fossé, but, the whole idea was the brainchild of a Malaysian, Laurence Poh, a birdwatcher from the Malaysian Nature Society, who discovered in 1999 almost by accident that the new generation of point and shoot digital cameras could be held up to the eyepiece of a standard spotting scope and achieve surprisingly good results. He spread his findings through birding internet discussion forums and that is how Alain Fossé came to know about the technique.

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The really cool thing about this technique is how just about any kind of digital camera recording device can be married to a spotter scope. From a GoPro and iPhone to the latest DSLR's. Spotting scopes are also a cheap alternative to expensive zoom lenses. They can cost as little as RM200 for a China made lense right up to RM3000 for a Swarovski or Bushnell scope. Of course the more expensive a scope the better the quality. These days many manufacturers and third party accessory manufacturers provide adapters for digital camera's and smartphones. It also is used by amateur astronomy buffs with telescopes hooked up to camera's.