Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

I am considering mounting my Nikon D850 on my Zeiss spotting scope using a Zeiss adapter which connects the camera to the scope. One end mounts to the F mount and the other to the scope where the scope lens would normally be. The hook up is easy. Trying to understand the mechanics of actually taking the shot. How to videos say to shoot in aperture priority. Huh? Aperture can’t be adjusted since there are no aperture leaves on the scope and even if there were, there are no electrical contacts between scope and camera.. I can focus the scope, change iso and the shutter speed on the 850, but the aperture?

If anyone has ever tried this successfully, I would welcome suggestions.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Think about it again. In Aperture Priority, the lens aperture is fixed (just like your scope). The camera varies the shutter speed as necessary to make the exposure correct. You don't say what you are wanting to shoot, but if you decide to aim at the sky at night, you will need to use manual exposure...the high contrast between celestial objects and the black background of the sky will not allow the meter to respond properly. By the way..I would expect that somewhere in the scope documentation will be mention of its effective f/number in case you are interested or just curious. Some may suggest to use Auto ISO. I'd advise against that, except maybe to get started. Spotting scopes are optimized differently from camera lenses, and you may have to struggle a little bit for optimum image quality. I'd approach it one variable at a time, not with both floating shutter speed and ISO.

User ID

Don’t be mesmerized by the Zeiss label. Spotting scopes are rather inappropriate, by optical design, as camera lenses. It will work but there will be problems that may or may not bug you. If in your case the problems are problematic just quit. There is no fix, so use it and see how it goes for your use.

Major caveat is: Do not focus and then recompose. Google “curvature of field”.

See how it goes. Works okay for some, not for others. Good luck !

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

shoot in aperture priority so the shutter speed is set by the camera. You can also shoot in manual and set the shutter speed yourself but why bother. Shooting in shutter priority makes no sense because the camera can't adjust the fixed aperture. You. could use auto ISO and choose the shutter speed if you want.

User ID

You do have an aperture, but just one. A-mode will work just fine. Do not worry about your f/stop being unknown.

Knowing the f/number doesn’t accomplish anything. Use A-mode and the mode will adjust the shutter. Just try it. Film cost is zero, test result is instant.

Put your focus target right where it will appear in the final composition. Scopes are not camera lenses. They usually have notoriously curved focal planes. The usual fix is to stop down but you can’t do that with a scope :-(

togajim

Not sure how relevant this response will be, but I've been doing astrophotography for about 6 months now, started with my Sony RX10-III then graduated to a Williams Optics Zenithstar 61 (FL=360mm) with a CanonT3i (aka 600D I believe). Since A-P involves taking many, many exposures (200-500 exposures for a nebula or galaxy) but at much longer speeds (30-60s per shot) I purchased software called Backyard EOS to manage the picture taking. There's also a version called Backyard Nikon which would work for you (only Windows versions available, no Mac version). You take full control of the camera on your laptop. This might be overkill for what you're doing, but it's only US$50 (the company, O'Telescope, is out of Canada). Would be quite handy if you wanted to take some night sky pics with your spotting scope.

Machinedoc Loc: Yorktown Heights, NY

Actually, I think the only way one could shoot is in full manual mode. For example, if you shoot in aperture priority with a lens native to the camera, the lens and camera communicate with each other - the camera looks at the current aperture and decides what to set the shutter speed at. In your case, the camera can't communicate with the lens (scope) and therefore does not "know" what the aperture is and thus can't determine the shutter speed. Shoot in full manual, pick and ISO, use the camera metering to determine shutter speed and examine your result...adjust as necessary. I have some lenses that are completely manual and so I shoot in manual...shouldn't be any different if you're using a scope for a lens.

togajim

Full manual is correct, which really amounts to manual iso and shutter speed since there's no lens aperture to set.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

I know nothing about digiscoping, but your advice seems counter-intuitive to me which is I why I opened the thread in the first place. Since the scope is not electronically connected to the body, how can the camera determine the fixed “aperture” of the scope and set the SS accordingly? In fact, that is my exact question. Intuitively, I imagined I would be forced to shot in full manual, chimp the result and keep adjusting the SS or ISO in order to get exposure right and simply ignore whatever the fixed aperture of the scope is. In fact, that’s what one of the replies following yours suggested. I suppose I’ll just give it a try and figure it out as I go along. Thanks for the reply.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

Thanks for reply. I will keep the suggestion about being cognizant about curvature of field when shooting.

I should have clarified that I am not intending to shoot any sky scenes. Strictly critters. And I’ve owned the Zeiss scope for years doing bird watching and I can tell you with great certainty that the Zeiss label (or Leica or Swarovski) are very much mesmerizing and for good reason. I have owned all sorts of binocs and scopes over the years and for me, those 3 labels produce the absolute best in those field optics. Some others like Steiner binocs or Kowa scopes come close, but the big 3 are unbeatable to my eye. I have settled on the Zeiss scope and the Swarovski binocs as the best for me. Reason I went Zeiss rather than Swarovski for the scope was not for optical superiority, but rather for ergonomics.

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

The camera does not need to know the f stop on a fixed aperture lens. It's built in TTL meter will adjust the shutter speed or ISO automatically.

A handheld meter would need to know.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

If you are attaching the camera directly to the scope without an eyepiece in the scope and without a lens on the camera, then this is a "Prime" type attachment to the scope. Prime attachment is the best way to attach and provides for the best looking images. Whatever the flocal length of the scope is, such as possibly 500mm, that number can be compared to an equivalent camera lens of the same focal length to give you an idea of how it will work with your camera.

The problems of using a scope like this may be, but not necessarily something you will run into are:

1. Many spotting scopes do not provide sufficient back focus that the camera can achieve infinity focus. Since you are using a Zeiss adapter that sounds like it was made for the scope, perhaps this is not a problem you are going to have.

2. Many spotting scopes don't have good enough objective lenses to produce images free of Chromatic Aberration. Perhaps this Zeiss scope is good enough to not have this problem.

Let us know how it turns out. Let me know what model Zeiss scope you are using and what the part number of the camera adapter is. Does this adapter have a lens inside? And I will look it and see what it can do.

And yes, use Aperture priority mode. The camera will try to adjust only shutter speed and/or ISO to get the exposure correct. Yes, you don't have control of aperture. It is fixed by the scope design. But the camera does not need to know what it is.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

Going to play around both in A priority and manual. This is the rig. Both the scope and adaptor have been replaced with newer models.

User ID

The camera doesn’t need to know anything. Brightness control the shutter. There’s no data involved. A-mode will give auto exposure.

On many cameras you can also set P-mode on the controls and get that same auto exposure as above. IOW P-mode then behaves just like A-mode.

Think it through.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Does that adapter have a lens inside? I can find that adapter and it has the part number 528030. And from its design, I would guess that it does have a lens and if so, this is actually Digiscoping and not prime focusing.

I can't quite see the model number of the scope from the picture. I searched for a Zeiss scope with a body that color and didn't see it. Zeiss spotting scopes do rank high ratings compared to many other spotting scopes.