billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

The only rig I suggest are the following,
Nikon D500 with Nikon 200-500 5.6
Canon D7 mark II and Cannon 100-400 version II
OR, either of the above with the sigma/tamron 150-600

tropics68 Loc: Georgia

Snoop around the internet. There are bunches of products for sale that claim to do exactly what it sounds like you are looking for. Such as...

https://besttelescopesreviews.com/iphone-telescope/

richwhip

While on a wolf viewing/photographing tour in Yellowstone, the guides were able to take a picture through spotting scopes using our cameras. l do not recall that they used any type of adapter.

MJG Loc: Bonita Springs, FL

I get lost in the numbers. Would either of these, do you think, be an answer for me to zoom in on the birds on the island?
1. High Definition Monocular Telescope, 4K 10-300X40mm High Power Monocular with Smartphone Holder & Tripod, for Bird Watching Hunting Camping Travelling. $28.61 FREE Shipping.
Or 2. Canon PowerShot SX740 Digital Camera w/40x Optical Zoom & 3 Inch Tilt LCD - 4K VIdeo, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth Enabled

Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

you might consider a used Nikon p-900. You should be able to find one now from people who have upgraded to P-1000. Or find a P-900 or P-1000 that you can rent for a day just to see if it will do the job.

Larryshuman

It all depends on HOW FAR away the island is. The P-900 and the P1000 have very tiny sensors and will NOT give any good results over that great distance. The only way is to rent, borrow a floating device and get closer

tallshooter

Not maybe a drone! Exactly a drone! DJI just released the Mini 2. Keep your eyes peeled for the original Mavic Mini on sale or used or refurbished. It will reach out there and touch whatever you want and will surely be most affordable true solution. All that looking thru the atmosphere is very expensive and disappointing.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

Try the Nikon P 950 or the P1000 a friend of mine has one and he gets good results cost about £400 in England.

MJG Loc: Bonita Springs, FL

Thanks for your helpful advice. I’m think this might work for me:
4K 10-300X40mm Monocular Telescope. At $65 or so it may catch the birds on a clear, calm midday???

davidb1879

Re: MJG: A canon SX50 has a long lens (35mm equivalent 1200mm.) You can buy one on ebay for about $250. The problem is that the further you zoom in, the less sharp the lens. But I use it often and sometimes satisfied with the resulting image. Good luck! Davidb1879.

davidb1879

Re: MJG: A canon SX50 has a long lens (35mm equivalent 1200mm. You can buy one on ebay for about $250.) The problem is that the further you zoom in, the less sharp it becomes. But I use it often. Sometimes with good results. Good luck! Davidb1879.

MJG Loc: Bonita Springs, FL

That Canon SX50 seems to be the consensus favorite. Thanks for your input. I’ll check it out.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

In the same price range, around $250 used is the Lumix FZ80. I don't know if you ever answered how far the birds are from the camera. Use google earth's ruler tool to measure the distance from you to the birds on the island. Without this figure it's not possible to know what equipment, if any, will get the shots you want.

As a rule of thumb, compared to a telescope, you can divide the camera's max focal length by 50 to get an approximation of magnification. So for the FZ80, 1200mm/50=24 power magnification.

The zoom magnification numbers that camera manufacturers adverise is not relevant to final magnification. They use is the max focal length divided by the minimum. So for the FZ 80, it is 1200mm/20mm=a 60x zoom. But that has nothing to do with the actual magnification.

As Gene posted earlier, with higher telescope magnifications you run into atmospheric distortion, so with a 50 power telescope attached to a camera, you might get a lower quality land image than you would from the 24 power FZ80. For land objects, I never got decent photos with my $600 telescope attached to my camera at any magnification.

Your main limiting factor is the distance from the birds. Without that figure it's impossible to know what images you can get.

Here's an example of what my Nikon Coolpix B700 (about $300 used) at max focal length 1440mm from about 400 ft. away looks like. The image is cropped. 400ft. is 1/13th of a mile.

(Download)

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

The Panasonic FZ80 (18 MP) (a current model) is similar to the Canon SX50 HS (12 MP), with minor differences. The SX60 HS (16 MP) has more pixels than the SX50, closer to the FZ80 which has the most of the 3 choices. The FZ80 has a fixed touch screen, the SX50 and SX60 have an articulated non-touch screens. The current Canon offering is the SX70 HS at a much higher price. All but the SX70 have a hot shoe.

Kcohen44

Your post made me feel less incompetent. I have tried to marry my smart phones to my scope for many years with horrible inconsistent success - everything from sharp photos, to lost parts, to clumsy handling. Regardless, I am still at it and intend to try again. My bad suggestion is to return to the set up and keep trying or perhaps try a more steady tripod. If you can actually marry the camera lens to the scope, you are 3/4 of the way home! Good luck and thank you for this post!