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If you have a mirrorless Sony A6000 with the 16-50mm zoom lens you can use our Olympus adapter via the 40.5mm filter ring threads.

Direct eyepiece projection digiscoping means that the camera lens has been eliminated and the image is shone directly onto the camera sensor element. Effectively, the spotting scope is acting as the camera lens. 

This means that the image will be in focus only at the center and the further away the more vignetting or blurring can be expected. The advantages are greater magnification and lighter setup, the disadvantages are lower image quality and manual lens operation. Most digiscopers as result prefer the T-Mount Adapter that keeps the lens in the system.

Short focal length lenses work best for digiscoping. Canon and Nikon make 50mm f/1.8 lenses that are not too expensive that are perfect for digiscoping. The Pentax 40mm f/2.8 lens works well if you have a Pentax camera.

Because less light reaches your camera’s sensor when using a large lens (or a spotting-scope, in this case) your camera will need to be adjusted to compensate. The table below shows the effect of various shutter speed and ISO settings on the brightness of the picture.

These settings can be adjusted by setting your camera to “Manual”. Refer to the camera’s instruction manual for further details.

All pictures were taken at dusk, using a Canon EOS Rebel T3 mounted on a 20-60x80mm spotting scope.

For a PDF of this and other direct project digiscoping tips get the Direct Projection Digiscoping Tips guide.

In addition to setting your camera to manual on the feature wheel, some DSLR cameras have another switch that must be set to Manual, typically located by the lens.

If this is not set to manual, the camera will continue to search for an auto-focusing lens, causing an error.

Most customers find that the Novagrade T-Mount Adapter best fits their needs. It allows you to use your camera features such as through-the-lens focusing, automatic exposure, vibration compensation and automatic face recognition technology.

Many spotting-scopes have eyepieces that can be adjusted to add zoom. In addition to magnifying the image, changing the zoom will alter the focus and brightness of the image, as well as remove vignetting. The table above shows how zoom affects images taken at two different ISO settings, with focus corrected.

It should also be noted that too much zoom can cause visual aberrations around the edges of the image, depending on the performance of the eyepiece.

All pictures were taken at dusk, using a Canon EOS Rebel T3 mounted on a 20-60x80mm spotting scope.

Because the human eye focuses very differently than your camera, you will have to adjust the focus on your spotting-scope/binoculars upon mounting your camera. Sometimes the difference in focus can be significant, making the image appear all white.

The Novagrade T-Mount adapter applies uniform pressure, 360 degrees around the spotting scope eyepiece. On the camera side the T-Mount screws into a T-Mount Filter ring adapter. You use a filter ring adapter to connect the standard T-Mount fitting to your lens filter thread.

Read our eyepiece size requirements document to verify our adapter will work with your scope.  

Eyepieces vary greatly in how much rotational force is required to turn them. A tablet with an offset camera will naturally induce a torque to the eyepiece. If this torque is more than the frictional resistance of the eyepiece it can turn. Fortunately camera software automatically rotates the image regardless of portrait or landscape mode. 

To avoid this problem simply use the tablet adapter at either minimum or maximum zoom settings only then position the tablet so its self weight is acting against the zoom stop.

Start by adjusting the adapter to center on just the top camera (iPhone X) or left camera (all other dual camera configurations). If you have another type of multi-camera configuration, you will need to determine which camera is the primary (1x) camera. 

When using do not apply any more than 1.9X zoom or it causes other camera to kick in (doesn't help anyway because past this point it is digital zoom).

This is most likely due to the flash being set to ON or AUTO.

Make sure the FLASH is set to OFF and try again.

• Universal fit and secure attachment to any eyepiece
• Easy centering on both the scope and camera, phone or tablet
• Secure attachment to a camera, phone or tablet
• Ability to use the adapter when you upgrade your phone or share it with your friends
• Lightweight

Put the camera on its full manual settings, disable autofocus, and set the lens aperture wide open. Adjust your camera’s shutter speed to obtain the proper image exposure.

This black ring is referred to as vignetting and is to some extent inevitable when digiscoping. There are, however, a number of things that can be done to minimize it:

• If you are using a phone, you can eliminate vignetting by simply zooming in with the phone’s camera.
• Check the alignment of the adapter to make sure your phone or camera is looking straight into the eyepiece of your spotting-scope or binoculars.
• Make sure your adapter is mounted as far forward on the eyepiece as possible, placing the camera as close to the eyepiece as possible. Some eyepieces have rubber eye-cups than can be removed to allow a better fit.

You can purchase Novagrade adapters here on novagrade.com, other online suppliers, and many local camera and optical dealers.

To attach your Canon or Nikon Camera Adapter to you Camera, simply line up the dots, insert the adapter and turn until it locks, just like a lens.