page_title: Digiscoping
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Digiscoping / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: An example of digiscoping - using a spotting scope and special mount to take photos. In this case the person is using a Vortex scope and Nikon D5100 with 50mm lens. The tripod is rather light, better results would be achieved by using a heavier tripod to dampen vibrations.
context_page_description: Digiscoping is a neologism for afocal photography, using a camera to record distant images through the eyepiece of an optical telescope.
context_section_description: The word "digiscoping" was coined in 1999 by French birdwatcher Alain Fossé. Less notable neologisms for this activity are digiscope birding, digiscopy birding, digi-birding, digibinning (using digital camera with binoculars), and phonescoping (using a digital camera phone with a spotting scope or binoculars).
  The origins of the activity called Digiscoping has been attributed to the photographic methods of  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 one member, French birdwatcher Alain Fossé, coined the name  “digiscoping” to describe the technique. Laurence Poh is sometimes credited with "inventing" the technique although his contribution may be more along the lines of popularizing the idea and refining the technology. Using a camera with its lens attached at the eyepiece of optical devices such as microscopes or telescopes, creating an afocal system (technically called afocal photography or afocal projection) has been used for nearly 100 years and digital camera afocal photography was already being employed in the amateur astronomical community. This form of afocal photography is now becoming more common in general photography with the spread of point and shoot digital cameras  because of the ease of use of this type of setup. An industry has sprung up selling couplers and other devices for mounting digital cameras afocally.
caption: Digiscoping waterfowl
exif: {}