I recently conducted field trials of the new Digiscoping Eyepiece from EagleEye OpticZooms. This review is based on my personal experiences over the last 3 months, using their prototype eyepiece.

One of the main problems with using any camcorder / digital still camera equipment for Digiscoping is the amount of vignetting that can be produced. Vignetting is when the edges of an image are ‘masked’ by black so that only the centre appears viewable ( often described as a ‘circle in the middle’ or an effect ‘like looking out of a tunnel’ ).

Different combinations of equipment will produce a greater or lesser amount of this vignetting. This can generally be reduced / eliminated by zooming the camcorder or camera forward. However, because you are then working at higher magnifications other problems can be experienced e.g. blurring caused through camera shake or not being able to fit the entire bird into an image.

The Digiscoping Eyepiece helps eliminate this situation. Its combination of low magnification power and very wide optics means that for many camcorders / digital still cameras it is no longer necessary to zoom forward so much in order to overcome vignetting.

The eyepiece itself is very well made and the optics of high quality. The image is bright and sharp, when eye viewing there is a very long eye relief.

Its very unique design allows it to be configured for best performance both with the scope body and also the camcorder / digital still camera being used. Whilst the configuration instructions may initially appear slightly lengthy, the process itself is actually very simple and is only done once.

With the appropriate adapter ring the DS Eyepiece can easily be fitted to almost any make of scope. The ‘Type’ L5 DigiMount Adapter / Insert Collar produced by EagleEye is required for this eyepiece.

Magnification power, infinity focus distance and close-up focus distance can all be slightly varied depending on your needs or the particular situation, familiarisation is needed to do this effectively.

Using my camcorder I was able to capture images of relatively close-up birds and fit them entirely into the shot ( see image below ), something I could not normally do with my standard 20x eyepiece without experiencing severe vignetting.

Most people using a camcorder will benefit from using this eyepiece as will users of many digital still cameras, particularly models with larger lenses which normally experience too much vignetting to make them viable for Digiscoping use.

Mr Paul Hackett.