What Is Digiscoping? A Guide for Birders
Digiscoping is the technique of taking photographs or video through a spotting scope. By attaching a smartphone adapter to a high-quality scope, you can capture images at 60x magnification — equivalent to a 3,000mm telephoto lens. The results are surprisingly good for photos taken with a phone — sharp, close-up shots of birds that are just a distant dot to the naked eye.
How It Works
A spotting scope magnifies the image 20–60x. We attach a universal phone adapter to the eyepiece, aligning your smartphone camera with the scope's optics. You then use your phone's native camera app (or a specialized app) to photograph or record video through the scope. The scope does the heavy lifting — your phone just captures what the scope sees.
The Reach of a Spotting Scope
A typical birder's camera with a 400mm lens gives you roughly 8x magnification. Our scope at 40x gives you 5 times that reach. This means frame-filling shots of birds at 30–50 meters — distances where even a 600mm lens would show a small bird in a big frame. The scope also gathers more light than most telephoto lenses, making it excellent in the low-light conditions of cloud forest. The payoff: close-up, frame-filling shots you couldn't get any other way with just a phone.
What You Take Home
On a typical day tour, we capture 100–300 photos and multiple video clips, depending on the day's bird activity. All images are yours to keep. We transfer them to your phone at the end of the tour via AirDrop or file sharing. Many of our guests share their digiscoping photos on social media.
Our Setup
We use a premium spotting scope with ED glass for sharp, color-accurate images. The universal phone adapter fits any smartphone. No camera equipment is required from you — just bring your phone with storage space.
Why We Include It in Every Tour
We believe every birder deserves great photos of the birds they see. Not everyone can afford a $5,000 telephoto lens, but everyone has a smartphone. By including digiscoping in every tour, we ensure you go home with photos you couldn't have taken with your phone alone — not just a checklist.