Birders Of Sabah Borneo Island: July 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010

Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 & FSA-L2 Adapter

19th July 2010

Busy with my new born baby, I took the opportunity to test my new scope, the Nikon Fieldscope EDG85, Digital Photo Adapter FSA-L2 for my Nikon D300s and the EDG 20-60x zoom eyepiece.

Shooting range with DX format is from 750mm - 2625mm (500mm - 1750mm in FX format) on f5.9-f22 at the same time I could use my zoom eyepiece for normal viewing. Changing between zoom eyepiece with the FSA-L2 adapter took me less than 5 seconds because it uses bayonet type mount rather than thread in the Nikon Fieldscope ED82 and shooting is done in manual focus. This is very important considering the unpredictable behavior of birds. Changing eyepiece and adapter on the field is much faster and convenient.

The Field Of View (FOV) of the new EDG 20-60x zoom eyepiece is considered the widest in the market available for its range in magnification compared with the older MC II 25-75x zoom eyepiece. Viewing birds, other wildlife, moon and stars as well for security purposes is a pleasure with the eyepiece offering edge-to-edge sharpness hence the concept of EDG by Nikon.

I have been digiscoping with compact cameras for few years with Nikon Fieldscope ED82 plus the FSA-L1 adapter on Nikon D300s. But with the introduction of Nikon Fieldscope EDG and the elusive FSA-L2 adapter, my picture quality has improved a lot and Nikon has taken Digiscoping into higher level for birdwatchers. It means that, I could shoot in faster frame per second with my Nikon D300s and also recording videos of birds and wildlife in HD format.

For more info regarding Nikon EDG products, check their website at http://nikon.com/products/sportoptics/edg/top/index.htm

Intensive tests done by Italian team :

Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 with FSA-L2 Digital Photo Adapter connected on Nikon D300s and external microphone via C-shaped bracket (top photo) attached on the tripod mount.

Digiscoped photos on 500mm processed with Nikon Capture NX2.