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What happens when you combine digiscoping with a Micro Four Thirds camera? I watched this YouTube video to find out
Mike Harris
2 July 2025
You can use a spotting scope and an MFT camera in place of a super-telephoto lens to reach longer focal lengths for less
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You’d be hard-pressed to capture an image as sharp and as shallow as this when digiscoping, but the potential savings and increased reach makes it a viable option for some photographers
(Image credit: Future / Mike Harris)
Digiscoping is a photography technique where you use a specialist adapter to attach a scope – typically a spotting scope or binoculars – to your camera, in place of a more conventional super-telephoto lens. The advantage of this is that you can achieve longer focal lengths than even the longest of lenses, and it’s oftentimes more cost-effective, too.
However, digicoping isn’t particularly common, and I don’t mind admitting that I’ve never tried it for myself. That’s why I found this video (below) by South West Optics so interesting. In it, Russell and Rob talk digiscoping and, more specifically, why many photographers choose to digiscope with Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Digiscoping With Micro Four Thirds & Kowa Prominar For Perfect Pro Results! – YouTube
Being the complete novice in this niche area of photography that I am, I would have assumed that you’d mount the camera directly to the spotting scope (which you can do). So I was surprised to learn that Rob recommends an alternative method, attaching a pancake lens first and using an adapter to attach the digiscope to this camera and lens combination.
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This makes a lot of sense. You see, an MFT camera has a 2x crop factor; add that to a 2,000mm+ spotting scope and you’re working with focal lengths so big, they even put the Nikon P1100 to shame. As Rob put it: “That’s a lot of telephoto power to control, it’s a small sensor (…) the control of noise is not quite as good as a full-frame camera. It’s a challenge to use body-only”.
Some digiscopers get around this by popping a pancake lens on the camera and attaching this combination to the digiscope to reduce the focal length. The example Rob uses is a digiscope with a 25x eyepiece on a 20mm prime. Taking into consideration the 2x crop factor, this would be 25 x 50mm, producing an equivalent focal length of 1000mm.
And he makes the great point that the presence of the lens will help to reduce chromatic aberration, while also allowing for faster shutter speeds and thus, lower ISO settings. But that just scratches the surface of this informative video, so make sure you grab yourself a coffee and enjoy learning about this cost-effective form of long-range photography.
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If you’re not into digiscoping, I’d buy this monster $1000 camera if I were a wildlife enthusiast first and a photographer second. Looking for something else to watch? Check out the first episode of Adorama’s new docuseries. Plus, if a bear tipped my $3,000 camera into a lake, I know exactly what I’d buy to replace it…
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Mike Harris
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How To Editor
Mike studied photography at college, honing his Adobe Photoshop skills and learning to work in the studio and darkroom. After a few years writing for various publications, he headed to the ‘Big Smoke’ to work on Wex Photo Video’s award-winning content team, before transitioning back to print as Technique Editor (later Deputy Editor) on N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.
With bylines in Digital Camera, PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Practical Photography, Digital Photographer, iMore, and TechRadar, he’s a fountain of photography and consumer tech knowledge, making him a top tutor for techniques on cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, and more. His expertise extends to everything from portraits and landscapes to abstracts and architecture to wildlife and, yes, fast things going around race tracks…
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Using mirror lenses on mirrorless cameras – the whys, the hows and the history
Photographers always say bigger sensors are better, but I prefer Micro Four Thirds for these two genres
Photographer slaps 20 extension tubes on one camera, this is the result
Wildlife photography with a twist: Capture birds in flight with this breathtaking interlacing frames technique
I tried cheap cameras from Canon, Sony and Nikon on one of the most difficult subjects – this is the camera that stood out
I used macro bellows on my camera for the first time to photograph an extreme close-up. The results are breathtaking!
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