Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 VR Review

29th January - 11th February 2012

Nikon Vision Japan introduced the world's first Fieldscopes featuring Nikon's lens-shift type VR (Vibration Reduction) system for EDG 85 both angled and straight scope on the 6th October 2011. From my brief test at the previous Borneo Bird Festival in October 2011, the VR works when there were slight shake or vibration caused by wind and non-stable platform such as wooden walkway. Other methods tested by tapping on the tripod that hold the VR scope.

 Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 VR on Jobu BW Pro Gimbal head and Velbon 830 carbon fibre tripod. Estimated weight around 7.75 kg

Battery compartment under the EDG VR wording

Green LED when VR is ON

I did a test within 2 weeks for Nikon Malaysia and I was shooting mainly with my D300s and other D7000 body coupled with FSA-L2 adapter at my favorite mudflat concentrating on Waterbirds and Kingfishers.

With this EDG VR scope, it was possible to get sharp images while shooting around 1/60s at 500mm F/5.9 using Continuous High (CH) and with Timer modes. Out of 18 shots taken in sequence with CH, I got more than 9 sharp images which is almost impossible with my current EDG scope ! More with cable release on Timer mode.

EXIF : ISO 100, Shutter speed 1/60s, 500mm F/5.9 with FSA-L2 on D300s. Images were cropped 50% and resized only. No sharpening applied

Other usefulness of the VR, while focusing at 500mm up to 1750mm, it helped me in obtaining faster perfect focus while focusing on the helical through the viewfinder without getting back and forth. No shaking on the images and videos even at 1750mm ! This is one of the important aspect by having VR scope when recording videos at high magnification where a slight movement by wind etc could caused shaking and blurring on the recording itself.

The VR scope uses 4 x AA batteries and could last for 17 hours. After 30 minutes of non-active usage, the VR will turn off itself in order to save power consumption. I didn't really feel the weight differences between my EDG85 and EDG85 VR. Plus it looked like the EDG85 VR seems to have better better contrast than my EDG scope ...

Mike Freiberg and Bill Schmoker from Nikon Prostaff USA tested the VR scope on windy day at :

• http://blog.aba.org/2012/01/whole-lot-of-shakin-not-going-on.html

Summary : I like this scope very much ! Is it worth upgrading to EDG85 VR scope ? Yes and for those who wants to take Digiscoping and Videoscoping to another level plus for visual use especially when you do lots of sea watching !

Thanks to Tee at Nikon Malaysia for the loan unit.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 VR via FSA-L2 on D300s and D7000

 

 

Happy Digiscoping !

Greater Painted Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis)

October 2011

Secretive and very shy ! But luck was on my side last October, saw a couple were feeding at one of the paddy field plot just next to the main road. The female did paused for few seconds when she saw my car stopped but it didn't bother her especially when I unwind the window and pointed my scope to her. Opportunity !

There were more than 3 pairs seen at Penampang paddy field with around 500m each that set them apart and this particular pair had a successful nesting with 3 juveniles were photographed by Gary Albert the following month.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

The male above has more role here than the female such as incubating the eggs and taking the immature for feeding (Not in the picture)

 The interesting part is, the female seems to be leading the male while feeding. This is obvious especially when both were crossing on the open spaces at the paddy field like shown on the picture above.

Hope I can get better and cleaner pictures of this beauty next time !

Happy birding ...

White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea)

23rd January 2012

Crakes and Rails is considered uncommon to rare in my place even the resident Crake such as Slaty-legged Crake and White-browed Crake. Yesterday afternoon went to Ranganan - Timbuk wetland and upon arrival, Joe showed me his shot of the White-browed Crake and it was quite close too !

There were few Great and Little Egret, lone Grey Heron, Black-winged Stilt, Common Moorhen and Common Kingfisher. A flock of Pink-necked Green Pigeon was busy feeding on a fruiting tree, a bit unfortunate for good pictures because it was a bit distance. The strange things is, there were no single Wandering Whistling Duck and on my last visit in December 2011, there were more than 100 of them. Not sure what happened ...

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

500mm ~ cropped 33% edited with Nikon Capture NX2

The baby !

 Never had the opportunity to get quite close with this bird !

Last photo before they walked back behind the reeds ...

Happy birding !

Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012

9th - 10th January 2012

Invited by Sabah Wildlife Department and jointly organized by Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC)to attend the by Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012 was held at Le Meridian Hotel in Kota Kinabalu to discussed 3 Action Plans namely the Orang Utan, Bornean Pygmy Elephant and Bornean Rhinoceros in order to save this species from extinction.

There is a hope ...

More info from the links below :

• http://www.newsabahtimes.com.my/nstweb/fullstory/55113
• http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/01/09/much-to-be-done-for-wildlife-conservation-director/
• http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=80316
• http://kgsilou.blogspot.com/2012/01/sabah-not-much-land-left.html

Some of the pictures taken during the 2 days event with Nikon D300s and 28mm 2.8 lens

Areden, Ryan and Edmundo representing Borneo Rainforest Lodge

Wildlife photograper Cede Prudente and Wendy Hutton, author for many books regarding Sabah

Peter from Sabah Wildlife Department with John Prudente from Borneo Geographic

Lawrance, John Nair, Brandon Miles and Clay busy discussing something ...

Mark representing APE and Mark from Danau Girang Field Centre 

Teles with the CEO's Blog 

Protected species in Sabah by Wildlife department

Displaying products made from palm oil

Providing latest info in regards with Borneo Sunbear and other conservation project by Borneo Conservation Trust

The Secretariat

Hope to see you all on the next Colloquium !

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

4th January 2012

First posting of the year with Common Kestrel, uncommon winter visitor in my place mostly seen at Tempasuk and Penampang paddy field, this time, fellow birder, Wan Iskandar saw it at Alam Mesra residential area and seen few times on top of the street light scanning for its prey.

According from Quentin Philipps's book, there were 6 Falco species migrating in Borneo and only 1 being a resident the Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus ernesti. 

Will try to get better pictures soon with the gang depending with the weather condition ...

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter via Nikon D300s

Happy birding !

Digiscoping Images at Nikon Vision Japan Website

30th December 2011

Some of my pictures has been published by Nikon Vision Japan at Nikon EDG microsite : http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/edg/top/index.htm at Digiscoping Gallery. This is one of my best achievement  as a bird guide and photographer. Thanks for the supports from my family, best friends and Tee from Nikon Malaysia with Irene from Sandakan Foto.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s edited with Nikon Capture NX2

I will be testing the new Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 VR soon and hopefully with Nikon V1 mirrorless camera and do not forget to check my upcoming Birding & Digiscoping Workshop for January 2012 at http://horukuru.blogspot.com/2011/12/birding-digiscoping-workshop-2012.html

Happy birding and thanks for everyone who followed and enjoyed my blog for year 2011. See you in 2012 !

Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)

22nd December 2011

Common winter visitor to Kota Kinabalu city mostly around Tg. Aru water village opposite Sutera Harbour golf course and fish market. The number estimated for this season was 20 and it mixed up together with Whiskered Tern and Great Egret while feeding.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

With Whiskered Tern

 

Happy birding and merry Xmas to all my readers !

Birding & Digiscoping Workshop 2012

I will be conducting field trips at Kinabatangan River from January until early April 2012 depending with booking with Minimum of 6 persons and Maximum is 12 persons per trip. The main reason why I chose Kinabatangan River because of the combination between birds and mammals plus great scenery along the river especially at Menanggul tributary.

This workshop is OPEN throughout the year except in December.


Bird guide :

Azahari Reyes @ Jason aka horukuru's profile :

Working as a bird guide based in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah since 2006 with clients mostly from UK and Japan. An invited spoke person for Nikon EDG products under Nikon Malaysia and been involved in various bird surveys with Sabah Forestry Department and photography workshops mainly by Nikon Malaysia and Sabah Park.

Pictures has been published in Sepilok Bird Book, Nikon Vision Japan website and promotional materials by Sabah Tourism Board mostly related with bird watching activities. In the process of publishing photographic bird book and coming up with photo exhibitions in Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan.

Been to Philippines, Indonesia and England as an exhibitor for the bird festivals promoting birding market for Sabah under Sabah Tourism Board at the same time, took the opportunity to know more about birds on those places.

Member of Borneo 400 Club and specialized in Digiscoping ~ Capturing pictures through scope with DSLR and compact camera.

Preferred Nikon equipments for birding and photography and Apple for pictures editing.

References :

• Nikon Vision Japan EDG website : http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/edg/top/index.htm
• Borneo 400 Club website : http://borneobirds.com/borneo400

Below is the program for 3 Days 2 Nights : EX - SUKAU



DAY 1 :

1200.            : Arrival of participants at Sukau Greenview Bed & Breakfast for registration and lunch.

1400 - 1530  : Basic Birdwatching covering in identification, sounds, behavior and usage of equipments; Binocular and Fieldscope subjects.

1530 - 1800. : Cruising along Menanggul River for Black Hornbill, Scarlet-rumped Trogon, Blue-eared Kingfisher and many more. Mammals such as Proboscis Monkey, Orang Utan and Long-tailed Macaque provides opportunity for pictures too.

1830 - 1930  : Dinner

1930 - 2100. : Check list of birds and mammals. End of Day 1. (Lunch and Dinner)



DAY 2

0630 - 0900  : Morning cruise for more birds and wildlife. Back to the lodge for breakfast.

1000 - 1200  : Digiscoping and Bird Photograph, Bird Recording and birding / photography ethics on the field.

1230             : Lunch.

1530 - 1800 : Cruising along Menanggul River for Bornean Ground Cuckoo, Lesser Fish Eagle, Black-naped Monarch and many more. Mammals such as Bornean Pygmy Elephant, Silver Leaf Monkey and Monitor Lizard provides opportunity for pictures too.
1830 - 1930  : Dinner

1930 - 2030  : Night cruise for nocturnal animals such as Leopard Cat, Malay Civets and Buffy Fish Owl.

2045 - 2145  : Check list of birds and mammals. End of Day 2. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner)



DAY 3

0630 - 0900  : Morning cruise for birds and wildlife. Back to the lodge for breakfast.

0930 - 1030  : Check list of birds and mammals.

1130 - 1230  : Check out and end of workshop. (Breakfast)


Things to bring :

1. Binocular with minimum configuration of 7x42, 8x32, 8x36, 8x42, 10x32 or 10x42 to maximized viewing of birds and wildlife. Compact binocular such as 8x25 and 10x25 can be used but you will get less Field of View and brightness while birding in the rainforest. Binocular for rental during the river cruise is provided for RM 10 per cruise.

2. DSLR and compact camera with zoom or telephoto lens; 70-200mm, 70-300mm, 300mm and above. Compact camera will be use for demo on Digiscoping. If none of the above, just binocular is fine.

3. Flash and torch lights for night cruise. Subject to weather condition.

4. Poncho or raincoat with hat or cap, sun lotion and sunglass for protection while cruising on the boat. Do not forget to bring insect repellent for mosquitos etc.

5. Proper walking shoes and sandal with long shirts and pants.

6. Laptop etc



What is included :

1. 6 private river cruises at Menanggul river with bird guide and maximum of 8 persons for each boat.

2. All meals at Sukau Greenview Bed & Breakfast with free flow of coffee and tea.

3. Fan room based on Twin Sharing for 2 persons at Sukau Greenview Bed & Breakfast



What is not included :

1. Travel insurance

2. Items of personal nature

3. Alcohol and soft drinks

4. Transportation from place of origin to Sukau Greenview Bed & Breakfast and back



For more info about Sukau Greenview Bed & Breakfast click here


Hope to see you there !

Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) In Action !

12th December 2011

A short visit to Ranganan - Timbuk wetland in Tuaran where it hosted the vagrant Pied Avocet 2 weeks ago, I got this shots of fighting Wood Sandpiper. Only few frames were in focus because I was shooting from the car and a bit higher on the ground. Plus their actions was so quick !

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via Nikon FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

 

  

That's really hurt !

Happy birding !

Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

8th December 2011

Saw this in Corby, England last year and a vagrant in my place and seen once at Pulau Tiga by Chris Kehoe. It was seen at Penampang paddy field by CK Leong in the morning before I arrived for the Blue-tailed Bee Eater.

Some of my friends were so lucky to see this few times at the same place with perfect pictures hahaha and I managed only a record shot despite searching for it the last few days in rain and shine !

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via Nikon FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

The flight pattern of this bird resembled like a Cuckoo

A the mountain now be back tomorrow afternoon. Will try again for the Starling ...

Happy birding !