RDS Sight For Birding: Gear

Ok I will show & Explain one device I use for capturing birds in flight.



Ok now onto explaining what the RDS does (Red Dot Sight)
You will mount the RDS to your Hotshoe of your camera via a custom bracket.

Next you will calibrate the RDS to match the focus point of your lens.
Example when you are out in the field spot metering, single point focus
looking through your view finder you will see this.

With the RDS it is calibrated so when a bird is flying around instead of looking zoomed in through the viewfinder
or live view all you have to do is aim get the red dot/green dot on the bird press shutter half way down to get a
lock hold AF/AE lock and burst fire away while making focus adjustments makes it much easier to get your
birds in flight. The RDS has to be calibrated with your zoom lens so for example I need to calibrate mine so that @ 500mm
fully extended I am at dead zero the red dot matches exactly with how you see the single point focus through the viewfinder.

The RDS is holographic reflex so it's basically a heads up display the light is led so its safe for your eyes and it can be dimmed
or brightened as well as the MOA size meaning the size of the dot you see on the head ups.


*No Light hits the birds the light is shined from the back of the rds and it bounces off the two way mirror
and into your view. I know some people think the birds are lit up rest assured they are not.

Example Illustration

My setup. I use this for sunny day's open area's with plenty of light
shaded area's I use SB900 speedlight with A Better Beamer mounted Will
Explain that in another post.

Example of bird in flight captured.

My Sigma Lens mounted.

Interesting and well illustrated...

Do you have a URL for this device?

I found this... www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/bp/flight

chasrich wrote: Interesting and well illustrated...

Do you have a URL for this device?

I found this... www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/bp/flight

I got mine from amazon it's just a red dot sight (RDS) you can find
them online or hunting stores this is the same red dot sight for rifles
and guns. The one I have is new model Truglo

A good site to check out is on google search word opticsplanet
there you can search ratings prices etc.. I didn't post the the links
to the site because well they end up getting deleted anyway
not sure why.

Oh I forgot you have to purchase a mounting rail for the hotshoe.
search google for "Photosolve.com" purchase the Xtend a sight

Now when you get one of these RDS they usually have to be calibrated
it will come with little allen wrench when you secure it to the hotshoe extend your lens to it's max example 400mm lens fully extended. mounted on a tripod focus onto a distant
steady subject now using your viewfinder and with the rds on use the allen wrench
to align it so the dot matches the viewfinder process takes 5 minutes if you are planning
on leaving the rds on the hotshoe for a week let's say occasionally check it but it should
remain aligned it's only when you remove it from the hotshoe and re attach it that you have to re calibrate naturally since you are securing it so there will be some wiggling there.

It really works great for shutter priority mode
Manual mode you kinda have to know wether your going to be over or under exposed
due to moving subject but you can get an idea

Thanks for the very cool tip Provo. I have seen these advertised but never used one. I will give them a look .... But it might be tough form me ... I have settled into a method and madness for shooting BIF's that works for me. Ha!

It's a cool idea, much like a "bug light" gun sight. How does it work on a very bright day?

Just thought that I would try and help out here .... by adding some links to information. Maybe they will stay here, and not be deleted

Truglo Red-Dot Tru-Brite Open-Dot Multi Blk Box


Truglo Red-Dot 30Mm Dual Color Sight


Extend-A-Sight

bhowdy wrote: Thanks for the very cool tip Provo. I have seen these advertised but never used one. I will give them a look .... But it might be tough form me ... I have settled into a method and madness for shooting BIF's that works for me. Ha!

It's a cool idea, much like a "bug light" gun sight. How does it work on a very bright day?

Oh trust me it's very bright LOL the one I have which you illustrated on the 1st image
has the option to use RED or GREEN and you can set the intensity from 1-5
5 is blinding even in 12noon sunlight
My setting for sunny days is 3 bright enough for me.
You can also change the size of the dot to 3 sizes so it's easier to see.

I am very much used to using the viewfinder only because I like shooting in manual mode all the time I can take advantage of higher shutter speeds and just have overall control.

But for shutter priority oh the RDS is hands down the winner and I like that basically your
eyes keep on the subject and since its a holgram projected dot I just basically hold up the camera place it on the moving target and fire away burst mode. Although I wish I had a camera that allowed me to shoot more FPS frames per sec but soon enough I will have one by the end of this year.

BTW Bhowdy do you use on the field flash? That will be my next post here when I have a sec.

I have a list of more gear I would like to get such a Gimball head
for the tripod and a bracket extension arm for the speed light
a faster telefoto lens would be nice too.
and a field scope for digiscoping.
But all this requires a money tree so have to save for all these gadgets.

"BTW Bhowdy do you use on the field flash? That will be my next post here when I have a sec"

Provo - I use off camera flash a good bit for my wildlife.

About the missing URLs... Agents are constantly removing links that are suspected of being SPAM. It is a fine line with a large gray area around it. If in doubt the link might be removed to preserve the integrity of our forums and keeping them free of unwanted advertisements. Usually a confirmed member can post a reference link to illustrate a point or even a product they wish to expose to our community without a problem. Another method might be to ask anyone interested to send a private message asking about the link. At any rate the URLs are not just arbitrarily removed. I apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.