birthday present

[a10ken]

Hi guys/girls

It,s coming up to my lads birthday and he wants a scope. his main hobby is photography so i guess that it will be used mostly for imageing.

any advice or sugestoins please budget will be about £200 ish (new or good condition used)

Thanks in advance for any advice/offers

ken:icon_salut:

[shaunster]

What sort of budget do you have?

[a10ken]

depends whats out there realy but £200 ish +/-

[Uranium235]

Ummm... you will probably need to at least double that figure to get something 1/2 reasonable that wont frustrate the user.

Cheap refractors are pretty useless for imaging, you might be better off with a newtonian as a starter scope for imaging. Also, you have to account for adapters and a filter. If he's already into photography, you can leave the scope out for now and just go with the DSLR camera lens (if a suitable one is available), leaving the rest of the funds to put towards a decent mount.

[a10ken]

biggest he has at the mo is a 300mm nikon

[Uranium235]

300mm should be good as long as its F number isnt too high. Not sure on the Nikon though, as the favoured weapon of choice is a modded Canon DSLR. I dont think ive ever heard of a modded Nikon.

[Shibby]

You can certainly modify a Nikon (e.g. namreg has one), although there is no simple filter replacement so you lose AF.

As has been said, the mount is more important really. I'd suggest your lad starts with imaging through his existing lenses, but using a good mount. (e.g. EQ5)