The portmanteau
neologism digiscoping (= digital camera + telescoping) was coined in 1999 by French
birdwatcher Alain Fossé. Less notable neologisms for this activity are
digiscope birding,
digiscopy birding,
digi-birding,
digibinning (using digital camera with
binoculars), and
phonescoping (using a digital
camera phone with a spotting scope or binoculars). The origin of digiscoping has been attributed to the photographic methods of
Laurence Poh, a birdwatcher from the
Malaysian Nature Society, who discovered in 1999 almost by accident that the new generation of
point and shoot digital cameras could be held up to the eyepiece of a standard spotting scope and achieve surprisingly good results. He spread his findings through birding
internet discussion forums and one member, French birdwatcher Alain Fossé, coined the name
digiscoping to describe the technique. Poh is sometimes credited with "inventing" the technique, although his contribution may be more along the lines of popularizing the idea and refining the technology. Using a camera with its lens attached at the eyepiece of optical devices such as microscopes or telescopes, creating an
afocal system (technically called
afocal photography or
afocal projection) had been used for nearly 100 years and digital camera afocal photography was already being employed in the amateur astronomical community. This form of afocal photography became more common in general photography in the 21st century with the spread of point and shoot digital cameras because of the ease of use of this type of setup. Several companies sell couplers and other devices for mounting digital cameras afocally. ==See also==