Homemade scope for digiscoping

[bluedubius]

Hello,

I've posted several photos to the gallery taken with a homemade rig I threw together from old parts laying around. K. C. suggested I might post a note here with a link to one of my photos to show the things one might do on a tight budget and still get some reasonable photos. The "scope" is made from an old 500mm Soligor mirror lens I found in a closet. This was purchased in 1985 used so it is by no means a top of the line lens. I epoxyed a piece of pvc coupling from Home Depot to the back. I use a rubber plumbing drain connector (also from Home Depot) and some clamps to help hold a 32mm Orion plossel eyepiece to the pvc coupling on the lens. I epoxyed a 28 - 37mm step-up ring to the eyepiece so I could connect it directly to my Nikon coolpix 995 camera. This yields a small scope of about 16X which I can actually hand hold and get some decent shots. I also rigged a way to attach it to my tripod for better stability. I'll attach a photo of the rig. Here is a link to a photo taken recently through this scope:
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/17181/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/1.

[Doug]

When I saw your 'rig' I thought it was ingenious - then I took a look at the image in the gallery and now I think you should be working for Swarovski!!! Designing scopes. Good work!!

[Dave B Smith]

Rick,
Ingenious is right! I've got to hand it to you for "making do". Great idea and Great results also.

[KCFoggin]

I'm so glad you posted this. I have to agree with Doug, you definitely should be working for an optics company. Just the fact that it has the versatility of being hand held as well is amazing and as I have told you before, your shots are incredible with this creation.

[gkrpepper]

Rick
All i can say is WOW. That's what I am talking about. Greaaaat pictures. I just happen to have the exact 500 mm Soligor lens that i used on a canon AE 1 with mixed results. I've been trying to figure a cheaper way to take better pictures than going out and getting a 100-500 mm lens and you made my day. Now i just have to get a digital camera. I am leaning toward a Nikon CP 4300. Walmart's got them for around $400. Any suggestions? Would it work like yours? Where can I get the step up ring, eyepiece, etc?
thanks
Gunter

[Screech]

Way to go! Outstanding job with impressive results. How about "donuts" those cat lenses were supposed to generate. Have you any problems with that?
Keep up the great work!.... and I felt good making a shutter release. :(

[bluedubius]

Rick
All i can say is WOW. That's what I am talking about. Greaaaat pictures. I just happen to have the exact 500 mm Soligor lens that i used on a canon AE 1 with mixed results. I've been trying to figure a cheaper way to take better pictures than going out and getting a 100-500 mm lens and you made my day. Now i just have to get a digital camera. I am leaning toward a Nikon CP 4300. Walmart's got them for around $400. Any suggestions? Would it work like yours? Where can I get the step up ring, eyepiece, etc?
thanks
Gunter

Seems a lot of digiscopers favor the cp 4500 as a replacement that seems to be most like the cp 995 I use. Don't know about the 4300. Try checking in the forum here or on the yahoo group "digiscopingbirds"

[bluedubius]

Way to go! Outstanding job with impressive results. How about "donuts" those cat lenses were supposed to generate. Have you any problems with that?
Keep up the great work!.... and I felt good making a shutter release. :(

Thanks Bob. I do see those donuts, especially on out-of-focus highlights sometimes, but a good deal of the time they don't show up or don't really bother me. I made a shutter release too. But so much of the time I'm hanging this little camera/scope combo out the car window on a bean bag or something I really don't use it so much with this scope.

[alan_rymer]

Hello,

I've posted several photos to the gallery taken with a homemade rig I threw together from old parts laying around. K. C. suggested I might post a note here with a link to one of my photos to show the things one might do on a tight budget and still get some reasonable photos. The "scope" is made from an old 500mm Soligor mirror lens I found in a closet. <snip> I use a rubber plumbing drain connector (also from Home Depot) and some clamps to help hold a 32mm Orion plossel eyepiece to the pvc coupling on the lens. <snip>
Rick

I tried this a little while ago with a 200mm slr lens and an opticron eyepiece. I found it disconcerting in that the image is reversed ( upside down and back to front ) You want to move left when you should be moving right and up instead of down to get things into the centre of the lens. Does your plossel eyepiece correct this, I have heard that in atronomical scopes this normal. I must admit that the image is very clear and sharp though.

[bluedubius]

Rick

I tried this a little while ago with a 200mm slr lens and an opticron eyepiece. I found it disconcerting in that the image is reversed ( upside down and back to front ) You want to move left when you should be moving right and up instead of down to get things into the centre of the lens. Does your plossel eyepiece correct this, I have heard that in atronomical scopes this normal. I must admit that the image is very clear and sharp though.

The image is reversed, so you probably wouldn't want to use this as a spotting scope. It is disorienting at first, but you adapt rather quickly after using it a bit.