Best digicam for the Leica Televid 77

[Mickey_Sg]

Hi friends,

I'm a birder living in Singapore, and came across this forum recently whilst trying to find out more about digiscoping.

I have a Leica Televid 77 (angled), with two eyepieces, the 20xWW and 40xWW. Its a fantastic scope with unbelievable resolution, and using it has helped my ID skills tremendously, as I can now pick out details which were beyond the capabilities of my binoculars. I use the 40x most of the time.

I'd obviously like to be able to capture some of the images that I can see in my scope.

My priority is that the digiscoping setup must be convenient and quick to connect. Most of my birding is in forest and woodland, bashing through undergrowth is sometimes unavoidable, so complicated rigs that attach to the tripod are out. It should be light and easily fit in my already overloaded backpack.

My idea is that I get a digicam with a filter thread, and have an threaded adapter made that screws on to the filter thread of the camera, like the Spidertech adapters. The adapter would be basically a longish tube that fits snugly over the eyepiece, and keeps the camera lens aligned to the plane of the eyepiece. The length of the adapter would be determined by trial and error to minimise vignetting. Seeing as I'm not likely to change scope or camera, this should be workable right?

The next issue is choice of camera. I dont want to buy a brand new one, as secondhand ones are easily available and cheap. It should have a filter thread, and the camera should have a remote control, so I can shoot without fear of vibration, or needing a clunky shutter release attachment

I can get a used Canon G6 for about USD$170. It fits all my criteria, but my concern is vignetting, especially with the small exit pupil of the 40x eyepiece.
Andy Bright advises strongly against this camera "The Canon 'G' series gives plenty of vignetting with most eyepieces. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to purchase this camera with digiscoping in mind". Has anyone tried the G6 with the Televid scopes and found this to be the case?

If the G6 is not workable, which other cameras could I consider?

What do other Televid owners use for digiscoping?

Is the 40x Eyepiece suitable for digiscoping or would I have to switch to my 20x?

Thanks very much to all of your for your advice and help
Kind Regards
Mick

[David142]

Hi,Mick, I have a Canon PS A570IS I use to digiscope with decent results. I use Canon's filter adapterLA-DC52G which has a 52 thread into which I thread my LCE adapter made to suit my Leica eyepieces(zoom and 32 W).The camera is 4x zoom and any vignetting is easily eliminated at about 3x zoom.I had a Canon PS-A70 before that and with the appropriate filter adapter had many years happy digiscoping. The set-up is fairly quick and although the LCE adapter has three fixing screws I just use one as it's such a good fit on my eyepiece. You can't get a better scope(IMO) so take it with you and try the cameras you are thinking of and see what happens.Most digicams will do the job with set-ups varying from a plastic tube to SRB swing adapter

[Newton Stringer]

Hi Mick

I use a fuji F31d with a simple home made adapter made out of a curry powder pot ! Its very quick to use, fits in my pocket and gets some really nice results.... excellent camera but hard to get hold of now I think.... F30 is supposed to be virtually the same tho..... I did have an old post with a picture of my home made tube thing on here, but it was way back in 2007 and it seems to have been removed.... basically just glued a roll of insulating tape (perfect diameter for the lens) inside a curry powder pot and cut it to the right length to slide over the leica eyepiece and hover just off touching the glass.... works a treat and zero black rings around my images..... I use a 32x WW eyepiece...

Good luck !!

G PS click the link below for some examples of what the camera can do.....this is my blog and all the images on this particular page were taken with this setup (except the hawfinch which was my mates DSLR)

http://newtonstringer.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&max-results=50




8)

[Newton Stringer]

Forgot to mention I use an APO 62 scope, so the 32x wide eyepiece will be different than on the 77......