• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Search results

thxpress_search_the_forum Search Opus
  1. P

    Baader Q-Barlow 2.25X HT-mulicoated

    Earlier this week I ordered one of these high quality barlows for my birthday which is at the end of the month. Couldn't resist a few test photos this morning. They've come down in price lately, this one was £45 on Amazon but you can pay almost double at some outlets. Very high quality glass...
  2. P

    Vivitar 2X TC in Pentax 6X7 medium format mount.

    I picked up this behemoth of a TC on ebay this week for cheap money. It's for the medium format Pentax 6X7 cameras and as you can see in the photo it's huge compared to my 2X Teleplus Macro Focusing TC which itself is quite big. Counting the reflections down through the lenses it appears to be...
  3. P

    Macro focusing teleconverters

    I couldn't reply to the old thread on this model of TC as the thread was too old. I picked up another of these 2X Teleplus Macro Focusing TC's on ebay this week for a very low price. The seller listed it as a Canon FD fit but I could tell from the photo it was actually a Nikon mount. That meant...
  4. P

    Samyang T2 2X teleconverter.

    I've seen a few different brands of these T2 teleconverters around and because they are so inexpensive I hadn't even bothered to give them any thought. Usually cheap means rubbish, especially with optics. Anyway, my curiosity got the better of me and I got this Samyang T2 one off of Amazon for...
  5. P

    High ISO samples

    I did a high ISO comparison on my Nikon D3300 between Nikon's ViewNX2 RAW editor and Adobe Lightroom. ViewNX2 has no options to edit noise but it does do something to slightly smooth it out during the import although detail isn't affected. I find the software does such a good RAW conversion that...
  6. P

    Macro focusing teleconverters.

    After hearing about these from forum member Johnlantransj, I picked up a Teleplus 2X MC7 Macro Focusing Teleconverter off ebay earlier this week. Being a 7 element design made by Teleplus (Kenko) it should be good and I was very pleased with the quality when it arrived today. I had intended to...
  7. P

    Cosmicar/Pentax C-mount 2X teleconverter

    I won this on ebay this morning for just £1. These tend to be used on CCTV cameras, I already have a couple of Fujinon C-mount ones and have wanted the Pentax version for quite a while. They tend to be offered at much higher prices than the tiny amount I paid though. I shall try it out on the...
  8. P

    Triplet apo barlow / telenegative comparison

    Example of how a triplet apochromatic barlow lens compares to the arrangement of glass in a telenegative group from a zoom camera lens. I've greyed out all the other glass on the zoom lens image just to highlight the telenegative. The barlow is quite a similar design, the main difference is that...
  9. P

    Macro photos using old zoom objectives

    Sticking an old zoom objective lens cell in front of a lens will increase its close focus ability by a good margin. Here's one taken buy placing a Tamron 85-210mm BBAR MC lens in front of my Pentax SMC 50mm f1.7 lens. The old Tamron lens cell is a nice 3 element apo design so it's well...
  10. P

    Eyepiece projection with microfiche projection lens

    Todays experimenting revolved around using a tiny microfiche projection lens for doing eyepiece projection onto the camera ccd. The small microfiche lens acts like a normal eyepiece on the scope and they are designed to have an incredibly flat field, much flatter than even the flattest astronomy...
  11. P

    Focal reducer

    Today I came up wit a very nice focal reducer. Not sure why I never tried it before but never mind. I've got quite a few zoom lens objectives collected from lenses I've taken apart. Mounting the objective into a macro tube (which is extremely simple) will then act as a focal reducer. Noting is...
  12. P

    Televue Powermate

    Found this guys gallery on flickr and he has some examples taken with 2.5X, 4X and 5X Televue Powermates on the SW80ED. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafael_cediel/sets/72157625998950356/ Photo of his set up here. Paul.
  13. P

    Couple of Long Tailed Tits

    These are one of those birds that just never sit still, so I'm always happy when I manage to nail one. Taken with just the SW80ED and no extra magnification. Images cropped only a little from 10m (33 feet). Paul.
  14. P

    New tripod

    Thought I'd post a photo of the new tripod I got for Christmas. These sell on ebay for £43 with free delivery which is excellent value seeing as it's basically a copy of a Manfrotto design which costs more than twice this amount. My dad has the Manfrotto version and he couldn't believe how cheap...
  15. P

    A few snowy images with SW80ED.

    Had a good dumping of snow earlier in the week and this always brings out a good variety of birds looking for food. All these are just the Skywatcher 80ED without any extra magnification. All in the 10-15m range (30-50 feet). Paul.
  16. P

    Telescope carrying handle

    Spotted this on ebay. Bit expensive but something similar could easily be made and bolted direct to the tube rather than fixing to the tube rings. A slightly larger diameter handle would be more comfortable, maybe even a soft grip like tennis racket handle tape or something. See here. Paul.
  17. P

    Macro shots from Tamron 80-210mm objective lens

    Thought I'd post these in their own thread. These are taken using the objective elements taken from the Tamron 80-210mm and placing them in front of my Pentax SMC 50mm f1.7 lens. The Tamron Adaptall-2 80-210mm version 1 which has the model code 03A. See this link by clicking here and this will...
  18. P

    Fujinon CE20-1 2X teleconverter (Nice)

    I picked up a pair of these in one auction on ebay this week for the tiny amount of £1. The teleconverter is quite small, just over 1" total in diameter but it packs a punch in terms of quality. Printed on the side it says X2 Extender CE20-1 For Fujinon Zoom Lens. Mounting it in a macro tube as...
  19. P

    Possible alternative to barlows/teleconverters

    I've got some old lenses laying around and thought I'd try this after seeing something on the internet. This is basically the front lens assembly from an old Pentax zoom lens. Not sure how many bits of glass are in it but it seems pretty well corrected for CA. It's giving around 2X equivalent...
  20. P

    Orthoscopic eyepiece test.

    Thought I'd post this photo as it came out pretty good. It's an old orthoscopic eyepiece that came with a 60mm spotting scope. I joined the eyepiece to a 1.25" chrome barrel for easy mounting on the SW 80ED and . The eyepiece gives 43X on my scope and my P&S digicam was at 126mm which gives an...
  21. P

    Stopping down with modified diaphragm

    Here's a series of photos taken with a set of diaphragm blades out of an old lens. The assembly needs to be right up in the scope, pretty much at the end of the focuser and this insures no vignetting no matter how small you stop it down. With the blades wide open at around 20mm I could shoot at...
  22. P

    Apo triplet lens cells on ebay

    This is a seller whose stuff I look in on from time to time on ebay. They never have a great amount of things for sale at any one time but it's one of the few sources of triplet lens cells that I know of. They have a nice 106mm diameter, 700mm focal length, FPL-53 triplet cell for sale at the...
  23. P

    Canon Extender CL 2X

    On Sunday I won one of these 2X teleconverters on ebay for just £1. They used to cost around £300 new and as it's Canon glass I've got high hopes for it. It's for the Canon L1 and L2 Pro Hi-8 camcorders which means the image circle will be too small for the DSLR sensor. I'll just space it...
  24. P

    Comparison of teleconverters & barlows

    Did a comparison of all my different types of magnification today. As a good test I used a bank note for it's extra fine detail. The first row of photos are at the lower end, all 1.5X and under. The second row of photos are all 2X and above. Information is on the photos. These are all 100%...
  25. P

    Flight shots

    Insects in flight is pretty tough but worth persevering with as the results can be pretty good. At this time of the year we get lots of Drone flies in the garden. They are a type of Hoverfly and they occupy a small space, especially when the sun is out and they just sit there and hover. You only...
Back
Top