• 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.

$1 DIY adapter, Lumix LX-7 camera, Meopta S2 scope, and first pictures! (1 Viewer)

coclimber

Active member
Parts:
- Lumix LX-7 camera has /1.7 sensor, and a 24-90 mm (full size equivalent) lens. I believe that has a 4.55 crop factor (source could be wrong).
- Meopta S2 scope has 30-60x WA eye piece.
- 2 inch diameter PVC plastic fitting (they come 2.5 inches long). Cost 79 cents. Shaped to fit eye piece.

Wandering the aisles of Home Depot with my calipers, stumbled on a 79 cent plastic fitting in picture #1 (see link at bottom)
- internal diameter of fitting is a touch smaller than outside diameter of scope's rubber eye ring
- in pictures #1 and 2, notice lip half way down and inside tube; just right for seating again rubber eye ring for repeatable positioning and secure grip; picture #4 shows lip, but not yet fully seated

Planning factors:
- get widest fov for pictures when metal on front of camera lens touches metal of scope’s eye piece
- no vignetting when 24-90 mm lens is used at the 35-40 mm length; this is the length when zoom lens is at its shortest length. When camera is turned on, starts full extended at 24 mm, then zooms back in to 35 mm, then fully back out to 90 mm
- outside diameter of camera lens is just a touch larger than inside diameter of rubber eye ring
- camera zoom will freeze if lens is held/stopped on rubber eye ring
- best to first, zoom lens to shortest length (35 mm), then push lens through rubber eye ring by hand
- Meopta eye piece raises and lowers a certain amount; extending scope’s eye piece one-half to three-quarters gives most building tolerance, and placement tolerance of lens touching eye piece

Building adapter:
- based on planning factors above, cut 0.10 inch off one end, file smooth and square (which will probably use up another 0.05 inch)
- if mess up, try taking photographs anyway … this will insure you know what needs to be changed. If really mess up, try again on the other side of plastic fitting (notice my “other size” is very short…)
- Note: remember since eye piece is initially set in the one-half to three-quarters, still have adjustment room to fine tune the touching together of the camera lens and scope eye piece… just twist the eye piece up or down

======
As is, can use adapter to hand hold shots: focus scope, put adapter on eye piece, add camera (set to 35 mm focal length), and let camera do the focusing. Can focus through adapter, but have <10% of the view. Watch camera screen, and slide camera around, to center shots and remove vignetting.

To better keep camera centered in adapter, bevel the inside edge, shown unbeveled in picture #5. File then sand the inside edge until camera falls inside, enough so camera stays put. Can see a little of this beveling in picture #1. This will allow you to ready your hand-held picture faster. Picture #6 shows space between adapter and lower part of eye piece. This is because rubber eye ring has a larger diameter and must be passed over first. I thought about filling this space with a rubber band, but if the adapter is seated well on the rubber eye ring, I experience no problem

Hand-held pictures I took (see same link below) worked ok. I may try something to hold the camera in place to minimize camera shake. Picture #8 shows one idea. May glue two hooks on the white plastic adapter to attach rubber bands to. For now have black bungie cord tied to rubber bands. Need to keep bungie cord pull aligned with center axis of adaptor, or camera will tilt.

=====
Pictures #9-13 are my first digiscoping pictures shooting through the dining room window. Click on link to Picasa (Google’s photo sharing). Starts as slideshow so click on picture to reveal forward tab at bottom of picture; use to progress to next picture at your own pace. https://picasaweb.google.com/109369642641700233053/Digiscope#slideshow/5973221337768443730
I don't know how to resize pictures to fit on Bf.
 
Last edited:
Links dead.

Would love having a good look through to see the results as the Meopta is for me the scope of choice under £2000.
 
Ooops...

Now it is set so visitable to others. All pictures are full sized.

Meopta has got a great view. Clearly saw four moons of Jupiter last night, and some banding on Jupiter, and I live with the light polution of a 400,000 population city.

Let me know if you have questions.
 
Ooops...

Now it is set so visitable to others. All pictures are full sized.

Meopta has got a great view. Clearly saw four moons of Jupiter last night, and some banding on Jupiter, and I live with the light polution of a 400,000 population city.

Let me know if you have questions.

Still says 'sorry that page was not found'. Try putting up a refreshed link. :t: as im really interested to see a digiscoped image from the meopta as I've only used it with the naked eye on loan.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top