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Need help/advice with Swarovski and Panasonic (1 Viewer)

benm

Active member
I have a Swarovski ATM 80 HD and a Pansonic DMC LX-3. I bought them seperately for different purposes but I thought I'd try them together.

The Leica D-Lux 4 is derived from the Panasonic LX-3 and Leica sells an adapter for the Televid for this camera. It works in a similar way to the Swarovski DCA. Therefore I believed I could make the DCA also work.

I obtained a Panasonic DMW-LA4. This is a 46mm sleeve that attaches to the camera's threads. It's necessary to clear the lens which projects out.

Since the Swarovski DCA doesn't come with a 46mm step-up ring, I obtained a 46mm step up to 52mm. The DCA works with 52mm.

I removed the lens cap tether, eyecup and installed the DCA parts.

Here's the results. I took exposures with the camera at lowest zoom and scope at highest, camera at highest and scope at the highest, camera at the highest and scope at the lowest, and both the camera and scope at lowest zoom. (Attached)

The result is far more vignetting than I expected, but I really don't know what to expect since I'm new to digiscoping. Is this working? Should I just crop the image or does this combination just not work?
 

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I found the problem is the Panasonic DMW-LA4 holds the camera lens too far away from the eyepiece when the camera lens is zoomed full (the lens retracts). It needs to be this long to protect filters and other accessories (wide angle adapter etc) when the camera lens is zoomed out (the lens protrudes).

For digiscoping, we obtain a lens position that works with the eyepiece's "eye" relief when the camera lens is protruding. However, the camera's field of view is too wide (this is the last photo). Zooming the camrea in will reduce the field of view and give a good image on the camera's sensor but using the DMW-LA4 will cause the lens to now be too far back for the eyepiece's eye relief.

The DMW-LA4 is a 45mm female thread to 46mm female thread adapter that is 30mm long. I need it to be about 20mm long or better yet about 15mm plus a filter I want to use (preferably 48mm because all the astro filters are 48). I thought I could use a series of step-up rings to achieve this but I'm thwarted by the male threads on the camera. Everyone expects female threads on a lens. I need a shorter female-female adapter.
 
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