simple eyecup-bushing (1 Viewer)

I handhold my unthreaded-lens cam to scope, and have been fairly happy for 2+ yrs of same. Had heard of putting some kind of bushing (like a small doughnut shape) into the rubber eyecup to center and hold the lens, but never got so ambitious as to try to make one - seemed too difficult. But last week I got the 5x telephoto from Eagleeye UK and with it a 37mm to 30mm adapter ring for my Sony Camcorder lens. I found the 37mm side of adapter fits almost perfectly into my Kowa 32x ep rubber cup, so I just wound some black electrician tape around the small inner hole making an extending flange and voi-lah, the bushing. I only needed to add a little more tape around half the outer dia. to lift the camera lens perfectly up to e.p. center. Since threaded adapter rings come in many sizes, I thought this might be worth passing along to other less than handy fabricators. I tried it out in the field today, and the bushing stays put inside the rubber cup through carrying over rough terrain, makes the shot quickly centered, and seems to even steady it vs. hand-positioning only.

these eyecup-bushings are very worthwile and can be made from many materials. i have seen them made of wood, rubber, and plexiglas. i consider my rubber bushing a necessity for hand held shots as the camera lense housing is only a little larger than the eyepiece lense of the new lieca zoom. i don't have to worry about touching the eyepiece lense and its really fast to use. i am able to hold the camera with my left hand and tilt and pan the scope as well while the right hand does shutter and adjustments to scope focus so i can stay on those moving birds. since it is a tight ft in the twist up eyecup i just leave the bushing in there all the time. it doesn't bother the view thru the scope and is always ready for business. my bushing was cut from a sheet of 4mm gasket material and is very durable. see my kestral photo in my gallery under digiscoping for an example of hand holding results at 48x zoom.

Yes, the first thing I noticed when I tried my new bushing was I could hold the camera steadier, with one hand and still work the scope, than I could hold it with two hands before.