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Need a 43mm-42mm step-down ring to finally use scope... (1 Viewer)

gthang

Ford Focus Fanatic: mmmmmm... 3.1415926535.....
OK, I'm almost ready to start digiscoping, except for one small problem.

Well, you see, I needed a lens adapter to convert my camera to a 55mm thread, so I purchased an Oly CLA-4 adapter. Problem is, when I measured the diameter of the adapter tube that came with my scope, it was, at the time, 43mm. A search on bhphoto.com yielded no results of step-down rings for that particular size (55mm to 43mm). So my dad thought we could purchase two step-down rings. the first one, which works is a 55-52mm ring. The second, a 52-43mm ring, did not fit!

So we remeasured the thread width of the scope's adapter, and discovered that I was off by at least a millimetre. But there are no step-down rings for any sizes in the 42mm-41mm range... the only one close enough is the 40.5mm adapter... the telephoto adpater that came with my scope seems to be a 42mm, most likely.

Since we don't want to send the incorrect ring back, we thought it would be easier to buy yet another step down ring to step down from 43mm to the 42mm thread diameter of the scope's adapter.

If anyone knows a company that sells step-down rings that allow fitment of 42mm lenses, please let me know, and a website would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
You are attempting to connect camera to the eyepiece of the scope and not the 'telephoto adapter' supplied with it?
I'm not familiar with that scope (google just throws up your posts as opposed to any real info). I can't remember what camera you are using?
 
Sorry, andy, i have newb's excitement...

Anyway, My camera is an Olympus C-740. My scope is a Quantaray 12-60x60 zoom. I have just received the Olympus CLA-4 Conversion Lens Adapter that allows use of 55mm lenses. Due to the scope's telephoto adapter thread being ~42mm, (even though our estimate was 43mm at first), we went to BHPhotoVideo.com, and went to the Step-down rings section, and tried to find a single 55-43mm step-down ring. As we were unable to find any, we then tried a different approach by first finding a 55-52mm ring, followed by a 52-43mm ring. Since the remeasure yielded 42mm, we would like to find a 43-42mm step-down ring, and then be able to connect the telephoto adapter. Unfortunately, BHPhotoVideo had absolutely no 42mm or 41mm step-down rings; the next lowest was 40.5mm.

So you can see that finding a 42mm step-down ring from either 55mm, 52mm, or 43mm is impossible through the aforementioned site.

Hope I cleared things up for you.
 
Your heading, slowly, towards a big disappointment. Firstly, as a number of threads in the digiscoping forum mention, the 700 series Olympus cameras are all but useless for digiscoping. Secondly, in general, telephoto adapters are mean't for slr/dslr type cameras, where it replaces the scope eyepiece and effectively makes the scope a big camera lens... therefore you're sticking two camera lenses together when you add your Oly 740, and that's a recipe for disaster.

Do yourself a big favour, now you have the CLA-4, buy an Olympus teleconverter to fit on your camera to multiply that rather good 10x optical zoom, a 1.5x teleconverter will give 15x and still have reasonable quality. Use the scope for viewing the birds with your eye, forget about using it for photography.
regards,
Andy


gthang said:
Sorry, andy, i have newb's excitement...

Anyway, My camera is an Olympus C-740. My scope is a Quantaray 12-60x60 zoom. I have just received the Olympus CLA-4 Conversion Lens Adapter that allows use of 55mm lenses. Due to the scope's telephoto adapter thread being ~42mm, (even though our estimate was 43mm at first), we went to BHPhotoVideo.com, and went to the Step-down rings section, and tried to find a single 55-43mm step-down ring. As we were unable to find any, we then tried a different approach by first finding a 55-52mm ring, followed by a 52-43mm ring. Since the remeasure yielded 42mm, we would like to find a 43-42mm step-down ring, and then be able to connect the telephoto adapter. Unfortunately, BHPhotoVideo had absolutely no 42mm or 41mm step-down rings; the next lowest was 40.5mm.

So you can see that finding a 42mm step-down ring from either 55mm, 52mm, or 43mm is impossible through the aforementioned site.

Hope I cleared things up for you.
 
Gthang, try giving the teleconverter a go.

I have the Olympus C2100UZ which has a 10x optical zoom and is defitinitely no use for digiscoping. I use it with converters.

Olympus do the Tcon-14 which is a 1.4x converter and the Tcon17 which is a 1.7x converter - you can use both with the CLA4.

The Tcon17 has a 55mm thread and is an excellent lens used by many birders. It is good for up to around 15'.
 
Tiffen has a cheap 2.0x telephoto lens, and is a 43mm thread. that would make it 20x optical zoom.

I'll see what others there are.
 
My advice is to forget about that idea Gthang.


It's down to the quality of the optics and a decent 1.7x is about as good as it gets with a 10x optical zoom. I couple the Tcon14+Tcon17 together both of which are very good lenses but there is still a marked fall off in image sharpness.

A cheap converter will give cheap results!
 
IanF said:
My advice is to forget about that idea Gthang.


It's down to the quality of the optics and a decent 1.7x is about as good as it gets with a 10x optical zoom. I couple the Tcon14+Tcon17 together both of which are very good lenses but there is still a marked fall off in image sharpness.

A cheap converter will give cheap results!

Hi
Tcon14+Tcon17 which one has threads at front and what distance will that
give also am I correct in saying that the largest one goes on the camera
first.Thanks
Stan
 
Hi Stan,

Neither converter has a filter thread. I simply glued (Araldited) a 58 - 55 mm step down ring to the front of the Tcon-14 after moving the purely decorative plastic fascia disc. The Tcon-14 has a 46 - 49 mm step up ring cemented to the rear thread. The Tcon-14 is connected to the camera and the Tcon-17 is screwed on the front.

It sounds a bit drastic gluing on a fitler thread but it works very well indeed especially as you can pick up the Tcon 14 on eBay very cheaply - I got mine for £14!

It's good good for 20' - 30'+ depending on the size of the bird. I use them with an Olympus C2100UZ and a Panasonic DMC FZ10. Plenty of demo shots in the Gallery - Tcon14+Tcon17.
 
Last edited:
IanF said:
Hi Stan,

Neither converter has a filter thread. I simply glued (Araldited) a 58 - 55 mm step down ring to the front of the Tcon-14 after moving the purely decorative plastic fascia disc. The Tcon-14 has a 46 - 49 mm step up ring cemented to the rear thread. The Tcon-14 is connected to the camera and the Tcon-17 is screwed on the front.

It sounds a bit drastic gluing on a fitler thread but it works very well indeed especially as you can pick up the Tcon 14 on eBay very cheaply - I got mine for £14!

It's good good for 20' - 30'+ depending on the size of the bird. I use them with an Olympus C2100UZ and a Panasonic DMC FZ10. Plenty of demo shots in the Gallery - Tcon14+Tcon17.

Hi IanF
Many thanks for the very usefull info. At the moment I,m using a Nikon
scope ed78 with the little Kyocera sl 400r but I,m not having much success
Ifind it ok for waders they will sit and pose. but when it comes to the small stuff by the time I get set up they,ve gone. I,ve got the fuji 7000 which takes great pics but dont know if it will work with your set up.
Once again many thanks.
Stan
 
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