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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 (1 Viewer)

The 24-60mm lens may be a little underpowered for digiscoping when most compacts are double that. ISO up to 400 looks usable, 800 at a push but it gets noisy beyond that with 1600 being quite poor and 3200 being unusable. At least it has the option to shoot in RAW but only 3 images in burst mode before the buffer is full. 380 pictures on one battery isn't a great deal by today's standards.

Paul.
 
Jamie,
I hope it is going to work. As Paul says though the lens may be a bit short. My Nikon 8400 lens is 24-85 mm and although it is very sharp ( it incorporates ED glass ) it's not much use at the wide end. It takes great landscape at photos at 24 mm though.
We need to see one in the flesh and see how the lens works. How far it travels when zooming (the less movement the better for digiscoping ).
Neil.
 
I have the DMC-LX1. I think it's a great camera but a bit on the noisy side(probably better on the LX3). Have taken som great photos with it. And it has all the manual settings you need.
I have never used it for digiscoping so i wouldn't know how if that's gonna work.
 
I did a hand held test of the LX3 in a local store using a Swarovski scope with a 20-60 zoom. As expected the lens is a bit short . At 20x and wide on the camera lens vignetting was about 70%. At full zoom on the camera lens vignetting was about 20%. At 60x vignetting was much less and disappeared around 60% camera zoom. With a fixed eyepiece of 20mm or more the vignetting could be acceptable. It would be interesting to try with the an eyepiece like the Kowa 25x LER. I actually have the eyepiece but no scope to test it on ( it won't fit the Swaro like the old Kowa eyepieces)
Neil.
 
My memory is inexact so I went back to some poor images I took on one of my cards , hand holding to the Swaro scope in the store. Here are the images at 20x W and T and 60x W and T . Vignetting disappears at the 60x end at around 48 mm (2880 mm) and is minimal at the 20x end at full camera zoom. This is varying the lens to eyepiece distance as I zoomed which is not possible to do with a fixed camera adapter. Better results could be achieved with a fixed eyepiece of 20 mm of Eye Relief. Neil.

ps sorry about my shaky hand holding
 

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I did a hand held test of the LX3 in a local store using a Swarovski scope with a 20-60 zoom. As expected the lens is a bit short . At 20x and wide on the camera lens vignetting was about 70%. At full zoom on the camera lens vignetting was about 20%. At 60x vignetting was much less and disappeared around 60% camera zoom. With a fixed eyepiece of 20mm or more the vignetting could be acceptable. It would be interesting to try with the an eyepiece like the Kowa 25x LER. I actually have the eyepiece but no scope to test it on ( it won't fit the Swaro like the old Kowa eyepieces)
Neil.

Hi Neil,

I wonder if the LX3 will vignette when using a short scope like the EagleEye Opticzoom 5x (I think its using 37mm threads)?
 
How about Kowa TE-20H eyepiece 25x where are 32mm eye relief, is it usable with this camera and Kowa 883 scope
 
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How about Kowa TE-20H eyepiece 25x where are 32mm eye relief, is it usable with this camera and Kowa 883 scope

I would love to have one of these little cameras to test in the field. It's short lens would probably be ok with the 25x LER eyepiece but it should be tested. The Canon G6 has a 2.0 lens but it's 35 -140 and doesn't work too well with the Kw 25x LER but it's more a FOV problem. The Ricoh GX100 has a short zoom 24 - 72 mm and works with most eyepieces or 20mm or ER or more but needs to be zoomed out to almost full zoom. I hope you get some real world feedback on this. Neil.
 
How about Kowa TE-20H eyepiece 25x where are 32mm eye relief, is it usable with this camera and Kowa 883 scope

Hi Musti,
The LX3 is perfectly usable with this eyepiece. It works fine at full zoom which is where you would use it all the time, I think you'd find.
However, I have myself been disappointed with the image and am returning the camera. I bought it strictly for digiscoping and have been unimpressed. Why this is I find difficult to define; but I have had no really stunning images that I had expected from this combination. As a general camera, particularly for landscape, it is a gem. The colour is superb and the high res of the screen is brilliant. Read through a few of the pages of this blog to see some superb exampls of what the camera can achieve:
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/915980
I wouldn't want to say outright that it's not capable of producing superb results (I'm certain someone will post something to prove this), but from all the experimenting I've done, my opinion is that the number of 'keepers' will be low. I was disappointed with the noise and the resolving power of the lens. I am really looking forward to Rick's analysis of the LX150, as I suspect that this will be the better option, particularly as it's a couple of hundred UK pounds cheaper than the LX3!
As an example of what I mean, I pulled an old Olympus C5050 out of the cupboard, and within five minutes had produced better results handheld than the LX3 had produced; much more slowly and noisily of course, but interesting I think you'll agree. I also tried my old F30 with similar results.
I know that Neal and others are producing superb results with the G1, but I ideally want a digiscoping camera I can slip in the back pocket of my trousers.
Just my opinion and nothing more.
Max
 
thanks Timedrifter
I have LX3 and I'm waiting DMW-LA4 after then I thinging to order Kowa TE-20H.
I will have now nikon P6000 with kowa 20 - 60x zoom and I must keep nikons zoom at max position and then min aperature are 5.9 which takes long time in low light situation.
But system are usable, I can use 20 x postion at Kowa and also 60x positions in Kowa.

Problem in LX 3 are that there are no remote shooting possibily and using self timer are not good way to take pictures.
 
tested with Kowa 25x LER eyepiece and works fine with 2.5x zoom position with panasonic DMW-LA4 adapter and Kowa TSN-DA10 adapter
 
Auto Focus though a scope with the camera lens at full zoom is going to be iffy except in very good light. I normally back off the zoom at least one click until the Aperture is less than the maximum. Otherwise switch to Manual Mode (Infinity Focusing ) and manually focus the scope until the image looks sharp in the viewfinder.
Neil.
 
First ever digiscoped image

I took the attached photos with the LX3 and a William Optics Zenithstar 80 EDII APOGRADE (upgraded to TMB Fluorite element). The scope is 555mm, f6.9, 80mm lens. I took the image by holding the camera up against the extendable outer ring of a Televue Radian 10mm eyepiece. This worked pretty well as the outer ring nicely supported the camera lens assembly without allowing the 2 pieces of glass to be touched.

Not great images, but encouraging enough that I will probably start looking for an adapter so I dont have to hand hold the camera. The 1st photo was taken from about 45ft and the 2nd from about 30ft. Did a little sharpening and minor cropping.

Why am I using LX3? My wife has one and it saves me having to go and buy a camera for now. It looks like this camera would have much potential in the hands of an experienced digiscoper.
 

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Managed to purchase a couple of tube adapters today. I will modify one of them for nylon set screws (or something similar) and hope to try out next weekend. A question for those in the know.... If I use my eyepiece without a diagonal I know I will not only have a reversed image, but it would then be upside down. Not too worried about orientation....getting use to the backwards thing. Question is.... would I need an extension tube to compensate for having removed the diagonal from the system?

Here is one more photo from yesterday's handheld tryout.

These collared kingfishers are thriving around my house. They appear to have a bunch of youngsters flying around and begging mom and pop for food. Earlier as I was waiting for the wife to join me at the car, I observed one of these guys sitting on a tree limb and bashing a lizard against it. Wish I had been set up at that moment.... wouldve made for some nice shots.
 

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Managed to purchase a couple of tube adapters today. I will modify one of them for nylon set screws (or something similar) and hope to try out next weekend. A question for those in the know.... If I use my eyepiece without a diagonal I know I will not only have a reversed image, but it would then be upside down. Not too worried about orientation....getting use to the backwards thing. Question is.... would I need an extension tube to compensate for having removed the diagonal from the system?

Yes, you will need an extension tube to reach focus once you remove the diagonal. Around 130mm works on my astro scope and then the eyepiece adds a bit more so you will need to experiment but it will be somewhere in that region. I used to scope this way, image upside down, back to front and it takes a little getting used to but after a while you don't even notice it. Removing the diagonal has the benefit in that image quality is usually improved to some degree because the prism or mirror usually degrades the image unless using top of the range gear.

Paul.
 
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Thanks for the information Paul. I am gonna vacate this thread now as I am talking a little too much about astroscopes. When I get more photos to share I will post over on astroscope forum. Thanks again!
 
any update with digiscoped pictures using this LX3 ?
Hi. I bought a Swarovski ATS 80HD and 20x-60x eyepiece also with the new UCA (universal camera adaptor). I tried it with LX3. At 24mm it was fine albeit like looking down a pipe. When zoomed in and move the adaptor rail I could not get the vignetting away completely. I felt as if the 2.5x was just a wee bit too little. Then the lens started hunting continuously. If you switch the camera off while on the UCA it hunts again. Once you remove it and restart it, the hunting goes. I tried to call Panasonic about it 7 times - a waste of time so I emailed them. I still await the reply.

Meantime, I also used my wife's Nikon D200 with 50mm 1.8. That was not easy either. The problem is the weight distribution (I tried the balance rail - did not make that much difference). The best results were with the mirror locked up (even using a remote cord only you are out of focus (such are the vibrations) and remote cord. I have a D3 which is too heavy for this and being full frame maybe not that good.

What I did find cumbersome was having to continually look through the D200 viewfinder. The LX3 liveview was great here. I would try the D3 on liveview but as I said it is too heavy. Maybe a D300 would be better.

Right now I am going to try out the Swarovski TLS 800 for DSLR and I also await the telescope rail to try and stablise the whole kit.

In case you have not guessed I am new to digiscoping for any comments, advice, criticisms et al would be welcomed.
 
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