Baader Click Stop 20-60x zoom ring adapters (1 Viewer)

I've just upgraded the eyepiece that came with my spotting scope to the Baader Hyperion Click-stop zoom. The eyepiece has a thread that allows connection of rings to connect a camera for digiscoping.

There appear to be two ways to do this. One is to use a ring that connects to a T-ring for the camera. The other is to use a ring that connects to the filter threads on the lens of a camera.

What are the pros and cons of the two connection methods?

I intend to use my Canon T1i as the camera and already have a T-ring.

If connecting to a lens, what type of lense would be best? I would assume a prime lens, but what size, I have a 50mm and a 100mm and they have different filter sizes.

A few thoughts

I am not an experienced digiscoper (tbh, an absolute beginner), but while pondering my options I have done some Internet research about DSLR/spotting scope setups. So here are some thoughts about the two options (not of my experience, only what I have collected):

Camera body + T2 adapter to scope eyepiece:

Pros: Lighter, you probably don't need extra support for the camera (except if it is a heavy one); probably better image quality due to having less optical elements between your subject and the camera sensor

Cons: You must set the camera manually; you have no focus feedback (except when using with a chipped adapter); a bit complicated to switch between watching and photographing

Camera body + lens + filter step-down ring to scope eyepiece:

Pros: You can use the camera's aperture priority (or other automatic or semi-automatic) modes and you have focus feedback

Cons: Heavy, you probably need some kind of rail or bracket to attach the camera and the scope rigidly, otherwise this setup may damage your lens; probably worse image quality; a bit complicated to switch between watching and photographing

The list is probably not complete, but this is what I remember at the moment.

Oh, and one more thing: I have the Baader Hyperion Clickstop Mark III now, too and I have found two problems:
- When I attach my DSLR to the 43 mm thread of the eyepiece the heavier right side of the camera sometimes causes the eyepiece zoom ring with the camera to rotate clockwise (except when tha camera is attached vertically, ofc). This is despite the fact that my cam is a very light Olympus e510.
- If you change the zoom setting, the 43 mm filter thread -- and the attached camera -- rotates, too.
Because of these problems I'm thinking about getting either a sleeve-type adapter with a T2 connector that fits over the (quite thick) Baader eyepiece, or a good compact camera.

Hey, does anyone out there knows about such a sleeve-type adapter (preferably an cheap one)?

If you must use the dslr then I'd go with a camera lens and mount via the filter thread. Get an older lens with all metal construction for the added strength. There's some really good old lenses that are nice and sharp and cheaply available on ebay. Look for various lenses in different mounts too. I use a couple of nice Pentax lenses on my Canon such as the Pentax SMC 28mm and 50mm. This sort of set up will give the best image quality. Lenses lower than 50mm are best, 50mm can be a bit powerful and going lower than 28mm can result in vignetting problems. 28 to 40mm is probably a good range to be in.

I wouldn't bother with the T-ring as image quality will be quite poor. I've tried pretty much every conceivable way to digiscope and this method is the worst.

Ultimately a small digicam would likely give the best results overall.

Paul.

Thanks for the advice.

I actually have some old minolta manual primes that I can probably get an adapter for to fit the EOS mount.