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Lumix micro 4/3 - digiscoping without a camera lens (1 Viewer)

jeffhosier

Well-known member
I have a Panasonic Lumix G5 micro 4/3 camera which I'm thinking of using for digiscoping, and hit some snags. If there's anyoone out there who's made a successful go of this, I'd appreciate some advice.

I've seen an adaptor made by SRB-Griturn which fits into the body of the camera, and replaces the camera's lens with a tube that slides over the scope eyepiece in the usual way (http://srb-photographic.co.uk/micro-four-thirds-digiscoping-kit-7442-p.asp). It seems like a very neat solution, particularly since the only lens I've got is a telephoto, and that's inappropriate for digiscoping. The idea of using the body without a camera lens is very appealing.

I've been doing some experiments with the camera body and a scope by just holding the camera body against the scope eyepiece, and come up against two problems, that seem to make this idea a non-starter.

Firstly, if I focus on the target using the scope and then apply the camera to take the shot, I have to manually refocus the scope an enormous amount to get a clear image on the camera. The scope's a Swarovski that doesn't have a fast focus and this takes an age.

Secondly, in order to use the camera without a lens, I have to set the menu item "shoot w/o lens" to "on" otherwise the shutter won't fire. Unfortunately, whenever the camera is turned off or goes to sleep, it resets this option to "off" making it unusable until it's reset to "on" manually.

Combined, these two issues mean that If I spot something in the scope, and then try to take a picture, it could take me between 30 seconds and a minute to get in a position to take a shot. Great for static targets but pretty useless for birds.

So the question is, has anybody made this approach work, and if so how? Any advice would be much appreciated.


Jeff
 
I have a Panasonic Lumix G5 micro 4/3 camera which I'm thinking of using for digiscoping, and hit some snags. If there's anyoone out there who's made a successful go of this, I'd appreciate some advice.

I've seen an adaptor made by SRB-Griturn which fits into the body of the camera, and replaces the camera's lens with a tube that slides over the scope eyepiece in the usual way (http://srb-photographic.co.uk/micro-four-thirds-digiscoping-kit-7442-p.asp). It seems like a very neat solution, particularly since the only lens I've got is a telephoto, and that's inappropriate for digiscoping. The idea of using the body without a camera lens is very appealing.

I've been doing some experiments with the camera body and a scope by just holding the camera body against the scope eyepiece, and come up against two problems, that seem to make this idea a non-starter.

Firstly, if I focus on the target using the scope and then apply the camera to take the shot, I have to manually refocus the scope an enormous amount to get a clear image on the camera. The scope's a Swarovski that doesn't have a fast focus and this takes an age.

Secondly, in order to use the camera without a lens, I have to set the menu item "shoot w/o lens" to "on" otherwise the shutter won't fire. Unfortunately, whenever the camera is turned off or goes to sleep, it resets this option to "off" making it unusable until it's reset to "on" manually.

Combined, these two issues mean that If I spot something in the scope, and then try to take a picture, it could take me between 30 seconds and a minute to get in a position to take a shot. Great for static targets but pretty useless for birds.

So the question is, has anybody made this approach work, and if so how? Any advice would be much appreciated.


Jeff

Jeff,
I'm surprised your G5 resets the "shoot w/o lens" as the GH3 and GH4 don't. You could try setting up your favourite settings in a Custom Mode and then it should be ok.
One of the problems of shooting without a lens is that the sensor will be exposed to the air a lot when you are viewing through the scope. You will pick up a lot of dust , some of which will be difficult to get off.
I do shoot this way a lot with my GH4 and GH3 but I use my bins for viewing not the scope. If I have to use the scope I put a lens on the camera.
Most people are using the 20/1.7 lens on the camera with either the Swarovski adapter or the excellent Digidapter.
Neil.
 
Neil

Thanks for the suggestion about using a custom mode. I should have thought of that; the reason for the "shoot without lens" resetting itself was because I was using a custom mode already, with the "shoot without lens" set to "off". Silly me!

I'll continue the experiments.


Jeff
 
new video specifically on lumix with digidapter

New video showing in detail how to use Panasonic Lumix gh-4 with digidapter has been posted on youtube, "Setting up the Panasonic GH4 on a DIGIDAPTER and a Swarovski X scope"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVIiyTnIBos

Still trying to figure out which way to go myself, so can't speak from personal experience yet. Have the 20mm 1.7 panasonic lens as noted in video and above. Now I need a scope and the adapter for my Olympus Epl-2 camera. : )
 
One of the problems of shooting without a lens is that the sensor will be exposed to the air a lot when you are viewing through the scope. You will pick up a lot of dust , some of which will be difficult to get off.
Neil.

I've found a simple solution when using a T2 adapter for digiscoping. I bought a Baader adapter which has a T2 thread to M43 thread and use a 43mm protection filter to make it an enclosed system to keep dust away from the sensor.
 
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I have an oly m4/3 ,and also used it with the t mount adapter ,direct to the eyepiece.. the dust problem is easily taken care of with a simple cap of the right size,..most photo stores supply generic surplus plastic caps that would do a good job protecting the sensor when the camera is not in use..But for me this way hasnt worked as well,image quality wise...First of all magnification is a bit high..about the equivalent of a 50 mm lens..that is quite a lot in the M4/3 platform,so FOV is reduced,and also DOF.In terms of how the light gets delivered tothe sensor,the direct ,no-lens way,doesnt seem to deliver more light ,even more "aperture",on the contrary ,seems to get a bit more scattered,and shows more aberrations .I can use the kit lens all the way from 14mm to 42,with sharper results through the range and no vignetting..The problem withthe kit lens ,is that a universal digiscoping adapter is needed,resulting in a cumbersome system...since i couldnt buy more gear at the moment,and had some old lenses around,I made myself a little "apo" ,using the optics and diaphragm of a broken Vivitar 28 f:2.Is compact and better optically than the direct way,but i still find the kit lens sharper..maybe the AF is doing a better job that myself when manually focussing..perhaps a camera with focus peak would do a different job..
 
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