[fotonisse]

Hi,

Like to share two pictures with my new camera Oly E-620. I have been using the scope with a Pentax K10D previously, but liked the idea of having a 2x crop factor DSLR and a good quality teleconverter.

The first picture is actually only the E-620 and SW, distance 15m, handheld.
The second with the Blue Tit (popular object in this forum:)) is with the 1.4 TC added. The distance is exactly 8 meter, monopod.

Third picture is a crop of the second of course.

[Cristian Mihai]

Nice pics fotonisse! I would like to ask you about the image quality with E-620 at ISO 800. Do you have some pics taken with this ISO value?

[polaris2]

Du ar stadig po handen Nice shoots

[fotonisse]

Thanks Cristian and Polaris,

I have not shot that many ISO800 but with the ones I do have, yes, there are some noise but it really doesnt bother me since I constantly use Neat image to clean the keepers.

Here is a quick example for you:

First original, only resized
Second a crop showing some noise
Third a crop after Neat image rework

I guess it could have been even better shooting RAW...

// BR Johan

[Cristian Mihai]

Thanks for the input fotonisse. I was asking because I use an Olympus E-520 and I have to think about replacing it. From my point of view, the image quality with E-520 at ISO 800 is under my standards. For this reason I usually use ISO 400.

[cango]

really nice work, specially the handheld one. I'm glad to see how well the 1.4tc did. Planning to add one myself to my e-3, and my awaiting Celestron AP 80/600 Ultima 80 ED OTA (much more lightweight than the telescope I have now, a scopos apo triplet 80mm)

what speeds did you have on the blåmesen? i had here 1/400th iso 200. cropped. not sure about distance, 15-20m I think, up in a tree...

the low light here in stockholm kills me.

[fotonisse]

Cango, the Blue Tit was a ISO400 1/400th sec.
Don't mention the weather conditions this winter... something like 3 sunny days...

The TC works fine.
I'm also trying out an AF confirmation chip mounted in the extension tube. It seems a bit misaligned though because it only works sporadically. Will try to fix it, when it works it's spot on!

[cango]

Originally Posted by fotonisse

Cango, the Blue Tit was a ISO400 1/400th sec.
Don't mention the weather conditions this winter... something like 3 sunny days...

The TC works fine.
I'm also trying out an AF confirmation chip mounted in the extension tube. It seems a bit misaligned though because it only works sporadically. Will try to fix it, when it works it's spot on!

I have a af-chip as well and the funny thing is that it works well on my e-3, but not on my e-500 (well, once or twice. could be the contacts)

[fotonisse]

Added some pics to the collection, all are handheld as usual. Actually I'm thinking of building my own tube using the glass from the Skywatcher. This is to reduce the weight even more. Using a 1,25" focuser and a lightweight lens housing could be a soluotion. Not clear if this is possible but will let you know...

[cango]

wow, love the nuthatch, and good focusing on the robin. Let us know how tubebuilding goes... :-)

[Paul Corfield]

Where is most of the weight in the 80ED? I've had the glass out of mine quite a few times and it's not all that heavy. I guess the big lens housing and the focuser are the main areas of weight. Putting the tube on a lathe and skimming off a load of the waste metal around the lens housing would be one solution I suppose along with a lightweight sun shade. Don't know of any really lightweight focusers but there are a few that fit straight into the Synta scopes like Celestron/Skywatcher and Orion. This one ( click here ) is nice but weighs in at 3lbs and has a hefty price tag.

Paul.

[cango]

awhile ago I disected my celestron 80ed scope and the weight was following:

mounting rings: 536 grams
lens with dew: 878
tube: 454
focuser (pinion): 818

I got rid of the mounting rings, and mounted the tripod mount right to the tube, saving half a kilo.
My old scope, scopos triplet had a heavier lens - lens only 900 grams. (dew 294gr)(tube with crayford focuser: 1436gr)

[Paul Corfield]

How does the assembly of the Celestron 80D compare to the Skywatcher? On the Skywatcher 80ED the heavy lens cell is firmly attached to the tube and as far as I can see it can't me removed. By your figures the focuser is already quite lightweight so no savings to be made there and it's the same focuser as the Skywatcher. Maybe a fibreglass tube for the main body and sun shade and lighten the lens cell as much as possible. There's a 70mm dia / 420mm focal length scope I know of with carbon fiber tube and sun shade that weighs in at just 3.75lbs so it should be possible to shave a couple of pounds off the Skywatcher.

Paul.

[cango]

the lens cell of the celestron is/was also firmly attached to the tube, but it is indeed removable. At first I thought the lens cell was one with the dew cap, but that one too could be removed (from the lens cell). I cannot speak of the skywatcher, but I would think that the lens cell too can be removed. It makes no sense that it could not be removed - the assemblys of these refractors are after all quite the same, and pretty straight forward, as far as I can see - so the parts are just screwed together. However, some threads may have been applied some glue, or maybe some paint made it's wat to the threads - making them harder to dis-assembly.

Regarding to the focuser, I must say that I like it more than the crayford one though I've read that the pinion design being not as good as crayford. Perhaps that applies to skywatching and the tracking of tiny stars, but not all that important while focusing on birds on shorter distances. What do I know - as of now, I´m quite happy with the pinion focuser of the 80ed.

[fotonisse]

The lens cell is also removable from the Skywatcher, it's threaded.
I have bought a half meter black drainpipe (90mm) and a 1.25" focuser ordered. The stuff only cost me 30 Euros so I thought I give it a try. The lens diameter is abuot 86 mm so it will exactly fit inside. The focuser should not weigh that much, but is made for a 60mm tube. Hopefully I can attach it with some adaption..

[FernandoBatista]

Originally Posted by fotonisse

Added some pics to the collection, all are handheld as usual. Actually I'm thinking of building my own tube using the glass from the Skywatcher. This is to reduce the weight even more. Using a 1,25" focuser and a lightweight lens housing could be a soluotion. Not clear if this is possible but will let you know...

Great stuff, specially handheld.

A few points about your possible mods, don't go to low on the tube diameter, by decreasing the diameter you will lower the contrast, 90mm is as far as I'd go, make sure you baffle it right and flock it very well to keep the contrast as high as possible.
I'd skip the 1.25" focuser, it vignettes a bit on a APS-C sensor, don't know how it behaves on the olympus though, but if you get an APS-C later you'll have to change it back. It also limits the aperture a good bit on APS-C, 2" is as low as I'd go for any DSLR (APS-C size), for FF id go for a 2.7" at least.
Also lightweight focusers are mostly too weak, even the original focuser could be much better in that regard let alone a lighter one, that's why I changed mine for the WO, it's heavy but rock solid, that and the rotational ability.

[fotonisse]

Thanks for your thoughts Fernando. I now realize the there is not a lot of space for baffling in the front part since the effective diameter of the lens is 80mm...

But it would better suit my hands with a smaller size tube.

Another mod I'm up to is to add a shutter release cable with the trigger close to the focuser. I will replace the controller with a micro switch (type Omron SS-5GL2T). This allows me to handle both trigger and focuser with one hand and the other to hold the scope. How about that :)

Great gallery btw Fernando. For how many of the birdspics have you used the Skywatcher?

[FernandoBatista]

Originally Posted by fotonisse

Thanks for your thoughts Fernando. I now realize the there is not a lot of space for baffling in the front part since the effective diameter of the lens is 80mm...

But it would better suit my hands with a smaller size tube.

Well, but with 90mm you can still add a few baffles, even if small ones. If the tube was the same size as the objective or smaller than it would be really hard. So no worries.

Originally Posted by fotonisse

Another mod I'm up to is to add a shutter release cable with the trigger close to the focuser. I will replace the controller with a micro switch (type Omron SS-5GL2T). This allows me to handle both trigger and focuser with one hand and the other to hold the scope. How about that :)

I don't really like triggers I always shot with my face on the camera, index finger and thumb on the focuser and the other three I use to grab the scope as well as I can to try and keep it as steady as possible.

Originally Posted by fotonisse

Great gallery btw Fernando. For how many of the birdspics have you used the Skywatcher?

Thanks :)
Nearly all of them, maybe about 10 of the photos on my website weren't done with the ED, not more. I have used a lot of lenses and right now also have a nikkor 300mm F/4, but the ED80 has been my workhorse since I start using a DSLR.