Canon Ixus 400 (1 Viewer)

[Marcus1234]

Hi!

I have just bought a digital camera, not the 4500 but a Canon Ixus 400 (it was a compromise between family needs a birding needs). I have a couple of questions:

1. Since I cant buy an adapter for my camera (wrong kind of construction) I am planning of making my own. My question is if the camera lens should be as close to the scope as possible or if it should be some kind of "air" between them? Yesterday I did some digiscoping and I came to the conclusion that the closer I came, the better result I got. I am terrible afraid of scratching my scope...any advice someone?

2. Does anyone have any experience digiscoping with the Canon Ixus 400? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

3. The file attached was my first attempt yesterday. Any comments?

Best regards
Marcus

 

[normjackson]

Welcome Marcus.

1) It is very likely that you will need to get the front of your lens as close as possible to your eyepiece in order to minimise vignetting. If you look around the site you will see some people have come up with some very ingenious designs for home-made adapators which may help you achieve this. If you're interested in the issue of camera lens to eyepiece distance the link I've recommended before is :
http://www.jayandwanda.com/digiscope/vignette/vignetting.html

2) Your camera is a brand new model so it's quite possible you'll be the first to use it for digiscoping. To see what some others are using you might want to look at : http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/mr/ds/ds_combinations.htm
I see someone in Sweden is using an Ixus V but suspect that this has a different lens from yours.

Maybe some information on your scope and eyepiece will help others advise you.

Did the picture file not attach correctly?

 

[Marcus1234]

Hi again

I have a Leica APO 77 with the 20-60 zoom eyepiece.

The problem with the picture was that it was 262 kb and I can´t make it smaller (have to go home in order to do that).

Regards
Marcus

 

[Marcus1234]

Hi again

I have also heard that some people are using 35 mm film canister caps, cut sheet rubber, and pill bottles as hand-held adapters. Does anyone of you out there have a photo showing how this works? Would probably solve my problem...

Regards
Marcus

 

[wgmorg]

The objective is to centre the optical axis of the digicam and spotting scope.

I the objective of the digicam centred in the lens barrel?

The simplest centering device is a washer... I got my brother to make a nylon washer with outer diameter to fit inside my Zeiss eyepiece eyecup and the inside diameter to be the diameter of the lens barrel.

Then others may well be using various caps that happen to match the outer diameter of their eyepieces and cutting holes into them.

Visit www.srbfilm.co.uk to see examples of the 3 types of digiscoping adapters that they make.

1. Tube adapters ... considered the best.

2. Centering adapters ... simplest because you hold the digicam.

3. Camera tripod bush adapters ... for digicam with retractable lenses.