Plastic Digiscoping Adaptor (1 Viewer)

[Bob Philpott]

Recently I was in Gloucester watching the waxwings and came across a person digiscoping with a 4500 and a Leica. His adaptor was a black plastic tube which was screwed on the camera lens in the usual way. The front end was lipped at the lower part. The tube pushed over the eyepiece and the weight of the camera together with the lip held it securely in place. Nothing was attached to the scope. He said the tube was made by a swedish company and bought at the Birdfair but didn't know the maker's name. Does anyone know what this adaptor is. It looked very efficient without all the usual screws, bayonet fittings etc.

 

[jiminlondon99]

I think this could be the one you mention, the model I had was made of a lightwieght alloy.

http://birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=13344&page=2&pp=25

 

[Bob Philpott]

I think this could be the one you mention, the model I had was made of a lightwieght alloy.

http://birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=13344&page=2&pp=25

I presume you were referring to the Focus Adaptor. I was certainly not a 2 piece adaptor and was hard plastic fitting very nicely on a 20 to 60 Leica Zoom. Thank you. I will try and find one to look at although I note you had problems.

 

[hollis_f]

I presume you were referring to the Focus Adaptor. I was certainly not a 2 piece adaptor and was hard plastic fitting very nicely on a 20 to 60 Leica Zoom. Thank you. I will try and find one to look at although I note you had problems.

In-Focus have them for customers to try out. I was most impressed - but they are a bit expensive!

 

[rogerscoth]

In 2003, I had a plastic tube type adaptor made for my Opticron HR66GA 'scope with a Fuji S304 digital camera. This consisted of a carefully measured tube with a stepping-ring glued to the end. For a picture (not very sharp photos) of the set-up see :-http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/6021/sort/1/cat/500/page/1
This worked very well, especially with the SLR type electronic view-finder of the S304 camera.

Roger

 

[Eric F]

In-Focus have them for customers to try out. I was most impressed - but they are a bit expensive!

There's a review of the DA-1 adapter from In-Focus in this month's Birdwatching. It's not that indepth a review but does give it the thumbs up.

The attraction for me is that it seems to be particularly suited to use with a zoom, allowing access to the zoom mechanism on the eyepiece. As there is a new version compatible with the Opticron HDF zoom, I'm extremely tempted by this.

Has anyone had any success with this device? Noted previous posts saying a tight fit for Swarovski 30x eyepiece but I was hoping there was someone that out there that's been able to successfully test this adapter.

Off to Portugal in a couple of weeks time, and it would be great to get an adadpter for the trip. Any comments would be great.

 

[clascronlund]

I'm using a Focus adapter with Zeiss 20-60x zoom and Canon Powershot A95. The Focus adapter has an adapter-ring with 37 mm thread (and others, including 28 mm). The 37 mm thread is fitted to a Lensmate adapter. A really nice “kit”, quite expensive though. About 150 € for it all (bought in Sweden, excluding the camera).
Unfortunately the 37 mm thread is quite poor quality. It’s not fitted to well on the Lensmate adapter. No, it’s not the Lensmate adapter that’s bad; I’ve tested it on several filters.
Besides of that I also wanted the camera to get a little closer to the scope eyepiece. So I took the adapter-ring away and attached the Focus and Lensmate together with Cernit clay (plastic oven baked clay). And now I’m really pleased with the arrangement. Everything is quite new for me so I haven’t done so much testing yet. But it all seems really good.
You mount the camera on the scoop in a second. You can use the zoom in all it’s range (but best on 20 and 60) without taking the camera away. It has a tight fit on the eyepiece, but that’s no problem. You have to use a special “technique” to get it off. Don’t just pull it straight away. You first “tilt” it slightly, and then pull it.
Attached you find a picture of the adapter and one picture of my first try.

Clas

 

[Eric F]

Attached you find a picture of the adapter and one picture of my first try.

Clas

Hi Clas,

Thanks for the msg - it's a shame you had to do some DIY on an already expensive bit of kit to get the best results for your set-up. The results are worth it though! That's a lovely frosty looking shirke picture - a nice crisp image.

As my camera uses a 28mm thread I shouldn't need the adapter ring, so I am now sorely tempted by this kit.

Thanks again,

Eric

 

[Kalispera]

Is the DA-1 exclusive to In-Focus, or is it available elsewhere????

 

[clascronlund]

Is the DA-1 exclusive to In-Focus, or is it available elsewhere????

You can buy it in several stores in Sweden. But in the rest of the world I don't know. Send a question to [email protected] and ask for dealers near your location. Focus trading on the Internet: http://www.focustrading.se/. Only in swedish though!

 

[Eric F]

I've just got hold of the DA-1 adapter for my Opticron HR66ED & will be using the 20-60x HDF zoom (actually 18-54x with the HR66).

Bearing in mind I've had it for a matter of hours and have yet to really test it at all, I have to say my first impression was disappointment.

This is not a cheap piece of kit (£119 - £20 more for the Opticron version than all the others - not sure why that might be). But you don't get much for your money. It's very light-weight and, once set up, easy to attach & remove from the eyepiece. However, it does seem to slip at the moment - the part of my Nikon 4500 with the monitor on seems to cause it to slip around the eye-piece. I'm hoping that an elastic band around the eyepiece will make it a better fit and eliminate this, but as I said to crasconlund earlier in this thread, I feel a little cheated at having to resort to DIY when I've forked out a pretty hefty sum in the 1st place.

Can anyone let me know what my consumer enitlement to a refund would be should I be disappointed with the results in the field?

Having said all that, I look forward to being proven wrong when I get the kit out into the field & will post comments shortly.

 

[Keith Reeder]

Eric, if it's not "fit for purpose" when you buy it, you're entitled to redress - you should get a refund.

And from what you've said, it probably ain't fit...

 

[Geoff Pain]

I use one on a Swarovski 20-60 zoom eyepiece and fold the rubber on the eye piece over and this gives a very snug fit with no movement.

 

[Eric F]

I use one on a Swarovski 20-60 zoom eyepiece and fold the rubber on the eye piece over and this gives a very snug fit with no movement.

Hi all,

I've now had an opportunity to get out into the field and use my set-up and am now feeling a lot better about my purchase (although I still think it's a bit on the pricey side for what comes in the box!).

I think the initial problems I had with the camera "slipping" around the eyepiece have gone; rolling back the rubber eye-relief just a tiny bit less than its full extent seems to have helped here. I reall appreciate having a free hand to help with fine tuning the focus on the scope and even to steady the scope from shake. I say this about steadying the scope because it was particularly windy at Bempton Cliffs yesterday and there is now way I would have been able to get crisp shots without the adapter - so it's already shown its benefits.

Click here to see a pic taken with the adapter - maybe not perfect but a distinct improvement, esp given the windy conditions.

Now I'm looking forward to my next outing for some more practice.

 

[hollis_f]

Hi all,

Click here to see a pic taken with the adapter - maybe not perfect but a distinct improvement, esp given the windy conditions.

Great pic.

You should have tried Brempton on the Saturday for the wind! Sunday was a lot quieter.