Canon digi cam to Leica scope adaptor (1 Viewer)

I'm sure this will prove to be a repeat thread but..........

I have a canon MVX450 digi camcorder that I would like to fit to my Leica APO77. The lens thread fitting on the camcorder is 27mm - does anyone know a supplier of a tube to fit my leica eye-piece please ?

I've tried a hinged contraption from opticron I believe but the setup is very poor.

Cheers
robin

Try "Eagleeye" or the "London Camera Exchange" - both sell adapters/ step up rings to fit most set ups.
http://www.eagleeyeuk.com/
Good luck,
Steve

Robin,

The eagle eye adapters will certainly do the trick, but these "oversized" universal adapters with the three set screws are IMHO really a bit tedious to use effectively. This is due primarily to the fact that you have to center the scope exit pupil each time you mount the camera and then manipulate each of the three set screws in turn to relocate the "sweet spot". In the interim, the bird you were hoping to document is long gone.

These adapters can be made very cost effectively because you only need one base for nearly every scope out there, but for me the money saved (by you and the manufacturer) isn't worth the frustration you will have in the field when using this time of adapter. It is much better to try and locate and buy an adapter that is machined to the soecifications of your specific scope eyepiece as you will then be able to quickly slide the adapter on the eyepiece and have it centered already. Far fewer missed photo ops!

Spidertech in Finland manufactures tubular mounts that are machined to the exact diameter and height of the Leica Zoom eyepiece as well as the 32x wide angle in a variety of thread sizes. http://www.spidertech.fi/ada.php

Although I've not personally tried this it also seems Leica's branded digital adapter 2 would theoretically work for a lighter camcorder like this. The breadth of the rubber clamp jaws are ~76mm and the camera width is listed at 5.7 mm. I would see if you can find one of these in stock at a local dealer and test it first though (or buy from a dealer with a good return policy). The two concerns I'd have is whether the rubber jaws would interfere with the screen or not. As you can see from the images on Leica's website
http://www.leica-camera.us/nature_observation/digiscoping/
The adapter is very versatile and designed to work with any modern digital p&s camera, camera phone, and even some small camcorders!

Sorry fans of the older Coolpix (990, 995, 4500) these don't fall into the "modern" digital p&s realm these older cameras (out of production 4-5 years now) average larger than the new sleek models of today and these don't quite make it into the 76mm jaws.

Happy digiscoping,

Jeff Bouton
Leica Sport Optics, USA
Leica Birding Blog
www.birdwatchersdigest.com/leica

Hi Robin

Some advice before you buy any adapters, from memory doesnt this camcorder have a 20X optical zoom? if so this may be the start of your problems.

Ideally 10X optical zooms are the more ideal camcorder to use for video scoping IMHO

Also you dont state which eypiece you are using with your APO 77?

First things first, 20X optical is very high magnification and could potentially have a lot of vignetting through the optical zoom and only vignetting free images at the top end of the optical zoom which will be very high magnification, ( for the record, i dont have any experience with this model) if you havent already, you really need to test this out by holding the camcorder to the eyepiece and just move the camcorder back and forth to find the least vignetting image on your screen at zero zoom, then keeping perfectly still, you then need to zoom up slowly taking note of the magnification reading and noting when you have a vignetting free image on the screen

Then you need to ask yourself are you happy with the range of vignetting free image that is useable or/and is it too high a magnification to use out in the field? as your field technique will involve you standing further back than you would normally do from the subject just to get the whole bird in the screen dependant on the size of the bird, believe me i have had years of practice, and working from hides isnt an option as you cant go further back with some species of birds you manage just to get a head shot!

Just try it out in the garden if you havent already and you will see what i mean, you will end up focusing onto birds on houses much farther away than your garden!

If you are happy so far, then yes buy an adapter, another company to look at is SRB, they specialise in this and you will find them on the web, they also do step up step down rings as well

Eagleeye also sells a 10X lens which, with a ring adapter will fit onto your APO 77 , its not cheap but it brings the magnification down which i feel is what is needed, they will also sell you the correct size of collar that fits into their Digimount adapter

Then its a video head and a decent tripod to support it, Manfrotto 501 video head would be ideal, again not cheap, but it does the job and pans smoothly

Also if the camcorder has a still function to take stills, use it in conjunction with the remote control, vibration free pictures are possible


If you have already gone through this process Robin, apologies, but i felt you needed some guidance before you parted with your money

Rgds

Paul

Thanks Steve, Jeff and Paul,

I have been digiscoping since I brought a CP995 in 2003 at the point the 4500 was just being released. Although technology has moved on and I would just love an 8 or 10mp version of what I have, I still get a lot of pleasure from digiscoping with the 995 and bought a 4500 as a backup and whilst stocks exist. I'm at the point now of saving for a DSLR + telephoto to get those shots the digiscoping setup struggles with as well as to improve quality.

My intention to buy a camcorder was primarily for family purposes replacing my ancient and huge VHS video recorder, and if possible to use with my scope if I could manage. I had an old eagle-eye mount anyway that I originally bought for my Coolpix to fit my leica scope eyepiece but I didn't get on with the shallow fit and soon replaced it with a deeper better fitting tube from LCE. My issue was getting this adaptor to fit the screwthread of my camcorder which I have since managed to achieve using a couple of cheap step rings.

As you correctly point out though Paul, my problems are that the optical zoom on the camcorder required to eliminate vignetting when fitted to the scope eye-piece (I have both a 20-60x and a 32x) result in massive magnification and very poor clarity. Even at 20x on the scope eyepiece, my camcorder is almost on maximum optical zoom to eradicate the vignetting. So not an ideal camera for the job although for closer subjects I have fitted it directly to my manfrotto tripod and taken some average footage on full 20x zoom.

Is there a recommended set of parameters used for filming through a scope in terms of camera zoom magnification and scope eyepiece magnification ? I'm not sure how I could reliably get my camera lens closer to the eyepiece lens so as you suggest I would need a low-mag eyepiece for my scope to get decent results.

Thankfully I've not wasted money as I'd already got the camera and adaptor. I've spend around £20 on rings which is about it really. I do see quite a few people filming through their scopes - what might they be using ?

Regards
Robin

Robin, to add to Paul's info on SRB, they make digiscoping sleeves for cameras and camcorders, but their sleeves have 3 set screws (oh, oh). They also have an insert which has a standard T2 mounting thread. Sleeves available in 37, 39.3, 41, 42, 43.5, 45.3, 46.3, 47, 50.5, 53.5. One sleeve and one insert cost L39.95

Here's a link to their website: www.srb-griturn.com

If I may add to the thread, I found that SRB's swing away adapter cam manage the Sony Handycam SR series, I have tried my camcorder on it and it was well supported. But as Paul says there are problems with vignetting because of the 20x optical zoom and this was even with my zoom eyepiece set at 20x. the vignetting did not disappear until after a goog bit of zooming. However if your camcorder is like the Sony dcr-sr52 like mine or the JVC experio series the SRB adapter can manage these.