Suitable telescope and adapter (1 Viewer)

I've recently bought a Canon MV550i and would like to try videoscopy. I'm hoping to find a suitable telescope and adapter
(and probably tripod if the combination's as heavy as I reckon it will be). Recommendations and information on compatibility, vignetting etc. appreciated. Budget is ~£1K

Thanks

I use a MV550i and as yet haven't attached it to my scope. Generally I find the x22 optical magnification quite reasonable. I do however, have Canon's x1.9 teleconverter which sometimes use but this has to be mounted on a tripod. This gives nearly x42 magnification.

I'd be interested to hear of your results should you go for a scope attachment but my advice would be to try it without first.

David Carr
Essex, UK

Hello Sphenisc,
Welcome to this part of the forum,so your'e interested in doing some Videoscoping.Well let's look first at the main requirements;Camcorder,you have a MV550i with i think a 30.5 mm filter thread with which you attach to the adapter.I personally use the Eagleeye adapters but there are various makes to choose from and most use a basic filter thread of 37 mm with which they can supply additional adapters onto that 37mm thread to fit almost any camcorder but check they have one to fit your filter thread size.As for Scope this will boil down to price and your personal preference whether this is Leica,Swarovski or Zeiss there is no alternative to trying the equipment and seeing which you like but if you can afford it go for the apo or ed variety it may be more expensive but any optical help you can get when using such high magnifications in Videoscoping is worth it.If you want superior image quality then go for the lowest magnification eyepiece possible preferably 20x.The reason for this is simple the lower the mag the bigger the exit pupil ie;80mm scope with 20x eyepiece gives an exit pupil of 4 and the higher this is the more light that gets through the eyepiece and onto the camcorder lens.Because of this i use a Leica 77 with the superb 20x eyepiece and also a lower lens tends to be bigger in size (for obvious reasons it's best for the scope eyepiece to be as big as possible against the camcorder lens).As for a tripod aim for as sturdy as possible.Feel free to post any question to me.

Ian

Is vignetting a problem with videoscoping?

Dave Carr

Hi David

I too use a Canon MV550i and considering either a Teleconverter or an adapter for my telescope.What are the results like with the Canon teleconverter?

Clive

Hello Dave,
Vignetting is a problem with Videoscoping but there are ways to overcome it,personally with my Panasonic camcorder i always manually adjust aperture and shutter speed depending on available light ie in cloudy conditions it's best to reduce the shutter speed so lessening the need to open the aperture and in bright sun i increase the shutter speed so i can open the aperture still to avoid vignetting but not having the image too bright especially over water.Also having a low magnification wide eyepiece helps and luckily with my scope and camcorder i can video without vignetting with my camcorder on it's widest setting so getting 20x with my 20x eyepiece very useful for closer work.But like cameras my camcorder when connected to the scope only avoids vignetting beyond two thirds of the zoom range.Having said that unless i'm in a rush i never film with any vignetting nothing looks worse on your finished footage than a black surround to spoil the effect.One final point always experiment with your manual settings to overcome vignetting and know what to do because that bird isn't going to wait for you.

Clive & Ian

Firstly, I get good to reasonable results with the Canon converter. It largely depends on how good the light is really. There is not surprisingly a slight degrading of image quality by attaching another lens on to the camera which, to my eyes, leads to a reduction in contrast.

I too would hate to have vignetting on my footage and thankfully this isn't a problem with the teleconverter. I will take your advice and practice more with the manual controls though, at present all I adjust is the iris.

Dave Carr
Essex

Details of teleconverter

Hi phyllosc,

A teleconverter seems like a good alternative. Can you tell me more about the the model you've got, a google search seems to bring up all sorts and I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

cheers

Sphensic

The x1.9 converter I use is Canon's own model. Off the top of my head I cannot remember the ref. no. but it is listed in the accessories section in the MV550i's instruction book.

I hope that helps.

Dave

Sphensic

The code for the Canon Mv5501i teleconverter is TL-30.5 and my
local "shop" quotes a price of approx £89.
Hope this helps.

Clive