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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

A versatile digiscoping adapter (1 Viewer)

I

iporali

Well-known member
Hi,

Just to let you know that a German astro product manufacturer Baader Planetarium has a new bracket-type digiscoping adapter, which fits to almost any scope/eyepiece-camera combinations (http://www.baader-planetarium.de/zubehoer/mechadap/digi-t2.htm). It seems to be designed mainly for astrophotography, but I have used it successfully with my Swaro AT80HD (+zoom, 77x and 20xSW eyepieces) and the CP4500. The bracket is easily attached to the eyepiece with a large screw-on-clamp. The camera is then mounted on a support platform, which can be fine-adjusted in x, y and z dimentions. The price of the product is 78e - and they were selling it at an introductory price of 68e. I would almost call it a poor-man's Swaro DCB, which should work especially well with cameras with adjustable display (eg. Canon A80/95).

This adapter is not very rapid to put on/take off, and it does not (usually) permit the use of the eyepiece zoom, but once it is in place it works IMO very well with minimum vignetting and you don't need to remove the rubbery eyecups from the eyepieces. Good for those (like myself) who mainly use the scope for other-than-digiscoping purposes.

Happy digiscoping, :t:

Ilkka
 
blythkeith said:
Very good price in the UK though, and if it was able to fit the Zeiss zoom eyepiece I'd have one myself...
Click to expand...
Keith,

Looking at the images of the Zeiss zoom it looks like there is sufficiently long straight area, where you should be able to attach the clamp (below the eyecup). The camera platform is deep enough to allow some flexibility in "Z-direction". One thing I would add (done myself) in the construction is to glue a rubber sheet on the surfaces of the clamps that press against the eyepiece.

A comment to myself: The whole adapter-camera-setup is very easy to put on/take of rapidly, but the fine alignment has to be done every time over again - and this takes some time if it is done carefully.

Cheers,

Ilkka
 
iporali said:
Keith,

Looking at the images of the Zeiss zoom it looks like there is sufficiently long straight area, where you should be able to attach the clamp (below the eyecup).
Ilkka
Click to expand...

There probably is, but the adapter only opens out to 45mm and the Zeiss is nearer 55mm dia.

I'm still trying to decide for myself which adapter to get. I really can't quite get my head round £215 for the Zeiss one.

It's not a question of can I afford it, it's more should I stump up that much for what it is. :h?:
 
John P said:
There probably is, but the adapter only opens out to 45mm and the Zeiss is nearer 55mm dia.

I'm still trying to decide for myself which adapter to get. I really can't quite get my head round £215 for the Zeiss one.

It's not a question of can I afford it, it's more should I stump up that much for what it is. :h?:
Click to expand...

Gasp!

I knew things with Zeiss written on them could get expensive, but that is silly. If you take your scope and camera to a small local engineering shop and explain what you want to do I'm sure they could make you a custom adaptor that fits exactly to your setup for less than half that sort of money. Take a few prints from web pages showing other manufacturer's devices to give them some idea, do a fag packet sketch of the sort of thing you have in mind, let them take some measurements off your setup and let them get on with it. It's gotta be cheaper than £215 and will probably do the job more to your requirements.

If you can't find a small engineering shop in your locality (unlikely) then try contacting a local "model engineering" society - thinking about it, this should probably be your first choice as they'd probably have a member that would do it even cheaper.

Regards,

Duncan. :eek!:
 
John P said:
There probably is, but the adapter only opens out to 45mm and the Zeiss is nearer 55mm dia.

I'm still trying to decide for myself which adapter to get. I really can't quite get my head round £215 for the Zeiss one.

It's not a question of can I afford it, it's more should I stump up that much for what it is. :h?:
Click to expand...
John,

My Baader adapter opens up to 62 mm as seen in the attached image.

I thought about the Zeiss adapter very seriously too, but I gave up because it would have required some modification with my Swaro scope and I eventually didn't like the idea of my camera swinging around when I carry the setup to a new position. The Baader adapter feels very secure when attached - actually I am a little worried about a possibility to tighten the clamps too much.

Regards,

Ilkka
 

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You beat me to it, John P!

;)

I'm interested in your comments though Ilkka - that fact that your adaptor clearly opens up to more than 45mm makes me wonder if maybe there's more than one version?

In fact - looking at the illustrations on the website I refer to - it is different to what you have, Ilkka: on yours, the sides of the clamp are totally straight, whereas on the UK version, the sides are significantly "kicked in" (see attachment).

I also see from the PDF spec sheet on the site you referred to, that the size of the version you have is quoted as going from 30-60mm.

Hmmm... this is getting more interesting.
 

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AHA....
Looks like I may have found the adapter to connect my ES80ED to my Canon A95 then.

And £30 is a bargin compared to some of the adapters i've been looking at.

I'll just need to check the size of my 32WW HDF eyepiece as i've no idea what size it is.
 
It looks like a great idea and so cheap, but doesn't something this hefty put unnecessary stress on the bayonet connection between the eyepiece and scope?

Cheers,

Rich
 
It's certainly got to be worth a look, have to see if I can jigger about with it enough to still have use of the zoom.

Thanks Ilkka & Keith. B :)
 
Hi Richard,

most scope/camera adaptors load the eyepiece with the weight of the camera + adaptor, and I've never seen any reports of failures, so I imagine that it isn't much of an issue with most cameras suitable for digiscoping.

This one is machined aluminium, so I expect it only weighs a few ounces.
(Edit: Correction - 12oz. More than I'd expected...)

John,

I must admit that I'm tempted too!

Ilkka,

when you get a chance, could you measure the front to back "depth" of the clamp section of the adaptor?
 
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Is there any difference between these Baader adapters and the Scopetronix EZ-Pix 2 models. They look the same to me. Here is the link.

http://www.scopetronix.com/ezpix2.htm

Also, any ideas which version will work best with the Swaro AT80HD w 20-60 X zoom (with locking mechanism)?

I measured the eyepiece diameter as 45mm (+- 1 mm) and the specs on both adapters seem to cover 45mm.

I'm thinking that the bigger adapter may be the better choice.
 
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Yep, it's the same critter, RKA.

I'd say that for your purposes the bigger adaptor would be the way to go - more room to add the rubber sheeting or other surface protection that Ilkka recommends.
 
rka said:
Also, any ideas which version will work best with the Swaro AT80HD w 20-60 X zoom (with locking mechanism)?
Click to expand...
Yes, the larger one works very well with this eyepiece. The rubbery eyecup must be folded down, and it requires more than 52mm to put the adapter at its place (+ possible sheets).

Ilkka
 
Well I got my adaptor from David Hinds Ltd this morning and thought I'd share my intial thoughts.

First off its contructed very well, its nearly an all metal contruction apart from the camera support and the adjustment dials which are hardened plastic. The thread mechinism's for adjusting are easily set and the up and down axis has a locking dial to stop any acidental movement.
It fitted to my ES80ED 32xWW eyepiece with no problem and will probably fit scopes with even larger eyepieces, similarly my Canon A95 was also easy to fit, one slight problem is that the camera was a few centemeters lower then than the eyepiece but a small rubber washer soon sorted this out.
In use it is very stable and holds the camera in place well, even though it is a little heavy and bulky it didn't appear to cause any problems and for £30 you really cant complain.
Final thoughts : If your on a small budget or just starting out in digiscoping like me, you can't really go wrong with this adapter. Once set up it only takes a few seconds to fit to your scope as there is only one clamp to tighten, thus saving those other precious seconds to get the shot. Yes it is a bit bulky compared to other adapters, but those adapters cost 2 to 3 times more and it really isnt any bulker than a hide clamp.
What I have noticed now though is the need for a cable remote for the shutter button, the slight pressure on the shutter button does cause a slight shake and the picture does suffer from this. This isnt any fault of the adapter but the nature of digiscoping where the slightest movement is amplyfied by the scope magnification.
Final score then 9/10, it does exactly what its supposed to do and a brillant price.
Hope this helps anyone else thinking of buying one.
 
Cheers for that, Steve - I'm really pleased that your courage in being among the first to test it out (over here anyway) has paid off!

Very worthwhile reminder about the shutter release too - but that's pretty much an essential for any adaptor. I even use one for handheld shooting.

9/10, eh? That'll do me...

I look forward to seeing some shots using the new adaptor.
 
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