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I had my telescope, my sturdy but lightweight[ish] tripod and my light[ish] fluid video head. What more could a fledgling wildlife digiscoper possibly want? What about something to hold the camera steady at the telescope eyepiece? I quickly made one out of two bits of aluminium angle profile but then got stuck. I had no easy way to connect it to the telescope.
More YouTube video watching, following links, reading identical sales websites and reviews later and I found lots of them were out of date. Everybody is now using their iPhone XYZ981 [or whatever.] Cameras are strictly "old hat."
Only I don't run, [nor run to] a smart phone. My tiny, ancient Nokia is more of a walky-talky when I have to be remote controlled by my lovely wife. The tiny screen can't even manage a full SMS text and I have only ever sent two messages myself. One of which said "No." I missed the lesson where typing 1k words per minute, with two thumbs, was shown to be essential to survival in 2020. My little Nokia has a camera but has hardly ever been fired in anger.
So I chose what I already knew. I'd use my little Canon Ixus117HS with its short zoom and myopic lens. Getting the Canon to play nicely with a spotting telescope was quite another matter. It has no filter thread on the lens. So that ruled out myriad, modern possibilities.
I had to find something which held the camera firmly by its tripod bush in the base. Then something else to hold the base to the eyepiece. The old Vortex PS-100 appeared in several YT videos but they were years old. Nobody in Denmark listed them and Vortex discontinued sales of the device years ago.
A search online produced an example for sale in a specialist shop down in Holland. So I sacrificed more plastic to the bonfire of digiscoping vanity and placed an order online. The PS-100 arrived quickly enough but lacked any telescope adapter. Worse, it had a rather pointless 37mm female thread.
Cue more online searching. Nobody had a 37mm male to 57mm Ø female adapter for the Vortex Razor eyepiece. More searching! I discovered a shop practically just down the road which sold the PS-100. I could have cycled there in an hour, or so, but, alas, they listed no suitable telescope adapters.
Cue more online searching. Nobody had a 37mm male to 57mm Ø female adapter for the Vortex Razor eyepiece. More searching! I discovered a shop practically just down the road which sold the PS-100. I could have cycled there in an hour, or so, but, alas, they listed no suitable telescope adapters.
As a keen amateur and imaging astronomer I am well aware of where to look for weird adapters. A UK camera shop on eBay sold a 37mm male to 42mm female threaded adapter. Now I just need to match the 42mm [T2] to a female 57-60mm adapter to go on the eyepiece. There was one in Germany.
I duly placed my order and, as if by magic, it shortly arrived in the post. That's four European countries to get where I needed to be. A fully operational PS-100 which actually fitted my little Canon. And, allowed it to be attached securely to my telescope! Whoopee! I was in business!
I duly placed my order and, as if by magic, it shortly arrived in the post. That's four European countries to get where I needed to be. A fully operational PS-100 which actually fitted my little Canon. And, allowed it to be attached securely to my telescope! Whoopee! I was in business!
But not so fast! How was I going to carry all this lot as far as the nearest pond? Let alone survive an hour up to and around the forest and back in one piece? Note how much "excess baggage" that slotted base plate is carrying. That could easily be trimmed off to save a few grams/ounces. I have already added an ounce in borrowing a camera fixing screw from one of my old tripods. Somewhat strangely the PS-100's supplied camera clamping "knob" was far too large in diameter to let my camera move far enough forwards. It defeated the desired geometry of bringing the camera close to the telescopes' eyepiece.
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