First expedition. Vital Lessons Learned: Pt.2

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Continuing: The Manfrotto head and tripod legs are superb. Rock solid in the very gusty wind. Even with the Viking tripod carrying bag in place. Very pleased with this setup. Though the dovetail, locking, "wing" screw on the head is vulnerable to being lost if it unscrews. I am not sure it is captive.

I had problems seeing the small camera screen well enough to focus sharply. Not helped by the sky reflecting off the sloping screen So this was one of the very few acceptable images I captured today. This tangle of branches is about 120-130 yards away across the marsh pond. 

 Focusing using the small screen on the Canon camera is really quite difficult. I should have taken my strongest reading/ fine repair work glasses. I keep these only for the closest work in the workshop. They will be vitally necessary for accurate focusing in future! A square magnifying glass on a lanyard might be rather more useful. Removing one's spectacles to quickly use the binos. Then back to the telescope, or camera, is always a bore. Best avoided! Specs on watchmakers or librarian's lanyards are similarly irritating. I've tried them. A square magnifying glass with a deep, black frame for shielding the camera screen against the sky/sun light would be good.  

Check the battery on your Canon camera before leaving for a digiscoping trip! It was recharged in the week and is already flat after only a few trial shots though the telescope at home! The Panasonic Lumix batteries seem to hold their charge forever even with my usual, heavy, daily use. The Canon problem might be the servo motors I hear when the camera is re-focusing and centering a subject. I can try turning these off.

The Manfrotto long plate has to be fitted the correct way around in the dovetail of the 500 head. It cannot be reversed or it simply won't drop in. Nor lock safely and automatically in place. I had removed the dovetail plate to be able to better fit the telescope in the zipped pouch. I shall leave it in place in future. There is plenty of room for the telescope to be turned inside the zipped pouch and no sense of anything sticking into my back while walking.

The eyepiece clamping thumbscrews of the telescope adapter ring I had bought from Germany were incredibly vulnerable to unscrewing themselves! So they could easily be lost in the grass.  I found three of them in the bottom of the zipped pocket on the Viking tripod carrier. Huge sigh of relief! Quite what I can do about it is another matter. Silicone rubber on the thumbscrew threads inside the ring?  That, or I will have to drill the thumbscrews and fit tiny lanyards! No!

Beech forest at 1,800 yards. Distance measured on Google Earth.

The camera had been removed from the Vortex PS-100 before being refitted for the short trip. Even though the front plate clamping bolt hadn't been undone the camera alignment was still horribly awry! The camera may have to be left permanently in place on the PS-100 adapter once it is perfectly aligned. My wife will lose her occasional camera for snapping flowers and butterflies. Buy a duplicate camera or a short zoom camera with a much larger screen? More expense!

The retractable Vortex Razor eyepiece [spectacle] ring is far too lose! Once clamped in place on the rubber ring the camera rotates back and forth completely freely. I could remove the packing inside the telescope adapter ring and clamp directly to the metalwork of the Razor eyepiece. Not too happy about that. I shall have to give the sloppiness of the eyepiece ring some serious thought. Add some tape inside the retractable rubber ring? This needs serious attention!

The battery compartment is inaccessible when the camera is fitted onto the Vortex PS-100 adapter. Which means re-aligning the camera every time it is used! Eek!  I had already fitted location screws in the free slots to constrain the camera but they didn't seem to help all that much.

The Vortex Razor, cheap, plastic lens caps are garbage. They don't grip and won't stay in place beyond a second or two. Not sure how I'm going to protect the eyepiece and its vulnerable orifice in the telescope body in the future. A thick sock? Or two thick woolly socks? Makes much better sense than the plastic caps which don't stay on. So don't do any good at all! 

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First expedition. Vital lessons learned. Pt.1.

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Saturday morning, 50F, overcast and windy from the west. 

I loaded up all my digiscoping gear and plodded off down the drive. I was certainly aware that I had added 13lbs or 6+ kg to my usual load of camera and binoculars. It didn't feel too bad on my shoulders but my footfalls were obviously heavier. I wore my walking boots as usual because I intended to go off road once I reached my exit. 

Three quarters of a mile later and I was standing on the spray tracks and facing the marsh pond. Lots of different warblers, a cuckoo and a dozen swallows were providing the entertainment.

No sign of any ducks, herons, coots or grebes! Last year there were over one hundred young and adult mallards on the water. Plus an assortment of different ducks and other water birds. 

I found it very easy to drop the two legs of the Manfrotto tripod before removing the pack. The leg latches are very easy to reach and use. The upper leg sections slide out smoothly.

The lower sections are more reluctant to drop naturally due to having much less weight for gravity to work on but are nicely smooth. Remember to drop the lower sections first while the latches can still be easily reached! Duly noted for the future.

Lessons learned: The Vortex Razor "stay on" bag/case is absolute garbage. I knew this already but had fitted it to protect the telescope on my first proper, outdoor trial. It will be removed in future and hurled as far across the garden as I can possibly manage. To become a habitat for whatever wildlife takes its fancy. It would be a grave disservice to any buyer if I advertised it for sale. Garbage belongs in the garbage can.

With the "stay-on" bag fitted it is IMPOSSIBLE to unlock or lock the eyepiece in the telescope body. Garbage design! The eyepiece locking ring is stiff to turn, tapered and curved, smooth plastic. So already difficult to grip to be able to turn it. Very poor design without a single thought being put into the final compromise for the user! 

Extending or fully retracting the objective shield is near impossible with the "stay on" bag in place! Another good reason for leaving the garbage bag at home. Though that raises the difficulty of using the horrible rubber lens plug. More garbage! This thick rubber disk weighs about a pound and is very difficult to fit or remove. More garbage!

I shall use only the elasticated, padded "nosebag" of the "stay-on" bag to protect the objective in future! Difficult as it is to fit. I just checked and the plastic buckles on the "nosebag" elastic straps can easily get trapped between the padding and the precious objective lens! I'm definitely going over to fitting socks over the lenses! And now have.

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