FZ30+Telescope(moon pic)

I am working on testing FZ30 for digiscoping, but I wanted to share this shot with you.

It was done with FZ30 + Megrez 80 Fluorite APO with Scopetronix Maxview II eyepiece.

I took several shots in High speed burst because I do not have a sturdy tripod yet and it was very windy. I used mode2 OIS handheld, telescope resting on regular photo tripod.

The was shot in 2000mm equivalent telephoto lens, after croping it makes it around 3000mm.

For comparison I am also including shot I made before with FZ30 in 3MEZ mode. (668mm equivalent) After croping you end up with very small pic.

I will post my detailed digiscoping tests after I finish them( they are a lot of work) with both large lens 2 inch eyepieces (Maxview II and William Optics DCL-52)

Shot at 2000mm, it is not 100% sharp there still is some blur, but I think for first test shot still pretty good. No NR, just some sharpening in PP.



Here is the comparison shot in 3MEZ mode 668mm



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Arthur Ankh
http://ankh.smugmug.com
FZ30
FZ20
ex Canon 20D
ex DSCF828

bloody awesome,ive orderd the panasonic teleconverter cant wait

Your preliminary results are promising, and I look forward to your complete test.

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rogie australia said:

bloody awesome,ive orderd the panasonic teleconverter cant wait

Click to expand...

I still have to wait for a few days 'till I get money for the FZ30 itself ; ;

I think he means 3 MB. You can get 19.1x zoom with just the camera by itself....The object your shooting is the same size as the 8 MB but in camera cropped from it... )
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MSGT JIMMIE BURTON USAF RETIRED 1983
Panasonic FZ20 & Yoshida Adapter
UZI, B300, A200, TCON14, C-180, C210
I still luv my UZI but the Fluzi is a Doozie
Oly 510Z pocket camera
Epson 750Z - Old Faithful Wifey's

http://www.angelfire.com/ar/thecameranutjwb/ Home Page
http://www.onlinephotographers.com/yabbse/index.php My Main Hangout... ;o)

i love them both as i am a looking at the moon person. i hope to get a telescope setup so i am very interested in your test and ideas. i have the fz30 and 20 along with 8080---pro 1--- s2is---- and c4000 so i have to have somthing that will work. also the 1.7 teleconverter that fit well to the fz30 but have not tried yet. your pics r inspiring. i enjojed them very much .thanks.
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C.J.

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I must say your first pic is impressive, given the circumstances (tripod and wind) I'm interested in your further test results.

However I couldn't wait and ordered the maxview and adapter for my fz20. If it arrives (can be a while since dispatching or customs in Belgium don't seem to be too cooperative) and I can do some tests, I'll post them as well.
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http://photobucket.com/albums/y223/hw64/

The FZ20 seems to get even more vignetting than FZ30, but I will be interested to see you results. What kind of telescope do you have. It should be with short local lenght to work better. Preliminary results show that with FZ30 you will get vignetting with Maxview II except at 50mm equivalent and then at full zoom. In 3mb EZ mode the vignetting is almost gone from the whole range but magnification are huge. I must do more test before my final word on this, I am also getting the WO DCL-52 wich is 75mm and thus larger exit pupil and probably eye relief so I wnat to wait for it to do comparison (should arrive in two days). Good luck and please let me know your exerience.
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Arthur Ankh
http://ankh.smugmug.com
FZ30
FZ20
ex Canon 20D
ex DSCF828

With such choice of cameras, I am prety sure you will find something to work. Every zoom works differently so aome will be better at certain zoom levels then others. But wait for my results if you wnat to know which is better for FZ30(WO DCL-52 or Maxview II). Also as a general rule you want telescope with short local lenght(larger exit pupil and smaller magnification which is better for digiscoping) so you need one with very good optics(shorter lenght suffers more with optical flaws). Thank you for looking and commenting
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Arthur Ankh
http://ankh.smugmug.com
FZ30
FZ20
ex Canon 20D
ex DSCF828

I am very interested in the possibilities of using my 20 and scope together.

Since you have the Maxview and seem to have some experience at this sort of thing do you have an opinion on the FZ30 & the Maxview 40 with a spotting scope rather than a telescope.

ankh said:

The FZ20 seems to get even more vignetting than FZ30, but I will be
interested to see you results. What kind of telescope do you have.
It should be with short local lenght to work better. Preliminary
results show that with FZ30 you will get vignetting with Maxview II
except at 50mm equivalent and then at full zoom. In 3mb EZ mode the
vignetting is almost gone from the whole range but magnification
are huge. I must do more test before my final word on this, I am
also getting the WO DCL-52 wich is 75mm and thus larger exit pupil
and probably eye relief so I wnat to wait for it to do comparison
(should arrive in two days). Good luck and please let me know your
exerience.
--
Arthur Ankh
http://ankh.smugmug.com
FZ30
FZ20
ex Canon 20D
ex DSCF828

Click to expand...

--
Gene
From Western PA.

Panasonic FZ-10 and FZ 20 and FZ30
B300
T Con 17 --two Tcon 14Bs -- Raynox 2020 pro -- DCR 720
http://imageevent.com/grc6/toshareonnet



Just trying to learn and it's slow going!

still waiting for the maxview and adapter/t-ring. It took two days to cross the Atlantic and arrive in the country. It takes weeks to passs the last 50-100 km. It seems to be somewhere in customs. Once it arrives and I'll find the time to play with it and figure it out, I'll post some results here.
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http://photobucket.com/albums/y223/hw64/

Thanks.

Ok I've just received the maxview 40 from scopetronics. I tried to take a few shots, but it quickly became too dark. As the weather forecast for the next week doesn't look promising (rain and rain), I'l l post my fresh impressions here. Before i come to it I'll list my equipment

-fz20, absolutely "not" suited for diiscoping?

-a nikon spotting scope, the entry level sky&earth 60. It's a decent scope, easy to drag along as it is small but probably not the best choice for digiscoping, but as I don't want to make a career out of it, this doesn't bother me. If only from time to time I can get a decent shot, the main use of the scope will be birdwatching.

• manfrotto tripod
• the maxview 40 that really outperforms the standard nikon eyepiece. It's very wide and seems to brighten things up a bit. I will not use the standard nikon eyepiece too often.

What I just did, was to assemble everything, tried to get a focus, which I had expected to be harder. I didn't experiment with extending the maxview sleeve, there is some room for improvement here. All taken through the double glazing.

All shots taken with maximum optical zoom.
iso 100 f2.8 1/15 distance 15m



iso 400 f2.8 1/25 distance 20-25m



iso 400 f2.8 1/100 distance 50-60m



So conclusions
-more light is really welcome
-risk of severe CA (look at pic 3) - 12x zoom might 'enhance' this.

-vignetting could be worse. I don't yet know what kind of impact the sleeve extension has on this. I also expect that a wide open aperture decreases vignetting, but increases CA
...

So I'll see how it performs when weather conditions improve and as get more experience with it.

But even if it doesn't work with the fz20, I still have a very good eyepiece, that will be used. If the fz20 doesn't work, I might allways buy an additional cam with a smaller lens.

So these were probably the worst pics posted on this forum, but for some it might be informative. If ever I get better results I'll sure post them, but it may as well be the last examples of this combination ;-)

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http://photobucket.com/albums/y223/hw64/

I have a Meade DS-2114ATS reflecting telescope and the DMC-FZ30. Meade sells a basic camera adapter 1.25" size eyepiece. But then are supposed to by a T-adapter to mount the camera to the eye-piece. The only catch is this is made for SLR cameras with a. removeable lens.

My question is do have an idea how I would go about getting an adapter that would work with my camera?

Thanks

Something I had read is that the FZ20's lens is too long, and that it needs more eye relief than even the MaxView lenses provide.

Glenn C Williams said:

I have a Meade DS-2114ATS reflecting telescope and the DMC-FZ30.
Meade sells a basic camera adapter 1.25" size eyepiece. But then
are supposed to by a T-adapter to mount the camera to the
eye-piece. The only catch is this is made for SLR cameras with a.
removeable lens.

My question is do have an idea how I would go about getting an
adapter that would work with my camera?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Scopetronix is a good source of digiscoping tools. Go to their website for a description of techniques, equipment and terminology. The best setup for your camera would be the ScopeTronix MaxView 40 eyepiece (STMV40, $129.95) plus the 55mm T-thread adapter (STR49T, $30.95). If you already have an eyepiece with a T-thread you can get an adapter set for about $60, but using the MaxView eyepiece will minimize vignetting as it allows the camera to get as close as possible to the eyepiece lens.

I have this eyepice and have used it with my Minolta A1 (49mm thread) with reasonable success. I ordered and received the 55mm adapter but haven't tried it with my FZ30 yet.

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http://www.SMLG.ca - Twice Daily Photoblog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smlg/ - Flickr
Panasonic FZ30