How Does the Digi-T system work?
The Digi-T system is quick, secure, and easy to use. The rubber eyeguard is removed from the eyepiece, The Digi-T threaded ring is slipped over the top of the eyepiece and the 3 set screws are tightened (with the included wrench) into the groove left vacant by the rubber eyeguard, the proper step ring then couples the Digi-T ring to the camera. In some cases a lens extension tube or intermediate ring may be required, these are included with the Digi-T system kits as needed.
Why is"Digi-T" better than a conventional eyepiece projection adapter?
Digi-T offers a number of significant advantages over conventional eyepiece projection adapters....
Less Vignetting - When coupling a digital camera to a telescope it is imperative that the eyepiece lens and the camera lens are as close together as possible, a separation of even 1/2" will result in an image like looking through a soda straw. When installed onto the eyepiece Digi-T is flush with the top. Thanks to Digi-T's exclusive "thread-through-thread" design the step ring then threads completely over it, adding zero length. No other adapter gets as close!
Fits More Eyepieces - There are 2 types of conventional eyepiece projection adapters, fixed length and variable. The fixed length adapters are too short to hold the most popular eyepieces (such as the 26mm Super Plossl) and too narrow to hold many others. The variable length adapters are designed for film cameras and are simply too long to allow the close coupling necessary for digital cameras, in addition they are still too narrow to hold any of the wider field eyepieces. Digi-T fits a 4mm Plossl or a 40mm Plossl!
No Back Focus Problems - All conventional eyepiece projection adapters have one thing in common, they lift the eyepiece up in the holder by about 1". For many refractors and reflectors this is a serious problem as they can no longer reach focus! This is especially true with the popular ETX60/70 telescopes. Since Digi-T attaches to the top of the eyepiece it doesn't change the eyepiece position at all and focus remains the same.
Convenient - No need to search the world over for a bunch of oddball hard to find rings to attach your camera and then hoping they will all work together. In most cases you can have everything you need with a single click!
Which Cameras will the Digi-T System fit?
The Digi-T system is available to fit most popular digital cameras. Most are specific to a camera model and many more will fit the most common lens thread sizes. The only requirement is that the camera have a live LCD viewfinder screen (or through the lens view) so you can see to focus the image. Some of the cameras currently supported are Nikon, Olympus, Sony, and more.
Which Eyepieces will the Digi-T System fit?
Digi-T fits most popular 1.25" eyepieces with removable rubber eyeguards... Specifically the Meade 4000 Series Plossls, Most 1.25" Meade SWA's and UWA's, Meade ETX 60/70 eyepieces, Celestron NexStar Plossls (newer type with rubber eyeguards only), ScopeTronix ST Series Plossls, Orion Sirius Plossls, Generic Series 300/400 Plossls, and many more imported eyepieces with removable rubber eyeguards. Digi-T will not fit TeleVue eyepieces. See our Adaptaview or Digadapt adapters to cover most other eyepieces. To see if your eyepiece will work if it is not listed above check it as follows. It must have a removable rubber eyeguard, once the eyeguard is removed the diameter of the TOP of the eyepiece (the portion above the groove that holds the eyeguard) must be between 1.22" and 1.26" for the best fit. They have all the attributes necessary for good optical coupling to a digital camera (large lens, good eye relief, Digi-T compatibility, and a non-recessed lens design). You will find that it is more important to have a single eyepiece that couples well rather than a range of eyepieces in different focal lengths that don't couple well. The reason being that you can adjust the magnification by simply zooming the camera or adding a barlow before the lens.
My digital camera doesn't have a threaded lens, what can I do?
Take a look at our Universal Adapters . These bracket type adapters attach to the cameras tripod mounting hole and is adjustable to fit just about any camera.
A word on vignetting...
Vignetting is a term photographers use to describe images which have the outer edges cut off. A vignetted image will look as if it were taken through a pipe...black edges surrounding a circle of an image. Vignetting is caused by several factors. The size of the eyepiece lens, the distance from the camera lens to the eyepiece lens, and probably most importantly the physical size of the camera lens. If you have a camera with a large lens such as many of the Olympus models and you are shooting through a much smaller eyepiece you will experience some vignetting. This is the nature of the beast. The Digi-T will reduce vignetting to a minimum by getting the camera and eyepiece lenses as close as possible but on some cameras there will be unavoidable vignetting. For planetary use this really isn't a problem as you can crop out the planet from the center of the image with image processing software. But for terrestrial use it can be a problem in some cases.
1. Use an eyepiece with a large lens such as a 25mm plossl. Remember due to the magnification provided by the camera you will already be at a higher power than you would be visually, you can always add a barlow before the eyepiece to increase magnification further.
2. Try the available modes on your camera. Generally "Macro" mode works best on most cameras. If you don't have a macro mode go to maximum zoom, if your camera can do both at the same time so much the better.
3. Keep lens distances to a minimum.On some eyepieces the lenses can be recessed quite a bit from the end of the eyepiece. While this won't affect cameras with small lenses it will affect cameras with large lenses.