Best way to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10

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Gatorengineer64
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Best way to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10

Post by Gatorengineer64 »

Hi a newbie question, what would the best way be to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10. Yes I have the system exploded and I could try and hunt down the Adapter to OM and then adapter over to Sony, is that still the best way to connect to this scope. Goal is ultimately Micromount Mineral Photography. Thanks

Mark

Scarodactyl
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Re: Best way to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10

Post by Scarodactyl »

I think they use the same PE photo eyepieces that thr conpound scopes did, witht he same 38mm dovetail? Which parts do you need. If it's just the photomicro L then this is a good substitute at a bargain price https://www.ebay.com/itm/Diagnostic-Ins ... 4320621159

Alan Wood
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Re: Best way to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10

Post by Alan Wood »

The ways shown in the catalogue are probably still the best.

You need an NFK photo eyepiece, not a PE.

The PEs are a non-standard diameter and are too wide.

There are free PDFs of the Olympus SZH10 catalogue and repair manual here:
http://www.alanwood.net/olympus/downloads.html#stereo

I have not found an instruction manual yet.

Alan Wood

Scarodactyl
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Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Best way to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10

Post by Scarodactyl »

Oh wow, I misread this as szx10. I need to stop posting at 2am or whenever.
The nfk is what the catalogue calls for but I am not convinced it's the best approach. The szh series optics are not compensating like the bh2 compounds were, and I don't think(?) they add aberrations in the photo tube that the nfk then removes. It seems more likely it was a 'good enough' situation, though I don't have an szh anymore to test it on myself. As such you might want to pick up an optically neutral Nikon pli 2.5x or pl xl 2.5x projective eyepiece to try as well (the original 2.5x pl works but adds some aberrations of its own). When I did have an szh I tried both an nfk 2.5x and a nikon pl 2.5x and thought the nikon was a bit better, but it was on aps-c and I had no idea what I was doing, kind of a useless test for full frame. People also sometimes remove the top bit of the trinocular port and direct project onto aps-c with reportedly good results, but I haven't tried that myself.
The above DI adapter is still useful for this since the 38mm dovetail is constant (thanks Olympus!)

J_Rogers
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Re: Best way to connect a Sony A7 to an Oly SZH10

Post by J_Rogers »

I remember running into a similar issue on my old Olympus SZH10. I think I wound up settling for the "good enough" approach mentioned above, until later swapping out for a c-mount camera for tethering to a monitor. If you dont already have the phototube I would suggest getting something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/254840101119?c ... 1&mkcid=28 . I've bought a few adapters from this eBay seller and they always far exceeded my expectations [not the typical AmScope junk.] The one I listed will still need the eye piece, but itll let you experiment with various ones without worrying about focus distance etc.

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