Project Zoom! - Motorised Zoom Lens

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Hello All,

I recently picked up a couple of Computar Zoom Lenses from our favorite bargain shop Fleabay as a bit of an experiment and the last and largest one has me somewhat perplexed! There is no Iris connection from the lens to plug into a camera and instead it has a box with a dial as in the image. I guess I could remove this and attach an Iris plug but which four wires would I use?? Has anyone experimented with one of these before or know how I could get hold of the lens manual? The Computar website will only give the lens spec sheet and that does not explain what the dial box is. The zoom and focus wires have a 5 pin plug on the end but that seems straight forward enough and to test it I just used a 9V battery.

Anyway, as I say it is an experiment but the idea is to have a nice wide filed of view but also remote control so I can change the FOV while moving from target to target or Zooming in on the Moon etc. I figure if it works it should add another dimension to a broadcast but at worst it should still be a fun little project 
 

 

 
BTW, the little lens in the image is just to show the scale.  The 10-300mm is an absolute beast!!

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I'll tell ya SA that you've got the VA going on , I've been waiting for the weather to shape up and haven't been receiving my emails when you guys are live. I'm really into this Video Astrophotography and since getting the new 8 , I've been trying to figure it out. I can hardly wait to see your results with your new zoom.

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Hi Ronnie,

Yep it's true I've got the bug for sure!  I just checked the site to see why you are not getting notifications and it was because you were not subscribed to the Live Broadcast Notifications in the forum section.  I have just found your email and sent you an invite.  All you need to do is accept and you'll get notifications for sure.  As for the Zoom, I'm desperate to try it out but still not got my head around how to open the darn Iris and there is not a whole lot of help out there.  I guess this type of lens is not your average for astronomy!

Thanks again Ronnie and hope to see you during a broadcast soon!

Best wishes

Karl

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Hello All,

Finally I have been able to test the 10-300mm lens but I'm lost as to how best to achieve a nice sharp focus.  It seems to focus when zoomed in on a star but when zoomed out the image is just slightly off!  Using a 5mm C-CS adapter to get the best possible focus but from tests it seems the chips needs to nudge in a fraction but how I do that I have no idea!  Has anyone ever tried anything with one of these and is there such a things as an adjustable adapter?  

This video zooming in on Rosette Nebula shows roughly what I mean.

https://youtu.be/BQzvjtehMF4

Thanks

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Hello All,

Finally making some progress with this little experiment!  I managed to get the Mallincam hooked up to the lens last night which allowed me to achieve a much nicer focus.  I have a fair bit more testing to do in terms of camera settings, zoom speed and the best targets for this kind of thing but so far so good. 

Cheers

Karl