The $155.95 LE-Adapter (lens adapter) allows you to easily connect digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras or SLR cameras to the eyepiece of microscopes, spotting scopes, telescopes, binocular or monocular optics. Fact is you can couple your camera to just about any optical device or eyepiece with a diameter between 1/2 and 1-5/8 inches.

3/11/02 update: There is now a 2Plus LE-Adapter which accepts a range of eyepieces diameters between 35mm (1 3/8”) to 60mm (2 5/16”).

The main requirement for using the LE-Adapter is that your camera has lens threads and a zoom lens with at least a 115mm (35mm equivalent) focal length to avoid vignetting. The LE-Adapter has 52mm threads and comes with a 52-37mm stepdown ring.

Shown above the LE-Adapter can be used with the Nikon Coolpix 950, 990 or 995 cameras when used with a 28-37mm stepup ring plus the supplied 37-52mm ring.

The LE-Adapter fits many other digicams too, check the Digicam Compatibility page for a list of known compatible cameras.

Add-on lenses or the eyepiece of an optical device is placed into the LE-Adapter and then you tighten the three screws uniformly to hold it in place.

Here's the Coolpix 990 connected to a microscope eyepiece.

And here's we see the Coolpix 990 mounted on a large telescope.

Video camcorder with a Night Viewing Device (NVD) and a monocular attached by using two LE-Adapters.

Steve's Conclusion

The LE-Adapter makes it simple to connect your digicam to all sorts of optical devices whether they were made for it or not. This solves the problems of not being able to find the right threaded adapter ring or how to attach something that has no accessory threads to begin with. As long as the eyepiece or optical device has a diameter between 1/2 and 1-5/8 inches you can clamp onto it with the LE-Adapter.

Over the years I have received many emails from users wishing to mate a hi-res digicam to a microscope in either a laboratory or medical environment. I'm happy to report that the LE-Adapter is just the device that you've been looking for. The best digicam is a Coolpix 950 or 990 with its 3x optical zoom and superior macro capabilities, not to mention the ability to swivel the LCD screen independently of the lens. Other digicams can also be mated to microscopes, don't forget that you can use the video out feature and plug it into a TV -- it's difficult to beat a hi-res 9" or larger TV set as a color viewfinder!

I used the LE-Adapter to mount a Walter 8x32 monocular on the Coolpix 995 (see the first photo up above) and the results were very similar to what we have seen with the Kenko 8x32 or the CrystalView Sharpshooter monoculars when used on the Coolpix 990 or 995. It takes a little practice to make this combination work but shooting in macro mode with the LCD on and using continuous AF certainly helps. The camera and lens must be on a tripod, shooting with this extreme focal length the focus is critical and you won't get many useable shots if trying to do this handheld.

If you want or need a very versatile lens mounting device the LE-Adapter has got to be one of the best solutions out there.