I was photographing the Moon and Mars on the driveway last night and had the occasion to try a 2" extension tube that I bought from a well known vendor and E Bay'r about 2 years ago. (I actually got 2 of them on a Dutch Auction and sold one.) Anyway with my digital camera hooked up hovering about 4 feet in the air above the concrete, I noticed that the thing appeared loose. I removed the extension tube, adapter and camera assembly (Olympus C3000 hooked afocally to a TeleVue 9mm Type 6 Nagler) and brought it inside for an inspection. Imagine my shock when the lower chrome barrel pulled right out of the upper black barrel! It did not unscrew, it just pulled out!
The upper black barrel with brass clamp band has male threads and the lower chrome barrel has female threads. Unfortunately the threads do not match and once you line them up you can just push or pull them together or apart. This design blunder was partially solved by the manufacturer with some kind of adhesive loosely holding the two parts together until a mild force (my only time trying to use this part) pulled them apart.
Nothing that a little J-B Weld can't solve. Sure glad it did not result in an $800 accident!
Note that this adapter is as described. Additionally it has a chromed thumb screw and a black splatter finish paint job on the upper barrel. Very much like the black finish on some Intes scopes. It may be Intes, it may be Russian in origin, but I am not certain of that. Anyone with suspicions that they may have one of these should try unscrewing theirs. It may just break the glue seal. Better to have that happen then to have it fall apart with expensive equipment hanging off the end of it!
Barry Simon
The upper black barrel with brass clamp band has male threads and the lower chrome barrel has female threads. Unfortunately the threads do not match and once you line them up you can just push or pull them together or apart. This design blunder was partially solved by the manufacturer with some kind of adhesive loosely holding the two parts together until a mild force (my only time trying to use this part) pulled them apart.
Nothing that a little J-B Weld can't solve. Sure glad it did not result in an $800 accident!
Note that this adapter is as described. Additionally it has a chromed thumb screw and a black splatter finish paint job on the upper barrel. Very much like the black finish on some Intes scopes. It may be Intes, it may be Russian in origin, but I am not certain of that. Anyone with suspicions that they may have one of these should try unscrewing theirs. It may just break the glue seal. Better to have that happen then to have it fall apart with expensive equipment hanging off the end of it!
Barry Simon
