Some sample pictures from Dan Chaplin with his review:

This is my review/comments about the new lens that I evaluated on my Sony F707:

CrystalVue Optics LX8 Digital

The lens arrived packaged in a nice box with a glossy picture of a snowcapped peaked that might have been Mt. Hood. (My mom wants the box). Inside the box was a lens bag with the lens in it, a small box with the eyepiece, a small tripod, and some adapter rings.

I was eager to put the lens onto my Sony F707, so proceeded to find the most expedient combination of adapters to accomplish this. This is a typical engineer approach, and it ended up being the wrong combination--I mounted the lens directly to my camera using the pentax to 58mm adapter included in the box. This resulted in no image in the camera field of view

The proper way to assemble it is to remove the 1.25 inch telescope adapter and rubber eyecup from the eyepiece, thread the eyepiece to the lens, screw a threaded pentax spacer ring onto the other end of the eyepiece, and then the pentax to 58 mm adapter.

Some special notes on the pentax spacer ring. This is is very clever feature that allows you to adjust just how close the end of the eyepiece can get to the camera's objective lens. If omitted or misadjusted, it would be possible with many cameras to damage its lens when attaching the LX8, something certainly to be avoided. It turns out that the LX8 performs better the closer it is to the camera objective, so one will want to fine adjust the space ring while leaving a safe margin of protection. For the same reason, you will want to remove any filters from the camera before attaching the LX8 since the extra spacing will reduce the performance of the lens. (The more space, the less field of view/more obstruction).

With the lens attached to the Sony F707, I could appreciate the solid construction of the LX8. The LX8 has its own tripod mount, which incidently has adjustable rotation, but I decided to use the tripod mount on the camera lens instead since it seemed like a better balance. Ideally, a rail would be needed to get a good balance since the camera mount is too far back and the LX8 mount is too far forward. This is simply due to the large size and weight of the F707.

The combination is large enough and the magnification is big enough, that it really is absolutely necessary to use a tripod to steady the image when taking pictures.

I chose a scene of a birdhouse to take some sample shots. I presume that birdhouses and birdfeeders will attract lots of attention from LX8 users, since it really brings the camera in close to see birds. My Sony F707 has a 5 to 1 optical zoom, and with the LX8, the zoom is extended out to 40 times. I am guessing that the maximum magnification is something like a 1200mm equivalent lens on a 35mm film camera. Technically speaking, you could take a hand held shot at 1/1000 second, but focusing would be very tricky. So, a good tripod is essential.

My test shots included some reference photos without the LX8 just to provide a sense of the field of view. The 8 test pics are as follows:

1. Sony F707 wide zoom, f8, without LX8
The birdhouse is rather small in the field of view.
2. Full optical zoom, f8, without LX8
The birdhouse is easily seen now, but a bird would be difficult to identify at this scale.
3. Wide zoom, f2.4, with LX8
Taken on purpose to show that the field of view is dramatically reduced at this wide zoom position. I expected this.
4. About half optical zoom, f2.4 with LX8
I adjusted the zoom to what was about middle position according to the display on my camera where the corners were just vignetted.
5. Full optical zoom, f2.4 with LX8
At this full zoom position, the entrance to the birdhouse is clearly visible along with wood grain and heads of screws. I think that the image is remarkably sharp. At this position, a bird would be very identifiable. There is a subtle chroma spill between the overlit roof and its shadow, but compared to other lenses competing with the LX8, this looks very acceptable to me.
6. Full optical zoom, f8 with LX8
When stopping down the aperture, the vignetting becomes much more pronounced. I expected this to happen. The lens flare also increases. This picture demonstrates the usefulness of using a low f-number to get the best picture with a lens like this.
7. Full digital zoom, f2.4 with LX8
I am sure one could see the color of the bird's eye at this scale. However, digital zooms can be done in Photoshop, too. Technically, this picture is the same as picture 5 with everything bigger.
8. Full digital zoom, f8 with LX8
Same comments. This picture is just an expanded version of picture 6.

I am impressed with how the LX8 performed on my Sony F707 and can barely wait to get out with it some more to see what I can do with it.

Some comments on the physical features of the LX8. It seems to me that CKC Power has put alot of its experience with older lenses in its product line to work here in the LX8. Being able to adjust the spacing between the eyepiece and the camera lens is very clever and makes a difference. (I am so worried about my camera lens though that I will add another slip ring spacer to make sure that I can never misadjust the threaded spacer provided). Making the tripod mount adjustable also lets you rotate camera and lens so the camera viewfinder is horizontal or vertical.

Even the lens bag is clever. There is a hole accessible on it that allows the lens mount to protrude. This lets you mount the lens to your tripod and leave it there, while it is still in the bag. Each end of the bag is zippered so that in the field you can open the bag to expose the front and back of the lens when you want to use it. Some protection from weather is thus provided.

And the lens is an 8 power spotting scope, too. Just unthread the camera adapter ring and thread on the eyecup. I need to spend more time with it, but so far it works well. It is very handy to be able to carry one piece of equipment into the field that does two things.

(One thing that I tried to do was to add a right angle prism so that I could look down through the eyepiece. The infinity focus was not possible anymore so that didn't work. Besides, the image would have become upside down again.)

All in all, the LX8 does what it is supposed to do and does it easily. The pictures speak for themselves, but I will still add my positive comment to them--looks great!

Here are the pictures

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