Nikon SMZ-10 trinocular head on a Nikon SMZ-U?

[PeteM]

Curious if there is any reason to not use a Nikon SMZ-10 trinocular head on a Nikon SMZ-U body?

I've recently acquired and fixed up a Nikon SMZ-U. It's now working fine but came minus a photo port. In doing a quick check, an SMZ-10 head seems to work just fine on the SMZ-U using the 2.5x photo relay lens and a full frame camera. This is the original tall photo stack for full frame cameras.

There was a recent thread here -- which I can't seem to find -- about converting a Nikon SMZ (or was it a Wild M8?) to direct infinity projection. Anyone know if the SMZ-10 and SMZ-U can both be so modified - same tube lens specs applying to both scopes? This would allow a shorter "stack" and less glass between the scope and sensor.

[Scarodactyl]

There is one reason, that being the coverage of thr head is poorer. The smz-u and later heads cover ultra eidefield eyepieces and the trinoc ports cover aps-c, while the smz-10 has something like a 23mm max fn. It does not cover aps-c, but the tube lens in the trinocular port has a shorter focal length than in the viewing light paths so coverage with a 2.5x is better than on a labophot/optiphot.

[PeteM]

Thanks, Stephen. FWIW, I don't have the Nikon 10x/24 eyepieces for the SMZ-U, but a set of Mitutoyo 10x/24 seem to hold up OK to the edges of the SMZ-10 binocular tubes and ever so slightly wider than the Nikon 10x/23 eyepieces. Haven't taken any photos yet - there might be some artifacts not visually seen at the edges.