[Mickoid (Michael)]

Chris, you can only do the best you can with the equipment you have and I think you've done well there for a beginner.
I think you misunderstood me though, you don't need any extra optical magnification to try this video capture technique. You use the same setup as you have been using and the computer software just captures what you see on the Liveview of your camera's LCD screen. You don't have to alter exposures on the camera as the software has all you need to change exposure, gain and video capture settings. It's a bit like mirroring the screen of your mobile phone to the TV monitor, what you see is what you get.