[wruza]

Die Frau and dem Fernglass don’t bind tightly though.

In my view, this phrase is only unambiguous to those who feel the preposition tradition, and all the heavy lifting is done here by “mit” (and “durch” in the opposite case, if one wants to make it clear). Articles are irrelevant and are dictated by the verb and the preposition, whose requirements are sort of arbitrary (sehen Akk., mit Dat.) and fixed. There’s no article-controlled variation that could change meaning, to my knowkedge it would be simply incorrect.

I’m also quite rusty on Deutsch, aber habe es nicht völlig vergessen, it seems.