Phone Skope
01-17-2017, 06:50 AM
#21
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,905
Whenever the older generations pile on and stereotype the younger generations, it's just as easy to hand a stereotype right back and point out the older generation leaps to an assumption without actually knowing anything about the younger generation - which a lot of folks might say is the driving force behind the lower quality of folks in the younger generations. Blame your kids and grandkids for being low-quality, but remember, they're YOUR kids and grandkids.
The easiest retort in this kind of thread - prove to me that using new technology excludes knowledge of the old. Prove to me using a GPS or smartphone to navigate excludes younger generation folks from knowing how to read maps and compasses. Many here seem to want to jump on a bandwagon and hold the old ways above new technology, but prove to me your comments are anything more than a stereotype - prove to me the fact we're all using computers to type here excludes us from the ability to use a typewriter. Prove to me navigating by electronic compass bearing and topos in a handheld GPS will negate the same skillset for paper maps and magnetic compasses? Why does being young mean a guy can't read wind? Was it windier 30yrs ago so no younger shooter has ever had to deal with wind?
If we want to talk stereotypes: You wanna know how SOME of the older generation of hunters taught me to dope my rifle? Cut the lid off of a box of factory ammo of the same bullet weight and tape it to your stock. That's no joke - there were two guys in their 60's in my uncle's hunting camp when I was a kid who had flaps from remington or winchester ammo boxes taped to their rifle, even though they were shooting reloads! I could name a few older hunters, from 50+ to 80+ years old who I find very difficult to respect because of how they choose their quarry - every damned year I help them go hunt, then they take 5 shots to kill a fawn barely out of spots, simply because it was the first deer they saw, and they "hunt for meat, not horns," regardless of whether the deer was mature or not. Luckily, my family taught me better than those old fools.
Older generations often criticize the younger generations for this - "kids just don't read anymore..." However, studies has proven the opposite is actually true - kids spend more hours per week reading today than at any point in the history of man - they just read from a screen instead of a piece of paper.
There have been schitheads in every generation - my great grandpa, born in 1913, used to tell a story about his first cousin who came to live with them during the Great Depression because his parents wouldn't let him move back home as a grown man because he couldn't take care of himself - he'd never studied in school, and never paid attention to learn how to be of use on our ranch, nor did he have any work ethic. One of my uncles ran off to California in the 1970's and was a hippy living in his van - he was largely worthless until his 30's when he knocked up a girlfriend, took a huge amount of debt to go back to school, and finally found a work ethic. In the next generation, I've employed interns who have been more productive, hard working, and skilled than half of my colleagues 20-30yrs their senior. I've also rejected interns who wouldn't get out of bed if a super model offered to make them breakfast in the nude. Studies have proven the "millenials" to actually have a stronger desire to work and a greater sense of social duty than the last two generations before them - i.e. the two generations which criticize them the most.
But after 2 pages - I still fail to see how any pedantic ageism has anything to do with using a cell phone to take photos through a spotting scope - folks have been using spotting scopes and telescopes as zoom lenses for cameras for as long as a camera has existed. Certainly nothing the younger generation came up with, so I'm not really sure how all of this came to be in the first place.
The easiest retort in this kind of thread - prove to me that using new technology excludes knowledge of the old. Prove to me using a GPS or smartphone to navigate excludes younger generation folks from knowing how to read maps and compasses. Many here seem to want to jump on a bandwagon and hold the old ways above new technology, but prove to me your comments are anything more than a stereotype - prove to me the fact we're all using computers to type here excludes us from the ability to use a typewriter. Prove to me navigating by electronic compass bearing and topos in a handheld GPS will negate the same skillset for paper maps and magnetic compasses? Why does being young mean a guy can't read wind? Was it windier 30yrs ago so no younger shooter has ever had to deal with wind?
If we want to talk stereotypes: You wanna know how SOME of the older generation of hunters taught me to dope my rifle? Cut the lid off of a box of factory ammo of the same bullet weight and tape it to your stock. That's no joke - there were two guys in their 60's in my uncle's hunting camp when I was a kid who had flaps from remington or winchester ammo boxes taped to their rifle, even though they were shooting reloads! I could name a few older hunters, from 50+ to 80+ years old who I find very difficult to respect because of how they choose their quarry - every damned year I help them go hunt, then they take 5 shots to kill a fawn barely out of spots, simply because it was the first deer they saw, and they "hunt for meat, not horns," regardless of whether the deer was mature or not. Luckily, my family taught me better than those old fools.
Older generations often criticize the younger generations for this - "kids just don't read anymore..." However, studies has proven the opposite is actually true - kids spend more hours per week reading today than at any point in the history of man - they just read from a screen instead of a piece of paper.
There have been schitheads in every generation - my great grandpa, born in 1913, used to tell a story about his first cousin who came to live with them during the Great Depression because his parents wouldn't let him move back home as a grown man because he couldn't take care of himself - he'd never studied in school, and never paid attention to learn how to be of use on our ranch, nor did he have any work ethic. One of my uncles ran off to California in the 1970's and was a hippy living in his van - he was largely worthless until his 30's when he knocked up a girlfriend, took a huge amount of debt to go back to school, and finally found a work ethic. In the next generation, I've employed interns who have been more productive, hard working, and skilled than half of my colleagues 20-30yrs their senior. I've also rejected interns who wouldn't get out of bed if a super model offered to make them breakfast in the nude. Studies have proven the "millenials" to actually have a stronger desire to work and a greater sense of social duty than the last two generations before them - i.e. the two generations which criticize them the most.
But after 2 pages - I still fail to see how any pedantic ageism has anything to do with using a cell phone to take photos through a spotting scope - folks have been using spotting scopes and telescopes as zoom lenses for cameras for as long as a camera has existed. Certainly nothing the younger generation came up with, so I'm not really sure how all of this came to be in the first place.
01-17-2017, 10:01 AM
#22
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Up on the Milk River
Posts: 459
The initial post I wrote, simply asked what folks thought of their phone scopes and any little things a person should be aware of, pretty straight forward. As you read, the first response was not constructive, just someone who has too much time on their hands and believes he is the know all, end all. He has stated he was a warden in Penn., hmm....I am betting a phone scope apparatus would be very helpful in law enforcement situations. I actually have found out some very helpful info on other forums, but it is sad that people feel they need to insert themselves into a topic they themselves say they have no interest in.
03-07-2018, 12:05 AM
#23
Spike
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 15
When compact digital cameras came out, I was excited to be able to have a camera with me more often to capture photos and videos more often, and with less bulk than the Sony Mavica camera I had before that which stored pictures on 3.5" floppy disks, which was less bulk than the Polaroid camera I carried in my pack for years before digital cameras came around. Now, I don't even need a camera, as my phone takes as good of photos as the compact digital cameras from just a few years ago. I personally think it's an advantage to be able to capture memories more easily and more readily. It's fun to reminisce through memories in your head, but I'm always reminded of things I hadn't thought about in years whenever I pull up physical or digital photos.
As for the phone scope - I take photos through my spotting scopes, rifle scopes, and range finders all of the time, and having adapters to make it easier to hold them together is pretty handy. I got a phone to scope adapter a few years ago for Christmas, wanna say it was a Caldwell, then I picked up a Vortex adapter for free when I ordered through an instructor program this summer, they're pretty handy, but I rarely remember to take them afield.
I had an adapter to attach a spotting scope to a camera body many years ago, now it's just a lot lighter and easier to take a high quality zoom photo with a cell phone clamped to my spotting scope, and actually less expensive than it used to be. Not to mention, my smart phone also lets me check HNI while I'm in the field, eating lunch in the deer stand, and instead of taking a paperback book to read, my phone has my kindle books on it too, let alone letting me take pictures from my stand through my range finder as a magnifying lens of deer walking within feet of my position...
I've also really enjoyed some of the clip on lenses available now for cell phone cameras, whether it's using a macro lens to photograph brass headstamp detail or firearm parts, or a mini telephoto zoom lens for taking pictures of game in the field, it's really amazing how much miniature photography equipment is available - after spending thousands and thousands of dollars on photography equipment over the years, I'm really glad to be able to have some of the same opportunities with the camera I carry every day. Then again, I'm into photography, and in my business, I almost always have 4 connected cellular devices on me at all times, so I'm inured to inundation by the tech, whether I like it or not.
Of course, it's kind of on the nose to point out the hypocrisy inherent whenever a Luddite posts online...
As for the phone scope - I take photos through my spotting scopes, rifle scopes, and range finders all of the time, and having adapters to make it easier to hold them together is pretty handy. I got a phone to scope adapter a few years ago for Christmas, wanna say it was a Caldwell, then I picked up a Vortex adapter for free when I ordered through an instructor program this summer, they're pretty handy, but I rarely remember to take them afield.
I had an adapter to attach a spotting scope to a camera body many years ago, now it's just a lot lighter and easier to take a high quality zoom photo with a cell phone clamped to my spotting scope, and actually less expensive than it used to be. Not to mention, my smart phone also lets me check HNI while I'm in the field, eating lunch in the deer stand, and instead of taking a paperback book to read, my phone has my kindle books on it too, let alone letting me take pictures from my stand through my range finder as a magnifying lens of deer walking within feet of my position...
I've also really enjoyed some of the clip on lenses available now for cell phone cameras, whether it's using a macro lens to photograph brass headstamp detail or firearm parts, or a mini telephoto zoom lens for taking pictures of game in the field, it's really amazing how much miniature photography equipment is available - after spending thousands and thousands of dollars on photography equipment over the years, I'm really glad to be able to have some of the same opportunities with the camera I carry every day. Then again, I'm into photography, and in my business, I almost always have 4 connected cellular devices on me at all times, so I'm inured to inundation by the tech, whether I like it or not.
Of course, it's kind of on the nose to point out the hypocrisy inherent whenever a Luddite posts online...
Your opinion is very helpfull for me. Thank you so much.
05-06-2018, 08:06 PM
#26
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,905
Timely revival to this thread. I just picked up an iscope at the NRA National Convention this weekend. I’m anxious to see how it works out. I haven’t had a unit with adjustable eye relief this simple in the past, it appears to be quite well made, albeit a bit heavy, and very adjustable. The clamp is able to hold both my I6s and my Ix, in or out of my Lifeproof cases, which is a huge leg up over all of my other digiscoping units. I prefer the design of the sideshow product, where I still look through my scope as normal, whereas the iscope means I have to use the phone screen as my sighting device... I’m pretty used to doing this, and I think it might even be an advantage in my specialty pistols with rifle scopes.
I haven’t had it on the range yet, but I’ll try to remember to follow up with a review this weekend when I get back on the range.
I haven’t had it on the range yet, but I’ll try to remember to follow up with a review this weekend when I get back on the range.
