Bent Ramrod
10-03-2016, 05:57 PM
I tried out my SVS XL phone mount from S4 Gear for the first time today at the range. It's a frame that holds your Smart Phone camera against the eyepiece of your spotting scope. You then focus the target, start the "video" app, fire your shot and then play the video to see where it landed. Much better than trying to spot for yourself at any range less than 600 yards or so, and the perfect solution for those of us who cannot lure anyone out to the range to spot for us.
You clamp the phone in the frame, set a rough coordinate so the camera lens is near the center of the eyepiece, and attach the frame with phone to the eyepiece with a Velcro strap. I had to remove the rubber ring from the eyepiece on my Konus scope to do this. Once it's on, you adjust the X- and Y- coordinate screws until the camera is looking out the center of the eyepiece. With this done, the strap can be released and the device taken off the spotting scope, and put back on as needed. With a little practice getting the thing butted up against the eyepiece, and not tilted away on one side or the other, the view comes up the same through the camera, i.e, no further adjustments are necessary.
I used the setup with my IPhone 4 (I think it is). It worked very well, and I could see the dust puffs from misses and adjust my sight acccordingly. Of course, the success of the videos is enhanced by a solid bench, no wind, and the smoke blowing away in time to see the boolit strike. Didn't realize how much that image danced around, with me not holding the scope. But after a few reruns of the first video, I knew what to look for on subsequent takes.
I don't know whether it was a function of the mount or the phone, but I could not seem to keep the target in optimum focus for the videos when the scope was maxed out for magnification. Resolution drops noticeably as scope magnification is turned up anyway, but it seemed worse through the camera on the phone. Resolution through the phone seemed as good as looking on "photo," but would drift off slightly upon switching to "video." It was still good enough to locate dust puffs and boolit splashes on gongs, but when I wanted to see boolit holes on the paper target, I had to take the setup off and look through the eyepiece myself. With my Konus, I can see .45 boolit holes at the Turkey line (385m) at 60X as long as they're in the black of the target and the mirage isn't bad. In the white, it's possible to see them sometimes; on the cardboard backing, no way. At lower powers, the resolution of the scope got much better and the videos no longer seemed to drift out of focus as they had at 60x. I should have tried the zoom function of the phone at the lower scope magnifications, but didn't think to do it.
All in all, I'm happy with the purchase. It was kind of pricey at $80, but I figure I can amortize the cost in ammunition saved getting on target. Our range here is very popular, and getting down to the target is a wait, sometimes. Now I can see what's going on right away.
You clamp the phone in the frame, set a rough coordinate so the camera lens is near the center of the eyepiece, and attach the frame with phone to the eyepiece with a Velcro strap. I had to remove the rubber ring from the eyepiece on my Konus scope to do this. Once it's on, you adjust the X- and Y- coordinate screws until the camera is looking out the center of the eyepiece. With this done, the strap can be released and the device taken off the spotting scope, and put back on as needed. With a little practice getting the thing butted up against the eyepiece, and not tilted away on one side or the other, the view comes up the same through the camera, i.e, no further adjustments are necessary.
I used the setup with my IPhone 4 (I think it is). It worked very well, and I could see the dust puffs from misses and adjust my sight acccordingly. Of course, the success of the videos is enhanced by a solid bench, no wind, and the smoke blowing away in time to see the boolit strike. Didn't realize how much that image danced around, with me not holding the scope. But after a few reruns of the first video, I knew what to look for on subsequent takes.
I don't know whether it was a function of the mount or the phone, but I could not seem to keep the target in optimum focus for the videos when the scope was maxed out for magnification. Resolution drops noticeably as scope magnification is turned up anyway, but it seemed worse through the camera on the phone. Resolution through the phone seemed as good as looking on "photo," but would drift off slightly upon switching to "video." It was still good enough to locate dust puffs and boolit splashes on gongs, but when I wanted to see boolit holes on the paper target, I had to take the setup off and look through the eyepiece myself. With my Konus, I can see .45 boolit holes at the Turkey line (385m) at 60X as long as they're in the black of the target and the mirage isn't bad. In the white, it's possible to see them sometimes; on the cardboard backing, no way. At lower powers, the resolution of the scope got much better and the videos no longer seemed to drift out of focus as they had at 60x. I should have tried the zoom function of the phone at the lower scope magnifications, but didn't think to do it.
All in all, I'm happy with the purchase. It was kind of pricey at $80, but I figure I can amortize the cost in ammunition saved getting on target. Our range here is very popular, and getting down to the target is a wait, sometimes. Now I can see what's going on right away.