I received this yesterday.
It's a spotting scope adapter by Nikon. It's designed for digiscoping but I was hoping to get additional use out of it as it seams quite versatile. I will still buy a dedicated one since Nikon build them to fit their cameras to their line of spotting scopes. They carry this universal model, a couple for their point and shoot cameras and one that fits as a lens for DSLR's.
I feel the adapter is very well designed and thought out. There are sliding rails and pivoting ball heads to line everything up. There are several areas that lock to keep things in place and everything is controlled at the end of the tracks with and adjustment screw for finer, more controlled movement.
If they put a little more money in this I think it would be incredible. Unfortunately , as well though out as it is there were some corners cut in the materials. It's just not solid... Therefore it can never have a permanent home, it would surely be the weak link to any well built tripod. I will still use it as its actually more functional than I was expecting for the money. With that said, it still seams nicer than many others at this price point.
Because of the wide variety of adjustments there is plenty room for creativity. You can mount other optics (LRF, light binos, video camera etc...) or any other light object that takes or has an adapter for the bottom screw.
The benefit to this is that because of the way it's arranged it stay in tandem when panning your tripod. For example, with a laser range finder you can adjust it to view the same center your spotter is aimed. You can then move the spotter freely and the LRF will follow center with it. You can also two optics have them pointing in separate direction to cover a wider field of view. The main optic doesn't have to be a spotter either, it could be a monocular or binos with your phone or camera on the other end.
I mounted my Nikon 82 ED yesterday alongside a pair of 12x50 Bushnell Fusions and as seen below there is plenty of room for viewing both. The binos are pushing the weight limit on the weak side and is the heaviest I would feel comfortable with.
It's a spotting scope adapter by Nikon. It's designed for digiscoping but I was hoping to get additional use out of it as it seams quite versatile. I will still buy a dedicated one since Nikon build them to fit their cameras to their line of spotting scopes. They carry this universal model, a couple for their point and shoot cameras and one that fits as a lens for DSLR's.
I feel the adapter is very well designed and thought out. There are sliding rails and pivoting ball heads to line everything up. There are several areas that lock to keep things in place and everything is controlled at the end of the tracks with and adjustment screw for finer, more controlled movement.
If they put a little more money in this I think it would be incredible. Unfortunately , as well though out as it is there were some corners cut in the materials. It's just not solid... Therefore it can never have a permanent home, it would surely be the weak link to any well built tripod. I will still use it as its actually more functional than I was expecting for the money. With that said, it still seams nicer than many others at this price point.
Because of the wide variety of adjustments there is plenty room for creativity. You can mount other optics (LRF, light binos, video camera etc...) or any other light object that takes or has an adapter for the bottom screw.
The benefit to this is that because of the way it's arranged it stay in tandem when panning your tripod. For example, with a laser range finder you can adjust it to view the same center your spotter is aimed. You can then move the spotter freely and the LRF will follow center with it. You can also two optics have them pointing in separate direction to cover a wider field of view. The main optic doesn't have to be a spotter either, it could be a monocular or binos with your phone or camera on the other end.
I mounted my Nikon 82 ED yesterday alongside a pair of 12x50 Bushnell Fusions and as seen below there is plenty of room for viewing both. The binos are pushing the weight limit on the weak side and is the heaviest I would feel comfortable with.
