Thread: Handycam as spotting scope?

I have a spotting scope but it's bulky and does one thing only.

Has anyone tried one of the various compact handycams? Optical zoom up to 70x...! And you can take pictures and video. Some have frills like active IR nightvision.

I'm thinking about picking up a cheap used one ($50-$100 on TM for a Sony or Panasonic 40x) but interested to hear about anyone else's experience using a camera in place of a spotting scope, either at the range or hunting.

Cheers

You can. Won't be as good as the proper thinh and you have to reply on batteries of course.
Again make sure the camera has good optics to start with. I think the Sony has Carl Zeiss lenses?

Won't be as good as the proper thinh

In what respect?

you have to reply on batteries of course.

True, but you can pick up spares cheap on ebay and TM.

Have used the camera quite a few times, even down at Alexandra for rabbit spotting.

1st problem - when you look into a spotting scope, your eye is seeing the entire field of view from the eyepiece. When you look at a viewfinder, your eye focuses only on the (small) screen/viewfinder. So you'll see a lot more detail with the spotting scope than the view finder/screen.

Zooms are a bit of advertising trick too. A digital zoom that gives you 75x zoom is simply enlarging the object. Think of it like a photocopier - if you were to print something out and hold it really close to you eye, the perception is that you've zoomed in, but the reality is all you've done is blown up the image, and you'll get loads of blocky pixels. It becomes tricky spotting small bullet holes when the image is zoomed up and really blocky.

Have a look at :



there's some serious digital zooming going on towards the end at the Sky Tower.

Overall choice, spotting scope for the range, camera for out in the field. Your mileage may vary though

I wouldn't bother. Even on days when picking up animals with 10 power binos is easy, finding them in the screen on the 72x zoom handycam is a real chore. The images look way better on the computer screen than they do on the LCD screen of the video. If it's bright light the problem is much worse. A still camera is much more useful - take a photo and then zoom in on screen. Still way down on good quality binos, let alone a spotter.

Kscott -- good point about field of view. The eye's visual acuity is much higher than camera sensors too of course, which counts for plenty.

Note the 70x I quoted is optical, not digital.

Is your camera image-stabilised? That seems like a useful feature that spotting scopes lack. Farting around with *pods isn't much fun when you have nothing natural to lean on.

Originally Posted by Meathunta

I wouldn't bother. Even on days when picking up animals with 10 power binos is easy, finding them in the screen on the 72x zoom handycam is a real chore. The images look way better on the computer screen than they do on the LCD screen of the video. If it's bright light the problem is much worse. A still camera is much more useful - take a photo and then zoom in on screen. Still way down on good quality binos, let alone a spotter.

+1
I brought a 72x digital zoom for the same reason, too hard to hold steady and focus on a small spot, great for filming tho, saving for televid after buying a rangefinder

Originally Posted by brodster

Kscott -- good point about field of view. The eye's visual acuity is much higher than camera sensors too of course, which counts for plenty.

Note the 70x I quoted is optical, not digital.

Is your camera image-stabilised? That seems like a useful feature that spotting scopes lack. Farting around with *pods isn't much fun when you have nothing natural to lean on.

It is image stablised, with 3 levels, and it's bloody amazing how it can lessen the wobbles. I generally rest it on my knee when sitting down, or on top of a fist when prone.



Using it as a spotting scope - kinda. Worked well down Alexandra way keeping track of moving rabbits because it can zoom in so much. But using it a fair bit chews through the batteries, plus the weight = overall, you're better off with some decent binoculars IMO. But using the camera is great fun.