Baltimore Oriole PhoneSkoped by Peter Stangel
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With the PhoneSkope, you can take quality photographs by connecting your smartphone with your spotting scope. When an immature Baltimore Oriole appeared at my hummingbird feeder, I wanted to get a photo to share with my Birding Wire co-editor Paul Konrad. Paul has had lots of orioles at his oriole feeder in North Dakota during this spring and summer, but during 12 years at my South Carolina home, I have never had an oriole appear – until this week. But I don’t have any photographic equipment; however, I do have a Swarovski spotting scope and a PhoneSkope. I connected my smartphone to the PhoneSkope, hitched it to the spotting scope, and five minutes later I had a nice photo of the striking orange oriole licking sugar-water from my feeder.
The PhoneSkope adapter is elegantly simple to use. You fit your smartphone into a plastic case, and you attach the case to an adapter that slides over the spotting scope lens so the camera lens of your smartphone fits directly next to the spotting scope eyepiece. You use the screen of the smartphone to view your subject, turning the focus knob on the spotting scope to make the image sharp and clear. When you see the image you want to photograph, just touch the right spot on your phone and it takes the photo(s).
PhoneSkope adapters are available for virtually all smartphones and all brands of spotting scopes, and the adapter can be adjusted without tools. The adapter is lightweight and fits easily into your shirt or jacket pocket.
Avid photographers will continue to rely on their cameras and telephoto lenses, but the PhoneSkope is ideal for birders who want to take photographs, but don’t want to carry a camera and lens into the field, along with a spotting scope and binoculars. But from what I’ve seen, the PhoneSkope will add a new dimension to my birding activities – in my yard and in the field.
Article by Peter Stangel
See a one-minute video that shows how the system works at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSCbnuYSzxc
Learn more at https://www.phoneskope.com/birding/
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Photo 2 – Baltimore Oriole PhoneSkoped by Peter Stangel
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