Cheap monocular/binoculars...great for pics from phones

[Greenheart]

Amazing, how high-definition even the basic phone-cameras are now. But I wanted a bit of cheap magnification for long-distance images. Of all places, I found a really handily-sized monocular at Nauticalia, priced slightly under £20...

...and when I pulled out a twenty, I was told the price had been halved before Christmas, and hasn't yet been reset!

So, a reasonably robust, very small 10x25mm monocular for £8.50 in the high street.

Granted, the image is neither as bright nor as clear as my nice old 2kg 7x50 binoculars...but they're a real pain to carry unless I'm certain I'll need them, and I'm always petrified of dropping and damaging them.

This little rubberised monocular is great - I can use it to take pictures with the phone, which the phone can then zoom in on, giving amazing detail.

I photographed a house on a distant hillside in France, which my sister had always admired from afar...

...the photo displayed the property in almost intrusive proximity, and showed the paintwork to be in pretty dismal condition...which both amazed and saddened my sis...but that's hardly the point...

...a cheap, featherweight pocketable monocular, held next to the phone's lens, gives pictures I'd hardly have expected from hundreds of pounds' worth of Nikon.

Actually, I just found a complete monocular & tripod package for only $16 online, so maybe I'm too easily excited...

 

[V1701]

But you can't make a post like that without showing us a picture...

 

[Searush]

Sounds a neat idea, I have a quality pair of pocket binoculars, but how do you check its focus? Or is the monocular fixed focus?

 

[Lakesailor]

Post a piccy and we'll be the judge.

 

[Greenheart]

But you can't make a post like that without showing us a picture...

Difficult, because whilst the first image transfered happily to my computer, the other seems unidentified by its memory, so I can't upload it here...

...but I've today photographed the image on screen, and you'll recognise that the magnification is just vast, despite distortion on the screen...

...the property in the second image is just discernible in the middle of the first pic. By the way, that's not the house my sister admired!

View attachment 29601

...and the same view WITH the monocular...apologies for lousy photo-of-a-photo reproduction...

View attachment 29602

Searush, the focus is best adjusted prior to lining the lens up with the monocular. The phone is then generally quite clever at keeping the view in focus.

But overall...the difference between barely being able to see the building, versus magnification by which one could almost identify a person standing outside...not bad for eight quid!

 

[Lakesailor]

not quite up to £100s of Nikon gear though.

 

[Greenheart]

Before anybody says it, I realise how lousy that comparison was. I'll find something local to photograph, here...

...not so easy, terrible visibility today.

 

[Greenheart]

Grrrr! Just one day out of London, and the weather's so lousy, SWMBO won't drive all the way to the coast...

Here's a picture taken with my very ordinary phone. In the barely-visible distance, one-and-a-half miles away, is an airport...

View attachment 29609

...and here's the same view, from the same point in the same few moments, taken through the monocular...

View attachment 29610

...I think it's pretty good. The phone's camera is clever, but limited by the lens...the monocular makes it much more usable.

 

[Lakesailor]

I can see the point you are making. Something is better than nothing.
It does worry me that there is a constant eroding of quality when it comes to imaging.
People will accept very poor quality these days. Can you imagine the BBC broadcasting some of the satellite phone on the news stuff they do now, only 10 years ago?

 

[V1701]

Grrrr! Just one day out of London, and the weather's so lousy, SWMBO won't drive all the way to the coast...

Here's a picture taken with my very ordinary phone. In the barely-visible distance, one-and-a-half miles away, is an airport...

View attachment 29609

...and here's the same view, from the same point in the same few moments, taken through the monocular...

View attachment 29610

...I think it's pretty good. The phone's camera is clever, but limited by the lens...the monocular makes it much more usable.

Neat - can see the plane coming in to land! I've got one of those monoculars somewhere, have to dig it out & have a go...

 

[Greenheart]

It does worry me that there is a constant eroding of quality when it comes to imaging.

Very true; but if we were to decide that nothing but high-quality imaging should be possible, many of the interesting things we're able to watch today, would still only be recorded in words! The great thing about low quality and low cost, must be its widespread availability, and the opportunity for sharing that the technology permits...

...plus...even if I could fit £2000 worth of Leica lenses comfortably in my pocket, I'd be scared of damaging them...

 

[DJE]

Nothing new about this. Somewhere I've got some pictures taken in about 1979 with an Kodak 126 Instamatic through a theodolite telescope!

 

[Applescruffs]

I've never understood spending all that money on binoculars...........just move nearer.......it's simples.

and

There are three types of people in the world......those who can count.........and those that can't...

 

[Hadenough]

I've never understood spending all that money on binoculars...........just move nearer.......it's simples.

and

There are three types of people in the world......those who can count.........and those that can't...

And those who need to get a life - like the OP.

 

[Applescruffs]

a bit harsh ???

After all this stuff is meant to be a bit light hearted........isn't it ?

 

[Lakesailor]

There are a raft of people on here who encourage people to "get a life".

Bollocks to them. It's a hateful and meaningless phrase.

 

[Greenheart]

And those who need to get a life - like the OP.

Ouch! There are those who need to get a sense of humour, too!

 

[Buck Turgidson]

These are pretty good and a lot of fun.
http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/cell-phone-lenses/

 

[LadyInBed]

I take it that your phone doesn't have a zoom facility.
I find that image enlargement is best done on the PC after the event, but the original needs to be at fairly high resolution.

 

[nigelmercier]

...I think it's pretty good...

I would probably agree, if I could find a reference point to relate the two images.