I use this, its cheap and more importantly, universal. I can swap it between any phone, any optic.

Amazon.com : Gosky Telescope Phone Adapter Quick Aligned Cell Phone Digiscoping Adaptor Mount - Compatible with Spotting Scope Binoculars Monocular, Fit Almost All Brands of Smartphones (Big Type) : Electronics

Amazon.com : Gosky Telescope Phone Adapter Quick Aligned Cell Phone Digiscoping Adaptor Mount - Compatible with Spotting Scope Binoculars Monocular, Fit Almost All Brands of Smartphones (Big Type) : Electronics

www.amazon.com

-DallanC

 

I run the Ollin system, and I love it. Having to put their case on my phone doesn't bother me at all! Probably the easiest system out there IMO. I do have their binocular adapter. I have used it off and on. It stays in my binocular harness since I always have some sort of tripod on me. The binocular adapter goes on and off easily. But if anyone tells you, you can glass with the adapter on, they've had a little to drink, or their blind in one eye! Reality is, you probably could glass with the adapter on, but it would probably drive you crazy! I tried.. Hated glassing with it on... But like I mentioned, it goes on and off easily. Probably can't go wrong with either, but I would lean Ollin personally. You're not wrong, they're pricey, but they all are it seems these days.

 

I had a SkopeCam for a while and hated it. To be fair, it was one of their first iterations. Maybe they've changed since then.

 

I’ve used them all and settled on MagView. I prefer it over the others.

You can use a standard phone case and no swapping all the time to use it.

 

I’ve used phone scope, skopecam, and Ollin.
Ollin is my favorite. The Skopecam was not user friendly, IMO. I wanted to love it, and just didn’t like it at all.

I don’t love having to upgrade phone cases, but that only happens every 2-3 years, so not the end of the world.

 

Nickpan - My brother has the MagView and I tried using it this past fall for my muzzy Elk hunt. It worked great other than getting it set up. For the life of me, I struggled to get it to line up just right. I would get it close and then the magnets would kick in and pull it off alignment. Maybe if I had it longer a played with it more I could get used to centering it up right. I fought it every time I tried to use it.

 

This is the main complaint with MagView.. I am a bit of a digiscope nerd. I have the MagView binocular adapter. I like it, but it takes some adjustment while you're "following that light in" to get the phone set just right... But then you still have to adjust! The nice thing is you don't have to change cases.. Downside is that you have the alignment problem.

 

The Ollin is a nice system. One of the best things about it is that you are pretty much perfectly lined up as soon as you click it on. No fiddling with getting the phone lined up perfectly like I experienced with other systems. I've only used it on spotting scopes, but I can definitely see the frustration of leaving the adapter on a set of binos and then trying to glass. Seems like it is best as a dedicated spotting scope setup.

 

Thats why I like the one I posted above. Its super easy to align the phone with the case. Then you can attach it to any barrel type objective with a simple twist of the outer drum, its a self centering clamp like a lathe uses. Really easy to go between spotter and binos in seconds. No magnets or anything else to fool with.

-DallanC

 

In principle it is very similar to Skopecam adapters. And I really disliked that system. It should have been way easier to use than it was in realty. Plus, I don’t think it would work as well with a 3 lens camera phone. Meaning, I don’t buy the “universal” claim.

But everyone has to do what works for them. If you like it, that’s perfect for you! That’s all that matters.

 

My one son has a Ollin he seems to really like. Myself and one grandson both have Phonescope.
With enough screwing around both seem to work. I'm not a fan of a separate phone case.

For the price I'll give Dallans a try.

My other son has a kick ass camera with a huge lens that seems to take better pictures than any with a phone.

 

Dallan - I have a couple of questions for you about your Gosky phone scope adapter.

1) When setting up the Gosky phone scope, approximately how long does it take you to get the adapter centered on your phone lens and ready for use?
2) Once it is connected up to your spotting scope have you had any issues with the jaws loosening up and needing to be re-adjusted? Do the jaws lock into place?
3) Does your phone have multiple lenses? If so, how do you work around this issue when your camera wants to switch lenses?

Thanks to everyone for your great feedback, this has been very helpful. Please keep the comments and feedback coming.

400bull

 

Clamp the phone into the sides with the adjustment screw. Then loosen the alignment set screw and simply slide the center of the "view port" hole over the camera you wish to use (if you have multiple cameras), tighten the set screw. Done. Takes me 10 seconds maybe? Its really quick.

I use a fairly thick protective phone case on my phone that I always have to remove to digi-scope, so "recentering" and aligning the entire thing is something I end up doing each time I want to use it, but it is that easy.

I've found you really want the lower of phone camera zooms when digiscoping, my phone for example has a 100x zoom camera which is stupid. I've found its effective up to nearly 30x by itself, beyond that it looses quality fast. Using more than the normal 1x doesn't yield as good of pictures as trying to zoom into the image from the optics but it will remove Vignetting (seeing the round outside circle of the eyepiece, you can zoom a tad to remove that). Also has focus distance issues if you try to run a higher zoom... remember, your focusing on the focal point of the eyepiece.+

Putting the entire thing on a scope optic is easy as that self centers as well as you tighten the outer ring down. Gosky makes 2 different sizes, a small and a large. Most folk here should get the Large as IIRC, the small is for 1" eyepiece on telescopes.

I've not had the gosky "slip" on a eyepiece, but I have fought the optics with rotatable eyecups where the heavy phone wants to rotate them around.

***Disclaimer. I'm not at all knocking the PhoneSkope's, or other magnetic solutions. I just found they dont work for me primarily due to the larger case I run when I'm not needing to digi-scope. The Gosky even though its cheaper, is easy to use and universal between just about any phone (IDK how it will work with some of the new foldables), and very optic I've owned. Even fits on a rifle scope.


-DallanC

 

PS: This is vignetting, that outer black area outside of the viewable area. Some people hate it, some like it... I go both ways, in some pictures its cooler than others. This is where a slight zoom can be useful to zoom in past that and make a full edge to edge image.

But... I think it totally works in this picture I took and posted here 10 years ago. This is 700 yards out through my old Samsung S7 and my 85mm Vortex Razor. My wife belly crawled up to these two doe pronghorn, it was fun to watch. She shot the one on the right.

-DallanC

 

I've only used the PhoneSkope. It worked but I had troubles with it. Now that I have a new phone I will try the Ollin system. Everyone I know that has one really likes it & I have heard zero complaints. I'm anxious to try it.