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Phone-scoping (1 Viewer)

(Didn't know what forum to put this in, so feel free to move it if it's inappropriate etc etc blah blah blah...)

Having recently got a sexy new mobile phone, I've tried to "Phonescope" however everyone thinks I'm having a right laugh and told me it will never work - they were right. I can't get a single image in which you can make out a bird, tree or even a car!

I've told them that I once saw a really good picture of a Red-backed Shrike on surfbirds phonescoped with a Motorola camera phone, but I can no longer find it in any of the surfbirds galleries and I'm now about to refer myself to a psychiatrist as I think I'm going insane.

Is there really such a thing as Phonescoping and if so how do you do it?

Tom
 
Tom,

I made a similiar thread a while ago and I think the general consensus was "Don't bother!" so I didn't and just got a simple phone. Wish I could test them in the shops though. Would be a lot better than lugging a bloody coolpix!

Mind you I saw a mention of a new camera phone that was as good as a basic digital camera so maybe?

Cheers,
Andrew.
 
Got it!

I had to use the zoom and then decrease the brightness, but the image aint too bad at all. Good aren't they, those instruction manual things, I should read them more often!

Not quite ready to post my results (chimney pot, hub cap & TV aerial), but you never know, soon you may be posting a thread in Tom McKinney's Phonescoping Forum...

... or maybe not.

Tom

Oh and there was a pic of a Red-b.Shrike taken by Garry Taylor through his phone on surfbirds - I've just asked him, but it seems to have been deleted.
 
I look forward to seing your results and the make of the phone so I can consider it if I think of updating mine.

I thought it would be essential to have zoom to eliminate the vignetting and you confirmed this.
 
Andrew said:
I look forward to seing your results and the make of the phone so I can consider it if I think of updating mine.

I thought it would be essential to have zoom to eliminate the vignetting and you confirmed this.
There were some mobile phone pics on the European rare section of surfbirds (I think) of wallcreeper on a cathedral in Budapest last winter.
I wonder how many others are like me and find not-so-good quality pics of rarities more evocatve than some of the more recent ultra high-quality images. I think the problem is that if you were there and saw the bird, you need a picture that reminds you of that experience and what you saw through your own scope- a fantastic image from a top digibirder is something to admire, but in some cases doesn't quite do it.
 
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