Peter_Perfect
Well-known member
Car window mount - are they any good?
I recently bought an Opticron 40502 car window mount for my spotting scope and although it is well made and looks the part, for all practical purposes I found it useless. As when my eye was at the eyepiece the scope was pointing up too high for what I needed.
For the window mount to be useful, it should allow the scope to be pointed horizontally. Things that will make this difficult if not impossible are:
1) The person viewing is short, at 5' 10" I am above average.
2) The spotting scope is an angled type, a lot are bought these days.
3) The lenght of the eyepiece, zoom eyepiece is a lot longer than a fixed.
4) The height of car window sill, relative to the height of the car seat.
5) The minimum height of car window mount, this being 12cm for the Opticron.
On looking at the Opticron design no thought seemed to have been put into keeping this height to a minimum. In fact the model seems to be an OEM unit with the Opticron logo put on it. I was not overly taken with other designs I saw. I guessed that with some thought, little seemed to
have been used so far. This height could be reduced considerably.
***Tried pillow on the seat, but my head touches the car roof.
Have others found car window mounts as difficult to use effectively, as I have?
I recently bought an Opticron 40502 car window mount for my spotting scope and although it is well made and looks the part, for all practical purposes I found it useless. As when my eye was at the eyepiece the scope was pointing up too high for what I needed.
For the window mount to be useful, it should allow the scope to be pointed horizontally. Things that will make this difficult if not impossible are:
1) The person viewing is short, at 5' 10" I am above average.
2) The spotting scope is an angled type, a lot are bought these days.
3) The lenght of the eyepiece, zoom eyepiece is a lot longer than a fixed.
4) The height of car window sill, relative to the height of the car seat.
5) The minimum height of car window mount, this being 12cm for the Opticron.
On looking at the Opticron design no thought seemed to have been put into keeping this height to a minimum. In fact the model seems to be an OEM unit with the Opticron logo put on it. I was not overly taken with other designs I saw. I guessed that with some thought, little seemed to
have been used so far. This height could be reduced considerably.
***Tried pillow on the seat, but my head touches the car roof.
Have others found car window mounts as difficult to use effectively, as I have?