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Swarovski Universal tripod adapter review (1 Viewer)

dmcharg

Well-known member
I recently picked up the Swarovski Universal tripod adapter so thought i would write a short review of this product.

The swarovski tripod adapter is different from any other binocular tripod adapter i have used. The design is interesting and basically consists of a small platform that attaches to a tripod and then a strap is wrapped over the top of the binocular to securely attach. Overall i can't fault the overall quality of materials used in this product but in terms of actual practical use this device leaves much to be desired and frankly is very poorly thought out but more on that to come.

I am using the adapter along with Swarovski CT traveler tripod, DH101 head and 8x32 & 10x50 binoculars.

The first thing i noticed when i received the adapter is that its a little bulky and whilst it directly connects into the DH101 head, its not a snug fit by any means and there is about 1-2mm of play so that it moves around from left to right when attached to the DH100 head. :-(.

This adapter doesn't work well with the 8x32 Field Pro as the length of the adapter does not work well given the size of the 8x32 binoculars and the objective covers. Its better with my replacement rubber band rather than the supplied strap.

The strap thats provided to wrap over the top of the binocular has some bars across it so that you can stretch it and clip under the right one depending on the size of the binocular. A major design flaw is that this rubber strap is far too stiff and does not stretch enough to allow it to be easily stretched over the binocular. You have to apply enough force that it ends up changing the inter pupil distance of the binoculars which is annoying. I have replaced the strap with a strong thick elastic rubber band which works much better and hold the binoculars very securely.

When your using this adapter in the field if your walking around with a collapsed tripod on your shoulder with this adapter attached then leaving the strap attached is not a good idea, it just flaps around and is a real pain. Another example i feel of how this product is very poor and hasn't really been tested in the field.

So in summary, i guess you can tell i am not overly pleased with this product and its pretty evident that this product is a bit of an after thought by Swarovski to overcome the problem of how to attach binoculars to a tripod that don't have a secure screw/fixture you can use to attach to the binoculars. Whilst i would imagine that in the vast majority of cases people use binoculars hand held its still a serious design flaw on the part of a premium product by not providing a simple mechanism to attach them to a tripod for extended observation. In absence of a proper way to attach an adapter to swarovski binoculars to a tripod, swarovski really need to redesign the strap, make it more flexible and reduce its size/bulk.
 
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I've got four different adapters including that one and none are any better. Pretty hard to beat the Outdoorsmen's conversion. For the money Swaro really should be building that in.
 
I've got four different adapters including that one and none are any better. Pretty hard to beat the Outdoorsmen's conversion. For the money Swaro really should be building that in.

Is it really difficult to remove the cap off the front bridge on the EL's? I have the Outdoorsmans system and am considering the stud for my "hopefully near future" EL's. I would plan to buy the EL's from Outdoorsmans but they can't match a much better deal I have offered from a different vendor.
 
Samolot,

You are right, I want to mount both the SLC and other glass, FL etc, so the Outdoorsman looks like the best option.

Andy W.
 
Btw, OP: Great review. I was really looking forward to acquiring the Swaro UTA but now I think I will save the money and look elsewhere. This looks rather interesting: https://www.manfrotto.us/product/03...-qzj1rF0OlX0vM4roRMgoA9z8jA__vMRoCvUkQAvD_BwE

Thanks. I would not buy this adapter. Swarovski should offer free rubber bands which fit each binocular size as it would work much better than the provided strap. Better still they need a secure way of attaching a tripod adapter rather than this flawed product.
 
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Samolot,

You are right, I want to mount both the SLC and other glass, FL etc, so the Outdoorsman looks like the best option.

Andy W.

The interesting part is when I talked to a rep at one of the bigger bino stores, I told them about the outdoorsmans systems and they were not very impressed: The thread mount is on the front bridge, way ahead of the center of gravity. In other words, if you were to pan and control the binocular, it would best advised to do so using the tripod head handle and not the binocular by itself (therefore ruling out ball-heads) to avoid putting unnecessary stress on that bridge.
 
Is it really difficult to remove the cap off the front bridge on the EL's? I have the Outdoorsmans system and am considering the stud for my "hopefully near future" EL's. I would plan to buy the EL's from Outdoorsmans but they can't match a much better deal I have offered from a different vendor.

Answered my own question after searching online. From RokSlide Forums:

"When the outdoorsman's has their stud installed, it is not threaded either. They send them up north here in Az to a machine shop, and they press out the hinge pin and replace the hinge pin with one that has the adapter added to the end of it. I was told that there is not enough room to in the pin to make it threaded so it can accept any adapter. The outdoorsman is the way to go for sure."
 
Good review dmcharg. I agree with your assessment and I will go further to say Swaro's mount is poorly designed and much overpriced.

There's a few of these platform type mounts, which are generally better than the pedestal types, but still leave much to be desired.

Probably the best commercially available one, IMO, is the Berlebach though it also is flawed. I used their design however as a jumping off point to make one that satisfied my requirements.

My design ditches the single heavy strap in favor of a captive shock cord arrangement. This adds redundancy for safety and even if loose "captures" the bin rendering it secure.

The shock cord also tensions each barrel separately eliminating the downward pressure at the hinge assuring the IPD isn't affected.

The peaked design of the platform, with neoprene pads, and 4 point tensioning eliminates any possibility of movement or failure.

Another add I did was to make a relief for the bridge of the nose. This makes using smaller bins much friendlier..

Last it has an Arca type plate attached to the bottom for universal fit on any Arca type screw clamp.

Also you're not locked into that funky Manfrotto plate/receptacle system that Swaro lazily utilizes. An Arca type clamp can be easily bolted to your tripod head using a spacer. I did this with a piece of polyethylene cutting board. If you have a Swaro scope, an Arca plate w/lip for anti-rotation can be easily attached to the foot of the scope. This gets you away from Manfrotto's system that wasn't very good 20 years ago.
 

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And to those who think the pedestal types are better, my opinion is that they are not. They tend to vibrate, and the bins move laterally, requiring a lot of force be applied at that small point of contact with the bin. Balance isn't as good either as it raises the center of gravity higher above the head. Last, some of these utilize the Manfrotto rectangular plate which has built-in play.

The narrow blade required to come up through the barrels of a roof prism bin along with the small footprint of the bearing area where mount meets bin both conspire to cause these type mounts to move and vibrate.
 
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Hi Kevin that mount looks great.

I would agree that in fact the platform on top of which the binoculars sit does in fact provide a very stable platform and i think more stable than other mechanisms of attaching an adapter to the body. Swarovski could actually greatly improve this adapter by simply designing a much better strap without any need to change anything else. At the very least the material that the strap is made of should be considerably easier to stretch over the binoculars which would greatly improve things.
 
Btw, OP: Great review. I was really looking forward to acquiring the Swaro UTA but now I think I will save the money and look elsewhere. This looks rather interesting: https://www.manfrotto.us/product/03...-qzj1rF0OlX0vM4roRMgoA9z8jA__vMRoCvUkQAvD_BwE

I use the super clamp on my setup to hold the monopod...
https://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3715211&postcount=5

Beware...you could easily crush the tube with this clamp and I don't think it would offer the kind of support we want for a bin. There's potentially a lot of weight hanging off to one side.
 
I recently picked up the Swarovski Universal tripod adapter so thought i would write a short review of this product.

The swarovski tripod adapter is different from any other binocular tripod adapter i have used. The design is interesting and basically consists of a small platform that attaches to a tripod and then a strap is wrapped over the top of the binocular to securely attach. Overall i can't fault the overall quality of materials used in this product but in terms of actual practical use this device leaves much to be desired and frankly is very poorly thought out but more on that to come.

I am using the adapter along with Swarovski CT traveler tripod, DH101 head and 8x32 & 10x50 binoculars.

The first thing i noticed when i received the adapter is that its a little bulky and whilst it directly connects into the DH101 head, its not a snug fit by any means and there is about 1-2mm of play so that it moves around from left to right when attached to the DH100 head. :-(.

This adapter doesn't work well with the 8x32 Field Pro as the length of the adapter does not work well given the size of the 8x32 binoculars and the objective covers. Its better with my replacement rubber band rather than the supplied strap.

The strap thats provided to wrap over the top of the binocular has some bars across it so that you can stretch it and clip under the right one depending on the size of the binocular. A major design flaw is that this rubber strap is far too stiff and does not stretch enough to allow it to be easily stretched over the binocular. You have to apply enough force that it ends up changing the inter pupil distance of the binoculars which is annoying. I have replaced the strap with a strong thick elastic rubber band which works much better and hold the binoculars very securely.

When your using this adapter in the field if your walking around with a collapsed tripod on your shoulder with this adapter attached then leaving the strap attached is not a good idea, it just flaps around and is a real pain. Another example i feel of how this product is very poor and hasn't really been tested in the field.

So in summary, i guess you can tell i am not overly pleased with this product and its pretty evident that this product is a bit of an after thought by Swarovski to overcome the problem of how to attach binoculars to a tripod that don't have a secure screw/fixture you can use to attach to the binoculars. Whilst i would imagine that in the vast majority of cases people use binoculars hand held its still a serious design flaw on the part of a premium product by not providing a simple mechanism to attach them to a tripod for extended observation. In absence of a proper way to attach an adapter to swarovski binoculars to a tripod, swarovski really need to redesign the strap, make it more flexible and reduce its size/bulk.
I bought one years ago. Same problems. It sits in a drawer unused!
 
Good review dmcharg. I agree with your assessment and I will go further to say Swaro's mount is poorly designed and much overpriced.

There's a few of these platform type mounts, which are generally better than the pedestal types, but still leave much to be desired.

Probably the best commercially available one, IMO, is the Berlebach though it also is flawed. I used their design however as a jumping off point to make one that satisfied my requirements.

My design ditches the single heavy strap in favor of a captive shock cord arrangement. This adds redundancy for safety and even if loose "captures" the bin rendering it secure.

The shock cord also tensions each barrel separately eliminating the downward pressure at the hinge assuring the IPD isn't affected.

The peaked design of the platform, with neoprene pads, and 4 point tensioning eliminates any possibility of movement or failure.

Another add I did was to make a relief for the bridge of the nose. This makes using smaller bins much friendlier..

Last it has an Arca type plate attached to the bottom for universal fit on any Arca type screw clamp.

Also you're not locked into that funky Manfrotto plate/receptacle system that Swaro lazily utilizes. An Arca type clamp can be easily bolted to your tripod head using a spacer. I did this with a piece of polyethylene cutting board. If you have a Swaro scope, an Arca plate w/lip for anti-rotation can be easily attached to the foot of the scope. This gets you away from Manfrotto's system that wasn't very good 20 years ago.

Genius work there:t:
 
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