digiscoping - Today, we all use a smartphone, more or less "smart". This extraordinary tool allows us to do many things in the field of extended communication and also offers us excellent video-photographic results, thanks to the internal camera. As with all digital cameras, the final quality of the images does not depend only on the sensor of the built-in camera but, above all, on the "lens", ie the lens, ie the telescope or binoculars. Smartphones, however, give up their weapons if we ask them for maxi-magnification. Everything is fine for ballistic programs, for lens adjustments, for selfies, for ritual photos and for traditional photographs, but, when we have to shoot a distant and unattainable subject, the need to combine binoculars or a terrestrial observation telescope. Of course: the best smartphones have (digital) zooms that allow you to “bring the subject closer” (relatively), but the loss of quality and sharpness is significant. As in traditional photography, it would take a super-telephoto lens, capable of strong (optical) magnifications and important focal lengths. But it is absolutely impossible, to connect the smartphone to a classic photographic telephoto lens (which not can be used for pure observation and needs a good reflex body).
In a word, it is necessary to combine the smartphone with an optical observation instrument, such as binoculars, a sighting optic or an observation telescope (the "long"). This happens - in afocal, that is, without lenses interposed between the two instruments - through the specific adapters Swarovski Optik, which align the smartphone lens with the eyepiece of the optical instrument. The human eye looking through the lens is replaced by the mobile phone lens.
In this context, we hunters we are even more favorite. Not only for the fact that we are familiar with the optical instruments used in hunting (which in some places are mandatory). The photographic lens (in sapphire crystal) of smartphones - and in particular iPhones® - offer many things to our boundless hunting passion. The video camera of the new mobile phones effectively becomes our third eye: before, during and after the shot. In practice, the mobile phone - today - is not only used for the classic ritual photo and for the Weidmannsheil, but it proves to be a formidable hunting companion also for censuses, to keep in touch with the team, to coordinate every hunting action, for shooting (real and test), to consult ballistic tables, for safety, for online consultations, for evaluations, for orientation with the compass and with the cards, to "navigate", to record, for video-photographic panoramas, for the weather, timetables, sex / age classes of wild animals, to watch TV, to write, to play, and for a thousand other applications; including what we consider fundamental: the digiscopingmade possible by Swarovski Optik photo adapters. The possible magnifications - obviously identical to those of the long one - reach 70x, that is 70 times the reality and with focal lengths much longer (over 3.000 mm.) than those of heavy and expensive super-telephoto photographic lenses. In practice, we can simply touch the screen and automatically take a great image or a nice video, without having to set any particular options.
To this day, the adapters Swarovski Optik specific are dedicated to the iPhone®, to be combined with the long and Swarovski binoculars, but soon the field will be expanded to other types of smartphones. These adapters (in the different models PA-i5; PA-i6s; PA-i7) are afocal (i.e. without any lens) and respect the basic principle: that of keeping the iPhone® lens stably, centered and perfectly aligned with the eyepiece. All this offering the hunter the possibility of having his hands free and being able to act only on specific buttons.
THEpairing it's really simple: just insert the iPhone® in the aluminum cage that fits like a glove and tighten the safety lock; in the center of the camera lens, a special ring - different and interchangeable depending on whether you are using binoculars or the long one - snaps onto the rubberized eyepiece of SwarovskiOptik binoculars and telescopes. The game is done: the iPhone® remains in the desired position (horizontal or vertical); we just have to act on the camera icon and frame the subject, orienting the long or binoculars as usual. Nothing else and without losing your mind in the menus.
new miracles of this type of Digiscoping: first of all, it is no longer necessary to focus precisely on the ring of the long: the fine focus takes care of theAF automatic smartphone, both in matrix and spot function, i.e. working on one grid which divides the screen into 9 separate sectors. In practice, if the subject is in the central sector, it is automatically focused; if it is (or moves) in one of the lateral sectors, all that remains is to “touch” it - in touch screen- where it is. After autofocusing, the shutter button is gently pressed and the photo is immediately recorded on the memory card. Visible in real time. Shareable, even live, on the network or on other connected monitors. Depending on the situation, we can make one zoomed in not virtual (in addition to the initial one to eliminate vignetting) simply "pinching" the screen. If, then, we keep the shutter button pressed, the iPhone will make one burst of photos, from which he will choose the best one. The ISOs are automatic and work mainly in P automatic program. L'automatism is total and let the minicomputer do everything, or you can set some basic parameters, including manual focus.
TECHNIQUE AND DOCUMENTATION
Notwithstanding that smartphones do everything by themselves, freeing the hunter from any menu thought, we can say to lovers of technique and photography that, as befits modern digital cameras, the smartphone has the function HDR, the possibility of "working" in 1 ratio: 1, the real touch zoom in shooting and playback, the grid for i AF sectors and much more. All with a truly impressive shutter speed. The assisted panorama, valid and intuitive (just move the smart along the panorama and all the images will be enclosed in a single file), the flash (not in Digiscoping) and the possibility to "work" well even in the twilight hours, complete the picture. in autoISO. From a technical standpoint, the brighter aperture of the built-in camera has an aperture of f / 2.2 and a new larger sensor with 15MP - that means great performance even in low light. The ISP processor, integrated into the chip, makes autofocus twice as fast, both in image acquisition and sequences. The automatic stabilization is especially appreciated in photos with high zoom. Finally, the video option is very interesting, even in slo-motion (full HD and / or up to 4K).
Clearly, the digiscoping with reflex cameras and quality photo hunting are different from digiscoping practiced with smartphones. This, however, does not at all mean denying the great value of documentation (priority over form) that the smart offers in an unparalleled way - and unthinkable in the recent past - to hunters and nature lovers. On the contrary.
The performances of smartphones in Digiscoping appear absolutely extraordinary and offer a lot in operational and documentary terms. We recognize it without problems. The gap has narrowed a lot, but digiscoping with digital cameras (reflex and all the more mirror-less ones) unquestionably offers higher quality. The smart sensor is very small and can contain less information and details; it still turns out to be rather "weak" in the highlights; and, in general, it does not offer menus, settings and adjustments comparable to modern digital cameras. And so much more.
We will explore this topic well in the next episode, also by examining the different photographic apps available and testing the possibility of making fantastic movies (in 4K) that make extraordinary use of the optical quality of the optical instruments and SwarovskiOptik adapters.