How-To Geek
Red Dot Scope Makes Sighting In Long Lenses a Snap
If you’ve ever used a high power lens, you know how tricky it can be to sight a distant subject as the field of view through the lens is so tiny. This hack takes care of that problem by using a zero-magnification red dot rifle scope.
Chris Malcolm enjoys photographing birds and other wildlife with high power lenses. The problem, when shooting with huge 500mm lens and other high power lenses, is that they’re practically telescopes and acquiring a fast moving target like a bird using a through-the-lens technique is very tricky. Malcolm’s solution hinges on mounting a zero-magnification red dot rifle scope in parallel with the lens. His mock up is a bit unpolished (although we can understand not wanting to run out and buy a brand new black scope just for the experiment) but works great to get him on target.
Hit up the link below to read more about his build, how be created the rail mount for the scope, and why he opted to mount it to the barrel of the lens and not the hot shoe mount on the camera.
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Comments (4)
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 03/19/12
Cool idea and an FYI:
Gun sights like the Red Dot mount on something called “Picatinny Rail” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picatinny_rail The rails come in many configurations and can be mounted using screws or glue.
Point a camera like this at any ranking offical and watch 50 armed men come and admire your handwork real fast like…
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You dont need a spotting scope on 500 & larger lenses. The lens hood has a knob to attach it to the lens – make sure it is aligned vertically. If you sight across the camera’s hot shoe to the knob you will be seeing just what is in the viewfinder.
This method has the advantage of quickly acquiring the subject visually without hunting around until the spotting scope dot until it illuminates the subject
Much faster and NO cost.