Ollin digiscope review

[Blacktail_Brown]

I know this is an old thread, but it looks like Phone Skope upped the game with their new system. Any head to head comparison yet? I looked and haven't found one.

I used the Ollin on my Leupold and upgraded to Swaro this year. Looking for a system because the Ollin, although simple, had some features that I didn't care for.

 

[GetWestern]

Sorry to being MIA life has been busy. I will give some updates on the Olin adapter, I used it all last season with great success, it is the best Digi scoping product i have used up to this date. I also want to point out the above and beyond customer service they have. I reached out to them about the housing leaving marks on the spotting scope and they were more than happy to send me a couple other different housings free of charge to see if they worked and didn't leave marks. Its also worth point out that they said that was only a problem on their earlier models anyhow.

During this time I upgraded from the old school vortex razer spotting scope to a Swarovski ATX 95mm spotter, They sent me the housing free of charge for the Swaro even before I had the scope ! all because I was chatting with Ollin about my worry of the housing leaving indent marks on the scope eye piece before I bought the scope. These guys are awesome and truly care about their customers, they will have my business for a long time to come.

 

[Blacktail_Brown]

So I answered my own question on this. I just purchased the Phone Skope Carbon Fiber case.

Pros over Ollin:
- the footprint on the spotting scope is much smaller. I have a Swaro STS 80 and it is a small piece that attaches and allows the OEM lens cover to fit.
- similar to the smaller footprint, the lens attachment does not affect eye placement whereas the Ollin requires you to have massive orbital sockets or to adjust how close you are to the eyepiece.
- the case can stay on your phone while the piece is an attachment that can mount to the phone and slide, so that (1) you can take it off while not having to remove the entire case and (2) you can slide it in the event on the iPhone you want to utilize the optical zoom camera.
- Magnet free on the Spotter. If you are doing land nav with a spotter (rarely for me, but enough to pique my concern), then this system only requires you to put away the phone to utilize a compass or certain binos—in my case, the Swaro EL RF TA binos, which are overly sensitive to magnets. With this system I simply put the phone down, but close enough to retain Bluetooth connection. I don't have to walk away or put away the spotter.

Cons over Ollin:
- Although it mounts direct and you don't have to slide it around like the magview case, it does require you to lock it in place, which can disrupt where you're looking at. Whereas with the Ollin, I can just set the phone on without having to twist and possibly disrupt what's in the spotter by shaking the spotter.
- the Ollin case itself is a little more sleek and attractive (minus the permanent eyepiece fixture covering 2/3 of the camera lenses).


I will likely go back to a plastic Phone Skope case that can wrap around the Otterbox, but overall I think this system is a touch above the Ollin in features. I wish the eyepiece attachment was a little smoother to attach. If I wasn't using TA on the Swaros, I'd likely stick to the Ollin and deal with the annoying case swap during glassing sessions. I never use the phones digital focus, so the ability to move the eyepiece opening to a digital zoom lens isn't much to me.

 

[muleloper]

Thanks for the review. I really like my Ollin