Review: Novagrade Ranger App (and giveaway), by Les Welch

[Becca]

Thank you Rokslide and Novagrade!!! Email on it's way Robby!

Awesome! Can we get a side by side comparison with your previous digiscoping set up???

 

[SLDMTN]

Awesome! Can we get a side by side comparison with your previous digiscoping set up???

Planning on it

 

[SLDMTN]

On our way to go shooting last night, we stopped by the post office just in case something showed up. Sure enough, Novagrade delivered

First impressions:
- easy to set
- works like a champ even with my Lifeproof case on
- it really does work the same with ANY phone you might have
- a little heavier than I was expecting but it is well made and should last forever

Short video banging steel to get the .270 dialed in at 200.

[video=youtube_share;ticnlKAmL6Q]https://youtu.be/ticnlKAmL6Q[/video]

After we got back home, there were a couple visitors in the backyard...

 

[robby denning]

Hey, no vignette ring! What optic? That moose is super clear


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SLDMTN]

Hey, no vignette ring! What optic? That moose is super clear


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

iPhone 7 in a Lifeproof case hooked up to my Swarovski ATS 65

It would likely be more clear if I didn't zoom with the phone to eliminate the vignetting. If I leave it with vignetting and crop the photo, it typically results in a sharper image.

 

[Danny]

Vortex Viper 15-45x65 & iPhone 7

 

[Justin Crossley]

Good stuff SLDMTN. Keep them coming!

I just lent my Novagrade phone adapter to Brock last weekend when he was in Idaho helping a buddy scout for his upcoming mule deer hunt. Brock's report was positive as expected and I think he ordered one up. This is one of the photos he got.

 

[robby denning]

OK, time for our August Winner

elkeaterco

Hope you got that new Kowa on the way! post on here and email me at [email protected].

Still one more to giveaway, so get your entries in on this thread. I'll draw on or about 9/15. Anyone already entered (who hasn't won) is eligible too.

 

[oldgrowth]

I'd use it on my 10x42 vipers assuming it will work. If not then on a cheap spotter I got as a gift. I don't know if that qualifies, but it's all I got.

 

[elkeaterco]

Hell yeah! Thanks man, super excited to try this adapter out.

OK, time for our August Winner

elkeaterco

Hope you got that new Kowa on the way! post on here and email me at [email protected].

Still one more to giveaway, so get your entries in on this thread. I'll draw on or about 9/15. Anyone already entered (who hasn't won) is eligible too.

 

[elkeaterco]

Got it tonight. Crazy clean glass and super light. More testing to follow.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[Justin Crossley]

Got it tonight. Crazy clean glass and super light. More testing to follow.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

Be sure to let us know how you like that spotter out in the field.

 

[MIKEYB]

Can you mount a dslr on this bad boy or strictly phone? I would run this on my vortex Kaibab 15's, cabelas euro 10's and I have access to vortex 85 spotter new gen and Swarovski 12's EL. I have NM fall bear, Wyoming whitetail and wife's NM elk cow tag. Although on sept 15 I will be elk hunting wilderness till the 24th.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Can you mount a dslr on this bad boy or strictly phone? I would run this on my vortex Kaibab 15's, cabelas euro 10's and I have access to vortex 85 spotter new gen and Swarovski 12's EL. I have NM fall bear, Wyoming whitetail and wife's NM elk cow tag. Although on sept 15 I will be elk hunting wilderness till the 24th.

The phone adapter is just for phones.

They do also make a DSLR adapter though. I have one and it works great. Camera Adapter - Novagrade Digiscoping Adapters

 

[MIKEYB]

Justin, any experience with the direct adapter? I wonder if there is any advantages in having a lens in-between your optic or not. Can't say I have any experimental with digiscoping.

Interesting none the less.


Canon Direct-Projection Adapter - Novagrade Digiscoping Adapters

How to Setup Your novagrade Camera Adapter. - YouTube

 

[SLDMTN]

Ok here's a bit of a photo dump, I'll give a better write-up tomorrow.

 

[SLDMTN]

For comparison, here is my ghettodapter and RX100 MIII with the same black bear.

Heat waves made this one blurry. Golden eagles are murderous to dall sheep lambs.

 

[SLDMTN]

Here are my initial impressions:

The adapter works great, especially for a universal piece. From my experience "universal" normally means it can do them all but none of them well, which is not the case here.

It does not appear to be quite as fast as say a Phoneskope for out of the pack fast setup but I can still have it out of my pocket and hooked onto the spotter in 30 seconds easily. It's as fast or faster than getting my ghettodapter and RX100 setup and running.

The only negative that I have, is not the fault of Novagrade or their app, it is with iPhone battery life. I was planning on being out in the field for 8-9 days which even in airplane mode seems to kill my phone when temps drop low. iPhones take awhile to power up from being off, which takes too long to capture that perfect angle sometimes. When the app is searching for gps to tag photos, it crushes my battery. To combat it, I would simply just have to bring a Dark Energy or similar power source (don't own one though).

One other thing to note, when I was filming directly into the sun, you could see the camera of my phone reflecting on the spotter glass. The result makes for a funky watermark effect in the pics and footage. I believe that was more of a rushed setup issue on my part.

Bottom line if you're digiscoping with a cell phone, personally I would buy this adapter knowing that my phones and possibly my optics will change over the years.

 

[robby denning]

Sounds good SLD!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Justin Crossley]

Justin, any experience with the direct adapter? I wonder if there is any advantages in having a lens in-between your optic or not. Can't say I have any experimental with digiscoping.

Interesting none the less.


Canon Direct-Projection Adapter - Novagrade Digiscoping Adapters

How to Setup Your novagrade Camera Adapter. - YouTube

I haven't used it but they told me the quality is better using a lens in between. I really haven't had the time to use mine very much. I need to though since I spent quite a bit of money on a nice 50 prime just for this use.