Tripods and heads for digiscoping?

[Wildstreak]

I probably have titled this all things digiscoping because I have a few questions.


I have a Leupold SX4 20-60x85 spotter and a Ollin digiscope adapter. A Leupold CF tripod and a Leupold tilt/pan head. My phone is an iPhone pro max 15, so it’s a little bigger and heavier and could possibly be part of my problem. Anyway, I noticed that when set up and spotting an animal that I have to put the animal at the top of my screen or possibly even out of sight because when I tighten down the head the weight of the phone will cause the objective end of the spotter to rise. Sometimes I am able to do this spot on, other times I spend way too much time messing with it because it takes the animal completely out of the spotter.

My question is are there better heads or even tripods that I should consider that stabilize better or is this something I’ll have to deal with? What tripods and heads are you folks using?

Also, I haven’t had the opportunity to mess with other spotters and phone combos so excuse my lack of knowledge of this sounds stupid, but how important is the spotter quality in regards to the picture image or the image I see in my phone? I know there are much better spotters available than what I currently have. How much does that matter after attaching a phone to them?

Thanks.

 

[wesfromky]

A proper tilt/pan head mounted on a solid tripod can really help. If your mounting system supports it, you can try sliding the mounting point forward a bit.

My current setup is a maven CS.2A with a 12max. Phoneskope adapter. Two vets tripod and a tricer head. The head is still the weakest part of the system, but it still works pretty well. I have some stuff posted on my IG - wesallenphoto out to 1.5 miles.

 

[TaperPin]

I’ve only used high quality ball heads, but better heads won’t move while being snugged down. It’s so easy to use a big ball head I’ve never felt the need for a different style.

 

[Wildstreak]

I’ve only used high quality ball heads, but better heads won’t move while being snugged down. It’s so easy to use a big ball head I’ve never felt the need for a different style.

I’m pretty much a novice at this. Can you recommend any higher quality ball heads? I don’t really know where to start looking.