Birding record Shots

Monday and the new “Standard" Adapter from Novagrade arrived by post. I couldn’t wait to try it out so as soon as I got home from work I set the Standard adapter up to take my iphone 5 and set off to use it. The first observation other than it isn’t quite as pocketable as the original “Compact” version is that the Standard adapter is much quicker to set up to take any phone in its everyday hardcase. The Standard Adapter will also accommodate the larger sized smartphones such as the iphone 6 and HTC One M8 with ease. It looks like it would probably accept phones the size of the iPhone 6+, but I don’t have one at hand to try.

The differences in appearance.

The Original Compact Novagrade Adapter.

Compact Plus Phone

The New “Standard” Novagrade Adapter.

The “Standard plus Phone.

A big plus point with the Standard Adapter is that as well as being far less fiddly to initially set up, it grips the phone much further down the sides of its body, this reduces accidental depression of side buttons that sometimes occurs with the iPhone and the compact adapter. It can be resolved by sorting through the assortment of grippers that come with the compact version, but the problem doesn’t present itself at all with the new Standard version.

The size difference is only in the arm extension and gripping mechanism. The main eyepiece component is the same size.

So, with the Standard adapter set up I headed for the Corn Buntings I mentioned last week. They don’t allow you to get too close without making a quick exit, so this was an ideal opportunity to phonescope.  If anything, conditions were too bright and the heat haze was also an issue, I am still pleased with these results though.

I also managed some HD Video footage using the phone and Standard adapter. For best viewing, make sure it is playing in HD, You tube often selects lower resolution playback as default.

All in all, I think the Novagrade’s maiden voyage was a success. It was very easy to attach the adapter to the eyepiece, very quick and easy to snap the phone into place, and although this was my first time out using this adapter, no issues became apparent. I will update this information with further use of the new adapter.