new Leica spotter coming? (4 Viewers)

[TheBlackGrouse]

Good to read all these clever solutions!

In this case I'd like to add that for larger magnifications you really need to stabilize the monopod, attach it to something. Although it's possible to work with 40 - 50 x with stabilizing feet, you still have some movement from heartbeats, muscles and wind. To see more details you need a stable platform. That's why I started experimenting with a clamp and a very strong short magic arm.

Unfortunately I'm all thumbs but my basic thought was to have the connection point close to the scope, preferably at the same heigth. This way, the setup is very stable, even with the 65 mm scopes of Swarovski, tested it the last weeks. That said, my ssystem takes much more time, as I already wrote here, therefore I use it 1-3 times a day for long periods of watching. And sometimes you're not in a comfortable position. Since you find many meadows with fences around them (poles!) in the Netherlands, there is often something to work with.

 

[4John]

In this case I'd like to add that for larger magnifications you really need to stabilize the monopod, attach it to something. Although it's possible to work with 40 - 50 x with stabilizing feet, you still have some movement from heartbeats, muscles and wind. To see more details you need a stable platform.

TheBlackGrouse,

Interesting. My experience using a scope on a monopod with a folddown foot is different. I don't have a problem holding the monopod still enough to use 40X magnification, or a problem with heartbeats or wind, and have never felt the need to attach it to anything. Each to their own.

Using a fixed scope on a tripod in windy conditions I find the wind can knock/push my head sideways, so it constantly needs to be moved back, and the vibration of the tripod can blur the view (unless you hold it down and/or hang a weight from the bottom of the centre column). However, when using a scope on a monopod with my foot on the foot, whatever the wind speed it will knock/push my head, scope and monopod sideways the same amount and 9/10 times the bird stays in the field of view. Unlike a tripod, there is no blurred view, because a monopod doesn't vibrate like a tripod because its damped by the hand and the foot that are holding it. If conditions get really bad I sit on the ground with the monopod between my legs and the folddown foot under my thigh (which is why there is always a sit-mat in my rucsac !)

 

[US_Grant]

...just raising this thread, I am hoping in the next week or two we'll hear at least some details- any peeps heard by others as of yet?