{"id":2128,"date":"2013-01-07T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hammerheadcombatsystems.org\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2013-01-07T08:00:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T14:00:11","slug":"improvised-smart-phone-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/07\/improvised-smart-phone-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvised Smart Phone Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Camera for Tele-photo \u201cScouting\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By<\/em><\/p>\n

Mark E.<\/em><\/p>\n

I found myself in central Texas on business earlier this year. I was killing some time\u00a0before dinner, after checking into a hotel. I keep a set of binoculars in my vehicle and\u00a0decided to bring them upstairs. I had a thought beforehand to see what the image quality\u00a0would be by holding a smart phone\u2019s digital camera over the binocular eyepiece.<\/p>\n

So, what is the point? Well, the potential uses are endless. An around-the-house
\nexample is to use this set-up to identify an issue with the roof on your house (and don\u2019t\u00a0feel the need to risk a fall from a ladder) or a house you are considering a purchase on. I\u00a0know people who have been messed-up from a fall of just 10-15 feet. A roof is one way\u00a0to test out the set up you might use at a closer distance, versus my hotel example below.<\/p>\n

With the civilian<\/span> operator<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span> in mind, here are a few potential uses:<\/p>\n

\u2022 You want to identify and photograph a suspicious vehicle or person.<\/p>\n

\u2022 You find yourself in the next post-Katrina-lawlessness and want to relay critical\u00a0information to family\/friends (photo messaging is golden for this).<\/p>\n

\u2022 You witness some sort of crime, and assuming you might not intervene, you can\u00a0grab details to assist afterwards.<\/p>\n

What Tools are Required? Only Two:<\/p>\n

* Any modern smart phone with megapixel camera. An iPhone was used in this case.
\n* Any decent set of binoculars. I used a $70 pair of Nikon Action 7×35 binoculars. By\u00a0the way, these Nikon\u2019s are a very good value. These are far from $500-1000+ Steiners, I\u00a0know, but they work for my typical needs.<\/p>\n

\"Nikon<\/p>\n

NOTE: A spotting scope could work as well, but is more difficult to keep aligned unless\u00a0you have access to a bench, car trunk, truck bed, etc.<\/p>\n

The trick to make it work is:<\/p>\n

BRACE (#1) one hand on a surface or wall, if available and then ALIGN (#2) the phone\u00a0to the binocular eyepiece. If you are sitting in your car, this will be pretty easy. The\u00a0rubber eye cups on binoculars help grip the back of the smart phone a little. If you have a\u00a0non-slip smart phone case\u2026even better!<\/p>\n

HOLD both items still (#3) while you \u201cbreak the shot\u201d \u2013 i.e. snapping the photo without\u00a0messing up the camera-to-optic alignment. Since both hands are full, you will need to\u00a0use a phone button to snap the photo, rather than tapping the screen. Most phones have\u00a0this feature once the camera application is running. Some phones have a dedicated photo\u00a0button.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/p>\n

Results:<\/p>\n

In the examples below, I was looking out the window of a hotel, about three stories up. I\u00a0wanted to pick a vehicle to see what I could view clearly inside or outside of it. I used\u00a0the license plate as my baseline.<\/p>\n

SMART PHONE only (no zoom)<\/p>\n

\"smart-phone<\/p>\n

SMART PHONE (no zoom) with BINOCULARS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"smart-phone<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SMART PHONE (with digital zoom ACTIVE) with BINOCULARS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"smart-phone<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just use your imagination to see what you need to see. You may spy a 12-point white-tailed\u00a0deer at lunch someday when you least expect one, or a 2-point NFL cheerleader at\u00a0the Houston Texans game. I\u2019m just sayin\u2026<\/p>\n

Keep your Eyes Open & Stay Dangerous!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Camera for Tele-photo \u201cScouting\u201d By Mark E. I found myself in central Texas on business earlier this year. I was killing some time\u00a0before dinner, after checking into a hotel. I keep a set of binoculars in my vehicle and\u00a0decided to bring them upstairs. I had a thought beforehand to see what the image quality\u00a0would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,148,65,10],"tags":[463,464,465],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}