rebs
Gold $$ Contributor
Teslong bore scope
- Thread starter Larryh128
- Start date
You betcha!
rebs
Gold $$ Contributor
Thank you
Ned Ludd
Silver $$ Contributor
I bought one a couple weeks ago via Amazon. First the good: I was pleasantly surprised once it arrived at the quality of the image. Now, I'll be the first to tell you it's not a Hawkeye, not by a noticeable margin. If you're expecting that quality of image, you will be disappointed. Nonetheless, the quality of the image is very good, and the fact that it runs via USB using software already pre-installed on my Mac laptop and has image capture, it was certainly worth much more than the ~$50.00 it cost, IMO.
Now for the bad: after using it for a bit, I have a few [minor] criticisms of the unit to share. First, there is no designed swivel such as is built into the Hawkeye. To view a section of chamber/barrel 360 degrees, you are actually spinning and torquing the cable itself. I did not find this to be a huge issue as there was plenty of slack in the cable, but it could be an issue in terms of damaging the cable over time.
Second, the unit is designed to fit into a .22 cal bore. As such, there is quite a bit of play (lateral movement) of the camera head in a .30 cal bore as you twist the cable to swivel it around 360 degrees. This is largely caused by the angle of the cable as you spin it, which is not perfectly concentric to the bore. This is not an issue of concern in a much more expensive borescope with a purpose-built swivel mechanism. The result is that the camera head can flop back and forth as you swivel it, and the focus goes in and out, because the unit need to be focused manually when it is withdrawn from the bore. In other words, you cannot adjust the focus while it is in the bore. In fairness, it's less noticeable in a .22 cal bore, as that's the minimum bore diameter for which it was designed and less lateral movement is therefore allowed.
Finally, the image capture itself is noticeably slow...it takes a few seconds before the image is actually captured. I'm not sure whether this is more of a software/interface issue, but you have to be very careful not to move the camera head until the image is captured.
My intuition is that the use of an appropriately-sized spacer of some kind, perhaps small rubber O-rings, or a plastic ferrule might resolve the focus issues to some extent in larger caliber barrels. Anything that would fit over the camera head and effectively increase its diameter slightly so that lateral movement was minimized would probably work, as long as it was readily removable.
FWIW - a couple days ago, I received the following email from Teslong via Amazon:
Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for purchasing our NTG100 rifle borescope! We are grateful that you chose Teslong for your rifle bore inspection needs.
As a professional manufacturer of inspection cameras, the NTG100 Rifle Borescope is our first attempt in the field of firearm inspection. Fortunately, a large number of consumers have now put a great value on our scope after an American shooting friend of ours pointed out the need for a high resolution, but reasonably priced device. We carefully read each comment we receive on Amazon and we follow the message boards on Sniper’s Hide forum. We truly appreciate the encouragement and support we have received with this product and we are committed to further improvement of our rifle borescopes.
As I mentioned above, the inspection of a rifle barrel's interior is a new application for us. While our prior knowledge gained from years of endoscope production was very helpful, the need to downsize, to miniaturize all parts in order for the camera to fit into even a .22 caliber rifle caused some initial parts weakness. We heard of a couple of problems from a few customers during the first batch of sales. These problems are unforgivable on any product, but all those customers have decided to wait for our after-sales and replacement units. We are extremely indebted for your tolerance and understanding as we bring out this brand new product.
We make no excuses for the problems our customers have experienced, and we are committed to customer satisfaction with our products. Below I have listed the common issues our customers have experienced with our borescope and what we are doing to address these issues.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Problem 1 - When the camera cable is wound too tightly, the wire inside the cable can break.
If you purchased one of the early versions of this rifle borescope, please do not store the borescope in the original storage case. The small case requires you to wind the camera cable too tightly which can damage the internal wiring inside the cable.
To help address this problem we are reinforcing the internal structure of the cable to provide more integrity. We are also switching to a larger case and adding a reminder to the cable indicating that winding the cable too tightly can damage the product.
In addition to these improvements, we have also lengthened the service/replacement period to 36 months. If you experience any issues with your borescope, please send us your Amazon order number with a brief explanation of the problems you have experienced. If necessary, we will send you a replacement borescope.
Problem 2 - The side-view mirror can fall off.
We are applying a stronger adhesive to the mirror which helps prevent the mirror from coming lose.
To our customers that purchased an early NTG100 Rifle Borescope, we will send you a better mirror by other paper mail. The paper mail will be slow, please wait a few days. If your original mirror does not have a problem, please just keep the new one as a spare part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have experienced any problems with one of our products we would like to sincerely apologize. We are committed to your satisfaction and would like the opportunity to make it right!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to send us an email. We are committed to making a good product and we want to own up to our mistakes.
If you like our product, we would appreciate hearing about your experience on Amazon. The success of our product relies on your feedback and we look forward to reading your review!
We appreciate your business and would like to thank you for choosing Teslong!
Best Regards,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Murphy Wong
Product Manager
Teslong Technology Co., Ltd.
You can send a message to the seller Teslong by replying to this email.
If you were contacted inappropriately by the seller, please report this message.
We hope to see you again soon.
Clearly, Teslong has discovered some design flaws with their early units. Although it's always preferable to spot such issues during product testing and resolve them before the product is actually released, the good news is that Teslong seems to be on top of things and is making an effort to address the issues fairly for customers that purchased one of those early units.
In summary, my overall take on the Teslong unit is favorable. I already own a Hawkeye, and purchased the Teslong solely for its image capture feature. Image capture is a feature available to Hawkeye users, but at a cost approximately 4 times the cost of the borescope itself, meaning it's cost prohibitive for most users. Although I listed several criticisms of the unit above, that's part of what I consider to be a "fair and honest" review and they are pretty minor concerns as I mentioned. The most important things about this borescope are the facts that it has pretty decent optics, and it only costs about $50. Really, what more need be said? There are probably quite a few shooters that are either unwilling or unable to drop $700 - $1,000 for a Hawkeye, or even $200- to $300 for the more moderately-priced Lyman unit . A price point of ~$50 will bring the option of owning a borescope that is functional and possesses sufficiently good optics to do a reasonable job to shooters that might otherwise never purchase one.
Now for the bad: after using it for a bit, I have a few [minor] criticisms of the unit to share. First, there is no designed swivel such as is built into the Hawkeye. To view a section of chamber/barrel 360 degrees, you are actually spinning and torquing the cable itself. I did not find this to be a huge issue as there was plenty of slack in the cable, but it could be an issue in terms of damaging the cable over time.
Second, the unit is designed to fit into a .22 cal bore. As such, there is quite a bit of play (lateral movement) of the camera head in a .30 cal bore as you twist the cable to swivel it around 360 degrees. This is largely caused by the angle of the cable as you spin it, which is not perfectly concentric to the bore. This is not an issue of concern in a much more expensive borescope with a purpose-built swivel mechanism. The result is that the camera head can flop back and forth as you swivel it, and the focus goes in and out, because the unit need to be focused manually when it is withdrawn from the bore. In other words, you cannot adjust the focus while it is in the bore. In fairness, it's less noticeable in a .22 cal bore, as that's the minimum bore diameter for which it was designed and less lateral movement is therefore allowed.
Finally, the image capture itself is noticeably slow...it takes a few seconds before the image is actually captured. I'm not sure whether this is more of a software/interface issue, but you have to be very careful not to move the camera head until the image is captured.
My intuition is that the use of an appropriately-sized spacer of some kind, perhaps small rubber O-rings, or a plastic ferrule might resolve the focus issues to some extent in larger caliber barrels. Anything that would fit over the camera head and effectively increase its diameter slightly so that lateral movement was minimized would probably work, as long as it was readily removable.
FWIW - a couple days ago, I received the following email from Teslong via Amazon:
Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for purchasing our NTG100 rifle borescope! We are grateful that you chose Teslong for your rifle bore inspection needs.
As a professional manufacturer of inspection cameras, the NTG100 Rifle Borescope is our first attempt in the field of firearm inspection. Fortunately, a large number of consumers have now put a great value on our scope after an American shooting friend of ours pointed out the need for a high resolution, but reasonably priced device. We carefully read each comment we receive on Amazon and we follow the message boards on Sniper’s Hide forum. We truly appreciate the encouragement and support we have received with this product and we are committed to further improvement of our rifle borescopes.
As I mentioned above, the inspection of a rifle barrel's interior is a new application for us. While our prior knowledge gained from years of endoscope production was very helpful, the need to downsize, to miniaturize all parts in order for the camera to fit into even a .22 caliber rifle caused some initial parts weakness. We heard of a couple of problems from a few customers during the first batch of sales. These problems are unforgivable on any product, but all those customers have decided to wait for our after-sales and replacement units. We are extremely indebted for your tolerance and understanding as we bring out this brand new product.
We make no excuses for the problems our customers have experienced, and we are committed to customer satisfaction with our products. Below I have listed the common issues our customers have experienced with our borescope and what we are doing to address these issues.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Problem 1 - When the camera cable is wound too tightly, the wire inside the cable can break.
If you purchased one of the early versions of this rifle borescope, please do not store the borescope in the original storage case. The small case requires you to wind the camera cable too tightly which can damage the internal wiring inside the cable.
To help address this problem we are reinforcing the internal structure of the cable to provide more integrity. We are also switching to a larger case and adding a reminder to the cable indicating that winding the cable too tightly can damage the product.
In addition to these improvements, we have also lengthened the service/replacement period to 36 months. If you experience any issues with your borescope, please send us your Amazon order number with a brief explanation of the problems you have experienced. If necessary, we will send you a replacement borescope.
Problem 2 - The side-view mirror can fall off.
We are applying a stronger adhesive to the mirror which helps prevent the mirror from coming lose.
To our customers that purchased an early NTG100 Rifle Borescope, we will send you a better mirror by other paper mail. The paper mail will be slow, please wait a few days. If your original mirror does not have a problem, please just keep the new one as a spare part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have experienced any problems with one of our products we would like to sincerely apologize. We are committed to your satisfaction and would like the opportunity to make it right!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to send us an email. We are committed to making a good product and we want to own up to our mistakes.
If you like our product, we would appreciate hearing about your experience on Amazon. The success of our product relies on your feedback and we look forward to reading your review!
We appreciate your business and would like to thank you for choosing Teslong!
Best Regards,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Murphy Wong
Product Manager
Teslong Technology Co., Ltd.
You can send a message to the seller Teslong by replying to this email.
If you were contacted inappropriately by the seller, please report this message.
We hope to see you again soon.
Clearly, Teslong has discovered some design flaws with their early units. Although it's always preferable to spot such issues during product testing and resolve them before the product is actually released, the good news is that Teslong seems to be on top of things and is making an effort to address the issues fairly for customers that purchased one of those early units.
In summary, my overall take on the Teslong unit is favorable. I already own a Hawkeye, and purchased the Teslong solely for its image capture feature. Image capture is a feature available to Hawkeye users, but at a cost approximately 4 times the cost of the borescope itself, meaning it's cost prohibitive for most users. Although I listed several criticisms of the unit above, that's part of what I consider to be a "fair and honest" review and they are pretty minor concerns as I mentioned. The most important things about this borescope are the facts that it has pretty decent optics, and it only costs about $50. Really, what more need be said? There are probably quite a few shooters that are either unwilling or unable to drop $700 - $1,000 for a Hawkeye, or even $200- to $300 for the more moderately-priced Lyman unit . A price point of ~$50 will bring the option of owning a borescope that is functional and possesses sufficiently good optics to do a reasonable job to shooters that might otherwise never purchase one.
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That was very informative, maybe I'll look into a "sleeve" that can be put over the cable to keep it rigid in 25 cal and larger bores, and as is for 22 cal. I'm also thinking of hanging the cable to store it.. it makes sense about the coil problem. It makes sense that we should not expect the same performance from a $50 item as a $750 item.....we don't expect a $150 scope to match a $1500 one.....take it for what it is, have fun with it, and buy another when it bites the dust ! rsbhunter
I used a Lyman for two years cleaning the mirror occasionally with brake cleaner on a soft patch. The last time I cleaned the mirror I wiped off 50% of the mirror coating. Tried to get a new mirror from Lyman to no avail.........no parts available for this unit....Lyman said I had to buy the complete unit. "I don't think so Tim". I bought a replacement Hawkeye from Bruno's with 90 degree eye piece at a very fair price and never looked back. Resolution is incredible compared to the Lyman. My only regret is wasting my money on a Lyman in the first place........ besides the no replacement parts policy.......it was very cumbersome to view the chamber on the lathe.
And that makes a lot of sense...although, I don't think I would use acetone (brake kleen) on any mirror, or lens for that matter. If you need a bore scope for professional use, the Hawkeye is the way to go....it's almost funny, now that we have decent $50 borescopes, the consensus is to NOT clean so much .....but they are still a very useful tool for the average guy. In today's world, it's not unusual for a guy to have $2k-4k in a rifle, 1.5k -3k in a scope, 3k in a spotter, and not have a pro grade bore scope. I'm not in the previous group...I can afford maybe a $1200 scope, if I save, and might have $1000 in a rifle, but only if I sell off something else.....we do live in good times...rsbhunter
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