Kenko Lens2scope

[apakesha]

Went to a Photography Trade Show in NY last month (a week before Sandy)and came across Kenko's Lens2scope at one of the booths. It is an accessory that can change any lens into a spotting scope. It magnifies the power of your lens 10X. It comes in a straight or angled eyepiece version. They are both available for Canon EOS, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony. It comes with a removable tripod adapter for mounting on your tripod for greater stability. The lens mount and housing for the optics are made from metal while some of the external barrels are polycarbonate.

Sells on Amazon for $179.00.

So if you have a 100mm lens you can convert it into a 1000mm spotting scope.
Anybody try one of these?
Mike

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News=1626

 

[Forum Boss]

That's a really smart idea. If it works (and the image is sharp with good contrast), this could revolutionize the spotting scope market. I wonder if the back unit could accept different adapter plates so you could use different brands of optics on the front end.

Having a spotter that is very compact front to rear is a very good idea. Really long lenses that hang way out in front of the tripod mount tend to shake and jiggle very easily we've found. We notice that the latest Swaro (a modular spotting scope) is very short from ocular (eyepiece) to front objective.

I searched the web and found some reviews. As far as I can tell this does NOT boost power of your scope 10 times, but rather creates a 10:1 ratio. So, a 100mm scope would be 10 power, a 300mm scope would be 30 power etc. To have 60-power magnification, which is typical of high end scopes, you'd have to have a HUGE 600mm lens.

This could be great for hunters that want to bring a camera with telephoto lens. You can just remove the lens from the camera and attach it to the spotter housing. The reports I've read on the web say the image quality is very good.

PM

 

[FroggyOne2]

I would not mind looking through that, just to see how it compares to my spotting scope.. It appears that it would indeed widen your options for field of view and power.

 

[apakesha]

http://kenkoglobal.com/pdf/KENKO-SPORT-OPTICS-2012-WEB.pdf

Scroll down to page 22 to see the catalog page and description and specifications. I myself am a little confused by the 10x claim in the description and 1/10x spotting scope ratio in the specifications. I looked through the display lens at the booth and the view was clear and magnified 10x.
Mike



I found clarification on their US distributors page.

Spotting Scope magnification ratio = 1/10x the focal length of the lens mounted
Example: Magnification: Lens focal length x1/10 (ie a 100mm focal length lens would have a 10x magnification)
100mm lens x 1/10 = 10x magnification 100mm x 10 = 1000mm
200mm lens x 1/10 = 20x magnification 200mm x 20 = 4000mm
400mm lens x 1/10 = 40x magnification 400mm x 40 = 16000mm

 

[signut]

How would you judge the image quality of these devices ? I'm thinking at that price they most likely don't have camera quality glass in them "but" I could be way off. A magnified image thru poor glass winds up being a big poor quality image; if the image degrades the end user may be somewhat disappointed. Just my .02

 

[apakesha]

I would guess it would depend alot on the quality of the host lens. If you have a quality Nikon lens with a f stop f2.8 which lets in a lot of light the results would be better than if you had a lens with a f stop of f5.6 or higher. I'm just guessing.
From what I saw looking through the display lens at the show the image was crisp and clear.
Mike

 

[FroggyOne2]

I am curious, but as the old saying goes. "Seeing is believing" and I would not mind seeing how it looks. I am not in a market for a new spotting scope, but new innovations always bring up a curiosity in me that wants to see what it is all about.