For the wildlife enthusiast travelling light can be a real challenge. While you don’t want to lug around too much heavy equipment, you also don’t want to compromise too much on getting the best views of the wildlife you encounter while you’re away from home. The main concern, of course, is optics. A quality, lightweight pair of […]
Vanguard’s new travel tripod impresses
When you’re travelling, or even if you simply have a way to walk from the car to a favourite viewing point, carrying a bulky scope and tripod can be a tiresome business. There are solutions out there of course — things like scope carriers (I use the Cley Spy MulePack to tote around my Meopta Meostar […]
Gear Review: LED Lenser P5R.2 Rechargable LED Flashlight
Pros: Great looking, exceptionally bright little rechargeable torch with excellent build quality. Small, sleek, lightweight and robust — ideal for slipping in a pocket or pack. Outstanding flood-to-spot functionality with LED Lenser’s patented fast-focus system. Extremely versatile little light. Convenient magnetic charging system powered through USB. Cons: Proprietary LiIon battery limits replacement options. 20 lumen low-power option sometimes […]
Gear Review: CJ Wildlife Apollo “Easy Clean” Seed Feeder
Pros: Quality finish and materials. Robust construction. Easy and convenient to dismantle and clean (no tools required). Innovative “feeding rings”. Ventilation system keeps food fresh. Cons: None so far. Rating: Highly Recommended Price: from €21.95 for the 3-port feeder to €31.95 for the 7-port feeder An excellent all-round seed feeder that’s built to last from quality components. Super convenient to […]
Fenix PD35 compact LED torch / flashlight review
Pros: Outstanding 850 lumen performance from a 14cm (c. 5″) torch that fits in the palm of your hand. Great build quality. Insanely bright, clean beam with floody central spot and a large “spill” that illuminates the peripheral area. Excellent throw distance for a 20mm reflector. Great versatility with five brightness levels and mode memory. Handy […]
Gear Review: Universal Digiscoping Adapters from Novagrade
Pros: compact and light — easily throw in a pocket or camera bag. Universal… adapts easily to fit most scope eyepieces and unique interchangable “gripper” system works with any smartphone. Very easy to fit and use… simple, twist to secure, twist to release mechanism. Cons: the smartphone adapter can be a bit fiddly to set up and […]
Gear Review: Lensmaster Gimbal RH-2 Tripod Head
Pros: Strong, lightweight and easy to set up. Professional grade finish. Very smooth pan and tilt, and extremely stable and well balanced once you’ve found your gear’s centre of gravity. Excellent for photography (with long lenses or digiscoping), but also surprisingly effective for normal “scoping”. Competitive price for a top quality gimbal head, and Rob at Lensmaster […]
Pettersson D240X Bat Detector Review
Pros: Very solid, well made detector that feels like a quality item in the hand. Large array of controls and options offer lots of customisation and tweaks for the discerning enthusiast or bat research professional. Very sensitive microphone picks up bats with ease. High quality speaker, dials and excellent backlit LCD display. Tuneable heterodyne detector […]
Zoom H2N Digital Audio Recorder Review
Pros: portability, impressive microphone array, outstanding battery life, manual gain dial, great sensitivity, superb sound quality and competitive price. Cons: the device is ALL microphone, and the mics are incredibly sensitive so you have to be careful not to shift your grip while recording or you will pick up the sound of your fingers moving on the […]
Bat Detector Review: Elekon Batscanner
Elekon BatScanner Short Review Pros: Simple to use — just point and listen. Compact design ideal to slip in a pocket. Good sound quality and excellent microphone sensitivity. Scans across all frequencies so never miss a passing bat. Cons: Screw-on battery compartment cover would make changing batteries in the field a pain; a wrist strap […]
