Dot Sight

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DBalaur said:
Spurred by the launch of a dirt-cheap dot sight from TTartisan: does anyone here use a dot sight for wildlife photography? Or know someone who does? These things have always been marketed to wildlife photographers, but I hardly ever see them discussed/mentioned in any forum/group/channel. If nobody is using these sights, why do companies keep making them? This is almost reminiscent of the situation around mirror-reflex telephoto lenses.

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They are mostly repurposed rifle sights. The cheap plastic ones mostly air rifles. They are very popular for amateur astronomy for aiming telescopes. And mirror lenses were used a lot before the camera companies developed ED, extra low dispersion glass. Long refractive optics telephotos in the 60s and 70s were really hampered by chromatic aberration and mirror lenses are free of chromatic aberration. My old Nikkor 500 mm f/8 is actually pretty sharp with decent color saturation. But very weird out of focus bokah
 
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Warren D said:
I think there are valid concerns regarding the reaction of law enforcement. I've already been detained because some moron thought I was wielding a rocket launcher (my 600 EFL with hood covered in camo). Guess it didn't help I was in camo as well but I can only imagine the mess any form of laser sight would create. I'd rather practice my technique.
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I have heard somewhere (maybe DP Forum back in the day?) that some people have boarding on flights while having a rifle sight in their photography kit. Not sure if there is any truth to that.

Steve said:
How I do it:

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Steve responding to a thread I made? Maybe I should pop out a champagne.

deeno said:
My first post here. Hi bcgforums :)

I wasn't very interested in one at all and I even have a holosun at home for non-photography use so could basically use it for next to free if I wanted. Then someone I met while I was whale watching was raving about it, so for $15 for a cold shoe mount, I thought why not and I tried it. Turns out it's a game changer for whale watching and I would highly recommend it for that. I don't know that I will use it otherwise...
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Very in-depth post! Thank you for sharing. Your example hit quite close when I just missed my first breaching humpback whale last Sunday. :eek:
 
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Here is my Frankenstein setup.

Falcam foldable half cage + picatinny rifle dot sight clamped onto F22 NATO QR adapter.

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maxxus46 said:
Interesting. How did you zero this Dot? All Dot sights need to be zeroed out of the box at specific distance for accuracy. Are you finding the dot close enough at distance when shooting BIF? Tyl
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My dot sight can calibrate Up/Down Left/Right with a hex allen key. I adjust it for something medium range and it works well enough for close and far subjects. You'll have to fiddle where your happy zone is. Depends what distance you want to shoot.
 
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MoMoChee said:
My dot sight can calibrate Up/Down Left/Right with a hex allen key. I adjust it for something medium range and it works well enough for close and far subjects. You'll have to fiddle where your happy zone is. Depends what distance you want to shoot.
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Yes that is Elevation and Windage adjustment, since Dot sights are intended for rifle use. Adjustments are set in MOA or Mil , depending on the model.
Normally to sight in a Dot, you need to determine bore axis (very center of lens) . This allows you to set the height over the bore axis at specific distances. Far more important for a rifle, than a telephoto lense since your trying to get the Bird within general area of the frame. Did you pick an object at common distance and then make your adjustments to center the dot as close to the axis as possible? That would be my suggestion. Tyl
 
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maxxus46 said:
Did you pick an object at common distance and then make your adjustments to center the dot as close to the axis as possible?
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Yup did basically that.

Distance closer or further away would deviate due to parallax but still roughly in center. Not an issue to be dead center since I often crop heavily birding.

Though my cage has room for two dot sights! I might experiment mounting one calibrated for closer object and another for further distance.
 
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I have an Olympus that I got years ago, but beyond taking it out to calibrate...I never used it...not once. Not sure why I bought it; I think I just saw it for next to nothing and wanted to try it. Honestly, I don't have much trouble tracking and the Z9 is even easier, so...it likely never sees the light of day again...unless I go whale watching again. That looks like a good application!
 
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MoMoChee said:
Yup did basically that.

Distance closer or further away would deviate due to parallax but still roughly in center. Not an issue to be dead center since I often crop heavily birding.

Though my cage has room for two dot sights! I might experiment mounting one calibrated for closer object and another for further distance.
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Nice... well , You could throw an EOTECH holographic sight on there which is pretty much parallax free... But they start at $600 plus :)
 
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