In this blog post I'm going to chat about the new TSN-55 Prominar scope from Kowa and my experiences phonescoping with it while I've been travelling in Australia and New Zealand over the last few weeks. I've had my Swarovski scope for quite a few years now, so it's been quite fun trying out such a different bit of kit.
Earlier in the year I had been in the process of buying a new scope, and I was looking at the offerings from Kowa as they have some great optics and some of the best features for phonescoping. Features that were beginning to make my previously trusty Swarovski ATX95 look a bit out of date. A chance conversation led to me becoming an Ambassador for Kowa and that's given me access not only to a new full fat scope (a 99mm diameter one at that) but also their new 55mm travel scope.
Almost immediately after becoming a Kowa Ambassador I was due to travel down under for several months. So it seemed to make sense to take the 55mm scope with me. I'd heard it was good, but I assumed it would be a bit of a compromise: much smaller and lighter, but most likely not so good for phonescoping. So the big question is, how does this scope perform? And what's the catch when you "downsize your phonescoping"?
I'll talk through a few different aspects of using it, but the best way to illustrate how good it really is, is with actual results. So first of all here's a little compilation of some phonescoping I did in a few locations in south east Australia. And note these are all "opportunity shots". I had no chance to learn the locations, learn the behaviour of the birds, and no time to camp out in a good spot to get the perfect shot.
My rig for this phonescoping has been the TSN-55 Prominar along with the Smartscope Vario Adapter and a newish iPhone15Pro (using the x3 telephoto lens). I'll talk about the adapter in more detail in a subsequent blog post, but for now suffice to say, it's a really solid bit of kit.
Before I get to the phonescoping, how does the scope work as an actual scope? Australia was not a great test as the weather was mostly good, but here in New Zealand it's been quite mixed so I've used it in low light conditions where you really get a feel for it's quality. It has a good design, great optics and a nice wide angle view. Moving from the Swaro, I really appreciate the double wheel focus which gives a smooth and fine control. The zoom goes from 15x (which is what I used to do almost all of my phonescoping out here) and up to 45x. I haven't often needed to zoom in that much, but I've used it a little when working through waders on the beach. The clarity and colour at x15 is excellent. Kowa really talks up their pure flourite crystal optics and the results are pretty spectacular here. My one disappointment is that the protective case isn't quite as sharp as it could be. It's held together with press studs that are a little bit clunky to use in the field. I miss the very nifty magnet fastening for the objective lens covering on my Swaro (although the rest of the Swaro case wasn't great either. Does anyone do a good job of this stuff?). The other minor niggle was the cord that secures the lens cap for the eye piece has already broken. Easy to replace though, so it's a pretty minor complaint. I'm now going to dig into some of the clips from the video above to illustrate and discuss some of the impressive things I think this scope delivers for phonescoping.
To begin with, here's a New Holland Honeyeater, living up to its name and drinking nector from a flower. This is not a perfect bit of phonescoping to say the least! The bird is in shadow and it's silhouetted against a background that is in full sun. This usually gives a really poor result. But in this case, we've still got bags of colour, and there is a lot of definition. It's really sharp. Note that this is shot in 120fps slowmo, so the colour output and clarity would be even better at 30fps. This result blew me away.
Next up we've got a smart little fantail species, called the Willie Wagtail. This bird has black and white plumage - both of which are difficult to capture well with the tiny pinhole camera found on a mobile phone. And even harder to capture well together. Blacks often get washed out completely, and in the same way, whites can be over exposed off the top of the scale. This was shot in the golden hour just after dawn (I was waiting for a chance of a platypus but it didn't show) so the sunlight was soft and perfect for photography. But even so - check the detail in this video! Both the black and white is well detailed - not easy to capture at the same time when you're not using a "proper" camera. The Kowa/Apple digiscoping partnership is working well here.
When in Australia, you have to phonescope a Laughing Kookaburra! What a characterful bird. It's a bit silhouetted against a bright sky, and it was filmed in the middle of the day so the sun is bright and a bit too harsh for photography. But again the output here is actually pretty decent. Check the texture on the white plumage - only a hint overexposed whilst also having a good colour range through to the dark hues. The other thing to note here is the lack of any noticeable chromatic abberation (where the light is refracted around the high contrast edge of the subject, leading to a sort colour blurred edging). My old Swarovski has a major problem in this regard but this little Kowa (and its larger cousins) does an impressive job.
Here's another example of a challenging shot. The light is coming from behind this fascinating Satin Bowerbird, and the plumage is a bit murky. I processed this up a little bit to lighten the dark tones and the final result isn't too shabby. The Bowerbird is behaving strangely as it's about to have a ruck with a Gang Gang Cockatoo. So I really wanted to capture this interaction regardless of the poor light. The TSN-55 again does an impressive if imperfect job. The lovely vermiculation on the breast of the Bowerbird comes out well and there's enough contrast to see what's going on here. Note also where the wing tips of the bird are fully silhouetted against the bright sky - there's again no chromatic abberation and in fact there's just a hint of white backlighting. Can't wait to try out an atmospheric backlit shot with this setup - I suspect it's going to perform pretty well.
So that's a quick run through a few challenging subjects that actually come out looking very nice indeed despite the conditions. Which means better phonescoping results, and getting a lot more opportunities to enjoy photographing birds. This is really important for me because I love capturing those fleeting moments of unusual behaviour and of course the conditions are not always on my side when they occur. This scope continues to surprise me...
When I'm back in the UK I'd like to do some side by side comparisons with the 99mm Prominar scope. And maybe I'll need the extra zoom back home where many birds aren't as confiding as they are out here. But for now there doesn't seem to be a catch when phonescoping with this travel scope, which I'm really excited about because I'm now getting to see and film some great birds here in Aotearoa. Here's a Tawaki on the beach...
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