Nephew Survival Kit

[Mechanickal]

The package arrived at my brother's place today.  I guess the boys have seen the bags and are excited.  All of the other stuff is wrapped and placed inside the bags, so they don't know what's coming.

I'm looking forward to hearing their reaction when they open them. 

Def

I still have stuff from when I was a kid that someone else had this mindset to get me as well I always loved gadgets and different types of sharps and shinys but some of that took a back seat as I grew up only for me to find it later on as a younger adult and then I came to appreciate it even more They will like it but it just may not be as much now as it is later

That was basicaly the clue behind my story xD

[Gerhard Gerber]

Weird Uncle Grant.......and you got them whistles? 

Their parents are sure to hate you 

I was just going through some of my more memorable xmas presents, and I figured if the boys are our kind people the kits will rank pretty high for them, as it would've for me back then! 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Well their grandmother beat me to getting them a drum set so I had to come up with something else!   

I doubt that it will lure the older one away from the video games, and I worry that it might empower the younger one to wander off even more and get into more trouble.... 

On the average, they are a great kid!

Seriously, I love those kids, and I hope this gift helps them get out more and enjoy their time outside more.  If not I'll go back to buying Lego and Nerf guns.

Def

[ducttapetech]

Well, if the grandmother already got them drums, you could always get them some Bagpipes.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Excellent plan.  I hadn't thought if bagpipes!

Def

[16VGTIDave]

An accordion might also make a nice gift. Or harmonica's if the shipping costs for the accordion is too much.

Being an uncle is so much fun!

[Grant Lamontagne]

An accordion might also make a nice gift. Or harmonica's if the shipping costs for the accordion is too much.

Being an uncle who lives far away and is never going to be asked to babysit is so much fun!

Fixed....

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I was talking to my brother a little while ago, and the younger one is actually pretty excited about the kit.  He is really looking forward to using it on outdoor adventures this year.  He is by far the one more likely to use it or go adventuring.

Of course, monkey see, monkey do, so when the older one saw the younger one getting excited about it, he also started to get excited about the stuff as well.

I think this summer I am going to try to arrange for a short adventure with them- maybe a short hike (very short, for my sake as much as theirs!) or maybe a little kayak trip.  There are lots of islands we can paddle to, set up one of my stoves and make lunch then play a little before paddling home.

Def

[Aloha]

Good to hear to boys are excited.  I guess thats the first step.  Opportunity and someone to show them how to use the kit is another step.  I hope you can get over there and show them how to use it and how much fun it can be. 

[Poncho65]

Been wondering how these went Glad to hear they were excited about them and now you just need to get them a small adventure and they will be totally loving them

[Grant Lamontagne]

Absolutely. It's too bad I won't see them until the spring at the earliest.  It's a bit of a haul from getting stuff to being able to use it.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Just to bring this one back up- I have taken the suggestion of binoculars to heart, although not in the way you may think.  Knowing full well that both kids are probably more interested in their electronics than they are in any outdoorsing products, I have bought some monoculars for them that have tripods and brackets for their phones. This way they have an item that they can use with their phones or without- and even cooler, they can take photos of the things they see with it.  Naturally of course I bought one for myself too, you know, so I can make sure it's good enough for them. 

Def

[Nix]

Very cool idea. 

[Gareth]

Sounds like an excellent idea.    Got a link to the one you picked?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm on my phone so no direct link but here's a screenshot.

Def

[Poncho65]

That looks prettt\y handy actually I have thought about getting stuff like this but never took the plunge Let us know how they are please I may end up with one

[Grant Lamontagne]

I got a cheaper version of this setup yesterday and it's actually not too bad.  Check it out here:

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,76190.0.html

Makes me look forward to these ones even more.

Def

[pfrsantos]

I got a cheaper version of this setup yesterday and it's actually not too bad.  Check it out here:

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,76190.0.html

Makes me look forward to these ones even more.

Def

Yes, that's the correct way to go about binoculars...

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Once again I am completely blown away by cheapo optics!

The fancy zoom lenses that I got for my nephews (and me too, purely for testing of course) were waiting for me when I got home, and I assumed they were going to be as dinky (and impressive) as the small one I looked at in the other thread.  I was not prepared for what I got, and I am still dumbfounded that I only paid $10 each!   

The cheapo one that I was impressed with has a maximum size roughly the circumference of a C Cell battery, and a length of about that of a cigarette, while the new one is the size of a half of a standard set of binoculars. The clamp is nice, but in order to use it there's a bit of a setup to ensure that the camera is lined up properly, and the clamp/phone holder isn't large enough to grab my phone with the Otterbox Defender on it, so I had to take it off.  In the photos below I am standing in the front room of my house and looking in towards the kitchen.  In the first photo you can barely see the spice rack, and with the zoom lens you can almost read the spice labels!

I am really impressed with this one, and I'll get more photos of the unit soon.  I'd say that despite this one costing almost 5x as much as the other, and being a bit more difficult to use, I'd take this one any day over the ultra cheapo.  Besides, what else can you do with $10 these days?

Def

[Nix]

Very cool. For $10? Hell yeah.

Now get out there and capture a picture of Squatch. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'd have to be pretty lucky to manage that, given this thing's very limited field of view!

Even so, I am thinking my nephews will be thrilled with it.  Both of them have birthdays coming up, and I really like that this can be used as a monocular in addition to a camera zoom- and even more so that it has a standard 1/4" tripod mount, so you can use the teeny desktop tripod it came with, or, as in the photos above, a proper tripod.

I am astounded at this.  If it weren't for the cheesy compass stuck to the top of it, I'd swear this was the kind of thing you'd see at Cabela's for $69.95, and you'd probably pick it up on sale for $49.95 and be happy with it.

Def

[Mechanickal]

Just doin't point it in your neighbour's back yard...

Seriously though, that's some cool stuff.

Now, Def, to complete your set, you need to add macro lenses to it!

Got a lenskit myself for €3 which contains a macro lens, wide angle lens (which actualy increases the field of view on my phone) and a fish eye lens.

The macro works superb!
And that way you've got all ranges covered

[Mechanickal]

Got a kit like this:


Different branding (none at all actualy) but same principle with changeable lenses.

[Grant Lamontagne]

As promised, here is some more info on these things.

The box simply says HIGHQUALITY TELESCOPE with no brand or anything on it.  According to the box the "FIELD OF VISION IS INFINITE AND WONDERFUL."  I'm not sure how infinite or wonderful it is, but it is a lot better than the junk I was expecting!  It also warns you not to look at the sun directly or it will hure your eyes.  I am not sure what huring is, but it doesn't sound pleasant, and I think I would prefer my eyes to be unhured whenever possible.  I love bad translations- they amuse the heck out of me, and I could spend hours at a time enjoying the stuff at engrish.com.... but I digress....

This is the whole package, with my trusty yellow scaled Compact for size reference:



Sorry for the awful photo, I hadn't realized it was that bad or I'd have taken another one.  It's never good to discuss photography equipment and start off with a blurry photo of said equipment, but it's hardly my first faux pas, so let's try and work past that.   



The unit is fairly sizeable which would make it a bit awkward to EDC, but it comes with a nylon pouch to keep it in, and the pouch is not the worst one of it's type that I have seen, and that has to count for something.  It has a removable rubber eyepiece cover and an attached pull out type cover on the big end.  I'm sure there's a proper name for the big end, but I don't know what it is, so I will be referring to it as the big end.  On the top there's an adjustment/focusing knob and a small compass, and on the bottom is a standard threaded tripod mount that you can attach to a tripod (duh) or to the lanyard that includes a small screw to go into it.  The lanyard seems to hold pretty well, at least in the limited testing I have done so far.



Oh yeah, there's a compass on it.  I don't know why, not do I have any intention of using it to save my life, but it's there and it doesn't really take up space or add weight, so why not.



The ocular is also interesting, in that it extends with a twist.



I don't know what it is for, although the instructions (again, poor translation) say something about eyeglasses.  Specifically it says:

The monocular has the characteristic of rubber eyepatch that can be turndown.  The user who wears glasses can use this monocular after fold up the eyepatch, the user who does not wear gasses can use this monocular directly.  This make the vision more convince and more comfortable.

After reading that my eyes need some comfort.... 



The clamp folds up nicely into this little package, then folds out quickly and easily to fit over the ocular when needed.  One screw will loosen everything nicely and then tighten the clamp around your phone.  This is the part that takes some time to line the phone camera up properly, but it is well worth it or the photos you can get out of this thing.  The clamp is a bit cheap, and won't actually hold my Samsung Galaxy S5 while it is in the Otterbox Defender, but does hold it well enough when I take the phone out of the case, something I very rarely do.  Kind of a pain in the bum, but I am sure a solution can be found at some point.



I suggest before you get to clamping, you put the lens on a tripod, but I'd also suggest that you don't waste time with the included one as it is absolute crap and can barely hold the weight of the lens, let along the phone.  More realistically, it will be used like this:



As you can see, your phone can be held in portrait or landscape mode, or any angle in between, although it doesn't really matter as you will only be taking a circular photo anyway, as seen in my above post.



Even considering the small tripod and the polishing cloth made from the highest quality burlap they could find on the street outside I consider this thing well worth the $10 I spent on it, and I plan to take it with me on many of my adventures this year.  As I mentioned, it is quite a bit larger than the other zoom lens I bought:



Still, I see it being a great way to take wildlife photos in the woods when all you have handy is a cell phone.  And, if it gets destroyed, who cares- you can buy a cup of coffee these days that costs the same amount!

Def