Tactacam vs sideshot vs phoneskope vs...

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Ohh one thing I need to say. The light as shooter will be reduced... A lot so if your eyes are not good this set-up might not be the best one for you. It prioritize the camera so as the shooter you will receive less light, reason why a good scope really helps. 

I tried this setup with my Discovery VTT 6-24x50 and the end result was great too.

https://youtu.be/ocz2kTrl7Wg

The thumbnail on the video is one of the best I've captured so far and you can see the difference with this 25/75.

If you see the videos from Matt Dubber you will see he uses the same but he has the GoPro with super expensive lens too, I personally don't think that is needed if a sub $200 camera can record the video you saw above.

Any questions you can ask me, I'm always willing to share
 
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Thanks, Orion, and also thanks for the info on the custom duties.

It's basically a fair warning, a gamble of 1 to 10 or 1 to 20 maybe that we might get hit with this, tje rest seems to sail through.



I'd love to hear more about the Tactacam — it seems fewer people are using it though it seems such a failsafe setup, non-bulky, quick on and off. Why is it not more popular?



Also, the quality of the footage, how does it compare?



How well does the slow motion work?



THANKS! 😊

Matthias
 
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I got the tactacam and love it but I haven't tried anything else as far as a scope set up I do have a gopro max and my phone is a galaxy 10 so I can say that the camera video quality is just as good as my galaxy 10 and gopro max it very easy to use too ill put up a video when I get home but you have to take the scope into consideration I have an IOR RECON and it makes all the difference. 
 
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I had a Tactacam 5.0 w/FTS, but sold it. I didn't feel the video quality was up to par with that of a GoPro HERO 7 (which I already had). Biggest reasons were it only did 240 fps at 720 resolution, I didn't feel it had the same latitude of image settings to adjust exposure, and I thought the sharpness was just a little lesser than the HERO 7. Image exposure, image sharpness, and 240 fps slomo capture in full 1080 were my priorities, so I went with the GoPro. HOWEVER... if ease of setup and use, and the fact that there are two reflex mirrors (recorded image does not have to be flipped horizontally to display correctly) are important to you, you do get that. Battery changes can also be done (and you will be doing that several times in a long day of shooting no matter what you shoot with) without removing the camera from the enclosure. It also has presets for different shooting configurations which was really nice.

It does a fine job, but my priorities were not it's strong points. I also have a photography background, and am pretty critical of image quality in general, maybe more so than is really necessary. But, I like what I like.
 
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Chuck, 😊

I appreciate people like you who give detailed reasons why the recommend/like a product or not.

And who give us a little bit of context how to take their reasons (your photography background and your self-evaluation that your priorities might be somewhat different than from the majority of people).



Your comments were very helpful for my decision making. 👍🏼👍🏼 

Now if I just find some money laying on the street to afford the Tactacam...! 😄

Matthias
 
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My main complain with the tactacam was constant reflection going into the footage everything behind me was showing on the video. The sideshot and eagle vision hace an eye cup that when used you block all the light going from behind so no reflection. 

Hi Orion,

Is the 90 degrees lens enough to get a full image of the scope view, or do you need to use the digital zoom of the camera ?
Click to expand...

The camera has 3 modes, wide, medium and Narrow, I alternate between medium and Narrow ... I don't think it's a digital zoom because those modes affect the Metering Mode. 
 
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The camera has 3 modes, wide, medium and Narrow, I alternate between medium and Narrow ... I don't think it's a digital zoom because those modes affect the Metering Mode.
Click to expand...

The only way to alter the image size/format/aspect ratio is by optically altering the image projected onto the sensor, or by altering/manipulating the pixels produced by the sensor from the image the lens optically projects onto it. If it is optically "zoomed", you have to manipulate the lens somehow. A "zoom lens" does an "optical zoom" by adjusting lens components inside the lens that you change the position of, usually by turning a lens ring or moving a lever. This changes the image from a wide view, to a narrow view, or the like, but does it optically. Unless you go with something like a BackBone mod kit on a GoPro, action cameras use lenses with a fixed focus and focal length, so the optical image projected is not changing. Any altering of the image relative to its format, angle of view, etc., must be getting done digitally somehow.
 
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Dale,

your video is very helpful, I saved it to my harddrive for future reference. 👍🏼

I hope some other people post videos with their setups as well — commenting to us on the difference between

▪through the scope and without scope (with some details what scope and what magnification)

▪different resolutions and different frames per second settings



Dale, was this the newest model of the Tactacam?



Matthias
 
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I tried the Tactacam, but have not tried the others. It was nicely made and setup fairly well, but on the scope I tried it on, I couldn’t get the view thru the reticle focus to match up to the video. One would be out of focus when the other wasn’t. The whole point for me was to be able to see and video the same thing.

I know that plenty of others have not had that issue, but it does seem to be a common issue across some camera setups. As much as I want to try another camera, the frustration has left me to just not bother anymore. I know it could just be me and my eyes, so I’m not sure what to make of it. 
 
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Orion... it looks like you're in the US (Florida). Did you order your Eagle Vision GoPro Side Cam system directly from Eagle Vision Cam in the UK? If so, did it get held by US Customs for an extended inspection coming into the States? Also, did you have to pay addition duties/tariffs to get it released for delivery? How long did it take from order to delivery?

I have one still in Customs going through inspection (2 days to get to the US, 30 days and counting in Customs...). I had to pay an additional $44 in duties, and am still waiting.

Thanks for the feedback on your order.
Click to expand...

Wanted to post the resolution to my GoPro Side-Cam kit ordered directly from Eagle Vision in the UK... I got it today. However, the timeline was as follows:

1) Ordered from the eaglevisioncam.com website: 9/17 (evening)

2) Shipped from the UK: 9/18

3) Received into US Customs in Franklin Park, IL (outside Chicago - 3.5 hours from my home): 9/20

4) Both notified of and paid import duties (~$45): 10/6

5) Denied entry clearance by US Customs and returned to shipper: 11/3

6) Received back at Eagle Vision: 11/7

7) Re-shipped by Eagle Vision: 11/9

8) Cleared through US Customs: 11/11

9) Delivered at my door: 11/12

What a ride. I have no idea what the issue was. I cannot substantiate it with fact, but if I was to speculate, I would suspect DHL accepted the duties from me (DHL billed me for the duties, not US Customs), and possibly didn't get them transferred to US Customs, and they returned it for failure to pay import duties. Again... it's only speculation, but I have a hard time thinking US Customs would inspect a parcel, assess duties for importing the item, then deny the import after collecting duties for its import. But, who knows. I have received no info from US Customs as to why it was refused. DHL could get no information on it, and Masood Movahed at Eagle Vision said he has never had one shipped to the US returned by Customs, and he has no info on why he got it back.

All I can tell you is Masood at Eagle Vision was INCREDIBLY helpful in getting the package ultimately delivered and in my hands. He went above and beyond in trying to end my unbelievable waiting game. I cannot recommend Eagle Vision products and service highly enough. Ironically, I am replacing a Side-Shot GoPro rig with this Eagle Vision unit, and I was able to call and speak with Masood in the UK instantly through the WhatsApp app, and not even have to pay for the international call. I have never been able to speak with anyone from Side-Shot, and getting a reply to email was about 50-50. I know some businesses simply choose to operate under a business model where they don't allow the customers to have any means other than email to contact them, but that just bothers me. Side-Shot has a good side-cam product, but if you want personal service after the sale, Eagle Vision is the way to go, even if there is a wait to get it. Just my two cents on it.


 
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