I’m looking for an affordable way to shoot subjects about 3-500m away from a stationary position.
I could obviously spend 500 bucks on a “proper” camera but it would be harder to hide and I don’t really want to spend that much money.
SO - I’m looking for either some really good optics to put on my phone camera, or - ideally - a discreet and affordable camera with optics. I need around 50x magnification.
I know there are monocular and binocular cameras, but I don’t know what their quality is like, and I’d need a way to look at what’s being filmed without holding the device up to my eyes, so it would need to have a screen on it? I know those exist, but does anyone have any experience with them? Worried I’ll buy one for 200 bucks only to find it has a framerate of 10fps.
Otherwise, if anyone can recommend a brand of “proper” cameras that can fit a zoom lens and cost less than 300 bucks, I’d love to know.
I already have a monocular lens with 50x magnification but it’s a PEST attaching it to my phone each time because it’s so heavy, it’s not very easy to conceal, and the quality of the output needs to improve.
I’m sorry man, but you’re living in a fantasy world. 500 meters (1,640.42 feet) is an insane distance to shoot from. At that range you’re going to deal with heat distortion/ heat blur, chromatic aboration, perspective flattening, and a massive loss of light hitting the sensor. Not even the most expensive professional lenses are capable of that, let alone having a range of 3 meters to 500 meters.
For that distance you need a telescope with a camera adaptor.
I’m assuming this is a troll post because at that distance you wouldn’t need to conceal a camera…your subjects won’t even see you!
Ranges like the OP mentioned don’t exist. The best he could do is a DSLR camera with interchangeable lenses. Camera bodies are not too expensive these days, but the lenses can get pricy. Cheap camera bodies are around $500 US, and a decent telephoto lens will run you about $1,000 US.
Cheap lenses are not worth it. Most are made with plastic lenses and have terrible image quality.
I sometimes shoot professional sporting events. We use big zoom lenses, but they aren’t discreet, and they aren’t cheap. They also can’t shoot targets at 1,640 feet away…that’s like shooting a highly detailed photo of a person’s face at the top of the Empire State Building while you’re standing on the ground.
The only thing that comes to mind would be the Nikon Coolpix P1000 or Nikon Coolpix P950. The P1000 has a 24-3000 lens with 125x optical zoom … lol. They both have a monster zoom’s built in. Here are some sample videos on youtube… crazy. Btw… it is HUGE.
I would not buy these personally. Image quality is questionable and would not be sharp imho. It could work for some peps that shoot from a far distance, maybe.
This is an example of something I shot using my pro DSLR with a 500mm zoom lens. I would guess that the subject is at least 300 feet away. It’s not super sharp, but that was due to some heavy winds blowing the lens around some.
I’ve shot some high quality shots of a home run baseball falling out of the glove of the right fielder. That lens had a 700mm zoom and could sharply shoot to the edge of the ballpark some 500-600 feet away. That lens is made of high quality glass, weighs a ton, and is huge! Even a lens that professional, they expensive, couldn’t shoot 3 times that distance and still be perfectly sharp. Your subject would look tiny and wouldn’t be worth the expense.
Anyway, this is thousands of dollars worth of equipment and the best you can get is a couple hundred feet away.
Sometimes I shoot in the city where lighting conditions are really harsh. The buildings cast really dark shadows, but the gaps in the buildings give you very harsh sun. It’s hard to shoot in conditions like that without constantly adjusting settings.
I always shoot in manual mode, gives me more control over the settings.
I’m not a troll, but in retrospect I shouldn’t have guesstimated the range. I realize longer range means lower quality, but I did not figure it’d really matter to what setup would be better or worse for filming at range.
In fact, it’s more like 200 meters. Sorry for being very inexact.
And I’ve got tons of workable footage at that distance, from the location I intend to film from, but the lens I’ve kludged onto my phone is not high quality and doesn’t fit too well, so I’m looking for an upgrade.
Been filming hours and hours, and I hope to find the time to do so again this year and future years.
But I want the camera to be discreet because people aside from my subject will be walking nearby - I need to be able to quickly put it away and it should ideally be less bulky, or not look so much like a camera. I’ve gotten caught multiple times while filming from closer distances, and despite the footage being good, I’d prefer to keep it safe and just film from this far distance with the least-bad camera option I can afford.
So, since you’re the expert, and my ask in retrospect is more realistic, do you think there’s anything short of a professional camera that would provide better footage than a wonky 50-bucks monocular attached to a cellphone?
(It says 35-50x on the monocular, I take this to mean it zooms to 50x magnification but I’m a bit lost in the jargon.)
I’d be happy to share lots of footage if anyone can recommend a good option. Again, it could be a traditional mid-price-range video camera, or something specialized, or possibly just a really good phone camera accessory.
Btw, here’s an example of the quality I’m currently getting with my kludgy setup on a day when the lens plays nice.
I know a lot of guys like close-ups with lots of detail, I’m aware this isn’t high quality, I’m not trying to impress, but I’ve enjoyed some of these vids a lot (I’ve compensated by getting clips from closer distances as a supplement if I really liked a subject, but it’d be great if some kind of upgraded camera would just get a better quality image from my safe perch.)
I guess it shouldn’t need to be said, but I’m obviously not looking for optimally crisp still images. I know heat blur is an issue. I just want an upgrade that won’t break my bank.
Although tbh the Nikon camera makes me wonder if I should just pull out some of my retirement savings…
Thanks for your reply. I’m actually really wondering how I could get away with buying something like that. Super expensive, and how on Earth would I conceal it in certain use cases… But holy crap I could get good footage at 200m. I’m just worried that IF I got caught I’d have no plausible deniability at all
Maaaybe there are more affordable options that don’t have quite as much zoom? Although on the other hand… I could sit twice as far away with this bad boy.
200 meters (656 feet) is still insanely far. I can get sharp images at 600 feet with a big telescope of a lens, but there’s no way on earth to get that quality from a cell phone attached lens. You’re still living in a fantasy world, my friend.
I don’t understand why you need it to be concealed when you are standing 200 meters (656 feet) away from your subject.
The specifications you’re asking for just don’t exist.
The example I posted already uses a phone-attached lens. And as mentioned, I’m worried about getting noticed by people walking behind my perch because there’s a well-used walking path just 10 meters behind where I’m sitting. There aren’t unlimited angles to play with, sadly. Also people occasionally come closer to my location from the front, and people might be sus if I’m sitting somewhere for two hours in the first place.
But I think you’re not quite understanding my request - I’m happy to take recommendations for compact cameras and specialized cameras (like binocular cameras) if people have any experience with the model. BUT simply a well-designed phone attachment would still be a cheap upgrade if somebody could vouch for the quality.
I’ve been looking at these “superzoom” cameras Sniper_OG mentioned like the P1000 and the Canon SX70 HS and they seem ideal for the purpose, there’s of demonstrations of people getting fairly clear shots of people upwards of a kilometer away.
I think honestly I WILL break the bank for one of these, it should be a piece of cake to shoot 200m away and the cameras have a built-in ability to stream the feed to my phone (currently I use a second phone to control the hidden camera). All I’d need to to rig a way to hold it at the right angle while it’s inside a bag. Could probably just place the bag itself on a towel or something.
Unfortunately it’s too large to be used outside of this specific setting, but maybe I could get creative with my concealment.
