Using Binoculars with a Smartphone Camera during First Ride of 2026

I like the pictures my Samsung S24+ takes though its optical zoom lens is limited to 3X which isn't a lot.  Sure, it'll go to 30X with digital zoom but the images tend towards high pixelation.

Although it's not often, sometimes I find myself wanting more optical zoom.  Such as when my Sony a6000 Camera and associated 200mm Telephoto lens would provide me some depth of focus capabilities.

Alas, the Sony remains broken and I'm not going to be paying to repair it any time soon, if ever.

I had bought from Amazon a tripod mount adapter which secures my 10x40 power binoculars to my tripod. 

I also bought an adapter that secures my smartphone to one of the eyecups of my binoculars:

Two days ago, I assembled it all together and while very fiddly in terms of getting a good sight picture; it might be a usable tool for pics of objects out of range of my smartphone's camera.

For sure it's not something you can put together quickly for a quick shot.

You probably can shoot a distant subject without using a tripod but results will be most likely a bit blurry.  Just no way to hold the camera still enough at those zoom levels!

Here's an example using 3X zoom lens on smartphone coupled withe binoculars focused on the chimney stacks visible from my house.

Using 1X zoom on phone, no binos

Using 3X zoom with binos

Using 3X zoom, no binos

Using 3X zoom with binos

The handheld shots I tried were as expected, slightly blurry due to body/hand movements.  Maybe if I switch to "manual" mode and use a faster shutter speed?

I'll be testing this setup when appropriate in the next few months.  I'm cautiously optimistic might be a solution an infrequently encounter photo subject.  

Today's riding was to pose Scarl with Mt Blue Sky in the background.

Here's a 3X optical zoom shot from about 2/10ths of a mile away from Scarlett I believe.

Same picture as above but magnified and cropped:

Now using the bino adapter, it would take me more than a bit of fiddling before figuring out you have to rotate the binos as well do the camera phone sees things level.  There's also a bit of fiddling getting everything lined up.  This lash-up is definitely not something that's easy/fast to setup!

It was driven home to me, how narrow a field of focus binoculars provide while bringing distant scenery "closer".  Below is the above shot, once I rotated the binos:

1X  with binos, scaled down and cropped

If you think shooting at 1X in the camera's field of view was narrow above.  The below shots are done using the 3X zoom on the camera.

So, obviously, this setup isn't for wide landscape shots.  I can think of possible shots where the background mountain or rock formation is narrower or closer which might work but I won't know till then.

This setup is appraised by birdwatchers to get closer shots of their bird sightings.  I'm going to try for wildlife shots but don't have much hope for success.

More experimentation to follow in my next camping trip.