I've been into photography for I don't know how long.
I bought my first professional 35mm camera as a sophomore in high school. Every five or ten years since, I'd pick up a new camera body, just to play with the new toys - generally sticking to the Canon EOS line.
Among the various accessories for this I've collected is a 90mm aperture, 1000mm focal length, f/11 lens. Or, really, it's more of a compact reflecting telescope. After I bought it (out of the trunk of some guy's car in the parking lot of a bar), I ended up paying a bunch of money for a decent Manfrotto tripod - because the cheap tripods I had been using wouldn't work with it. When I had everything lined up and tried to lock the tripod down so it would stay in position the very act of tightening things down would shift the point of aim.
The thing is that this 90mm lens, with an eyepiece instead of a camera, on a decent full-sized tripod, makes an astounding spotting scope. More than once I've set it up behind the bench at OGC's 200m range, The only problem is you have to get up from your shooting position to look through scope. Of course, you pretty much have to do the same with a regular spotting scope, Still, it bugged me.
I've mused, from time-to-time, of building a little digital device that would fit to the lens, capture the image, and broadcast it to an Android app, so I could display the image on my tablet, without having to get up from the bench.
Of course, I knew I'd never build it.
So, the other day I bought an Canon EOS 90D body - an upgrade for the 20D I bought in 2005.
The 90D does video, which is why I bought it. But it also can connect to a network via WiFi or Bluetooth.
And Canon has an Android app that will connect to the camera.
And the app will display a live feed of what the camera is seeing.
Which makes this whole kit - camera, lens, tripod, an Android tablet, an almost perfect spotting scope.
Except for the price. The 90D by itself runs $1200, with the rest of the kit we're over $2000.
Of course, they're all pieces I bought for other purposes, being able to combine them to make a remote-view spotting scope is simply a happy extra. So I suppose you could say it was free.