Quick Sight LLC Tandem Spotter :: Gear Review :: July, 2007

The age-old technique of pointing to yonder distant object with an extended arm and outstretched finger—“Right there, right there!”—is an inane and inefficient means of directing someone’s line of sight.

Say an antelope is standing near a rock a few hundred feet away on a mountainside. A finger, to be sure, provides a general sense of direction, but accuracy is not a facet of this approach.

Stepping in to solve this observational conundrum, Quick Sight LLC of Renton, Wash., offers a simple tool called the IC-UC that allows one person to direct a second person’s line of sight to a particular pinpoint location.

It works by positioning two peep sights, one on either end of the boxy, 5-inch-long Plexiglas tool, over the same point in the distance. What you see through your hole, is what I’m seeing through mine. Simple.

Made for birders, hunters, photographers, star gazers, and maybe rock climbers trying to point out holds high on a face, the $18.95 IC-UC is inexpensive and easy-to-use.

Objects about 100 feet away and out as far as the eye can see are candidate for the IC-UC, according to the company.

During my test, the IC-UC took a whole four seconds to grasp. Essentially, one person holds the center of the sight between a finger and a thumb, pinching the Plexiglas where it says PLACE THUMB HERE and holding it up to peer into the distance.

You line up your sight, comprised of two closely spaced holes, on an object like a moose in a meadow or a bluebird on a branch. Your viewing partner then comes shoulder to shoulder to squint through the other holes, and—bam!—you’re both looking at the same bird sitting on a branch.

Quick Sight LLC (www.icucquicksight.com) ships the IC-UC with orange sight rings that are made to give off a slight translucent glow useful in low light conditions. The company sells black sight rings that swap out the orange glowers when you’re looking at snowy vistas. For star gazing and other night use, IC-UC is fitted with glow-in-the-dark rings that outline distant nocturnal visions.

Ancillary sight rings of either type go for $2.35 per set.

(Stephen Regenold writes The Gear Junkie column for eight U.S. newspapers; see www.THEGEARJUNKIE.com for video gear reviews, a daily blog, and an archive of Regenold’s work.)