REVIEW: Click-up Hide from Outdoor Photography Gear Ltd

Listen up - ok, I'll 'fess up - until fairly recently, my 'photo hide' was in fact a £20 kid's pop-up tent from The Range.  If I ever had any credibility as a wildlife photographer, it just evaporated in that one sentence.  In mitigation though, it was camo - so please don't run away with the thought that it was girlie pink with My Little Pony motifs all around.  To be fair, it did the job.  It was a tad cramped and it leaked like hell if it rained.  Dead easy to erect, but a nightmare chinese puzzle of a thing to get back into its carrying case.  You had to do some kind of 'figure of eight' twist manoeuvre to get it back into storage shape, much to the amusement of any onlookers.  But, it fooled a good few birds and mammals into letting me photograph them close-up, so it was - in the loosest terms, a hide.

All this changed when I popped over to see the nice folk at Outdoor Photography Gear Ltd, near Warrington.  I needed a couple of lenses and a tripod 'camo-ing up', and if you ask them nicely they'll actually do the measuring up and manufacture on the spot.  That was the problem, you see - while the lady machinist got to work on my camo covers, I had a spare twenty minutes or so to look around their stock room.  Fatal mistake.  I instantly fell in love with their new 'Click-up Hide'.  Easiest thing in the world to sell, to be honest (and I should know - I'm a salesman myself) because it is - da-dahh - photographer friendly.

I am a cynical, miserable old sod.  If I can find fault with something I'll bleat on about it for weeks.  But honestly, I can't find anything to moan about here.  Coming in it's own carry bag, the first thing you notice is how lightweight it is.  I could carry that anywhere.  Once out of the bag, getting it set up is simplicity itself - pull one strap and one side clicks up.  Pull the strap on the other side and - hey presto - the other side clicks into place.  Hence 'Click-up' and not 'Pop-up'.  Er, that's it.  Nothing more complicated than that.

Coffee cup not included

Made of durable material, it has a sturdy metal frame to keep it rigid.  You get a bag of tent pegs with it, and I would recommend you use these as it helps keep the sides from flapping around in the wind.  Around the sides of the hide there are no less than 8 'windows' to take photos from - so while you are taking pictures of that Blue Tit on your feeder, you won't miss that grizzly bear lurking to one side.

Its right cosy inside.

You can just about get two photographers plus tripods in there at the same time, so you can 'buddy up' with someone else and not trip over one another.  On your own, its lavishly spacious.

Look birdies - I'm a bush. Honest.

Check out Outdoor Photography Gear's website at http://www.outdoorphotographygear.co.uk/