The ULTIMATE?

[Dave Hawkins]

Don't know if any of you guys have seen this:eek!: :

http://www.surfbirds.com/sbirdsnews/archives/2008/10/the_ultimate_in.html

Looks very interesting...but the price?

:eek!:

Dave

[The Raptor]

Have to agree with you Dave, sure is a very interesting piece of kit, would be good to know the price however. Thank's for posting Dave.

ROD.

[postcardcv]

it does look like a smart bit of kit, I have heard £2500-3000 as a probably price... for me such a set up would only be good if teh camera section was easily upgradeable.

[Dave Hawkins]

At just short of 3kg it's heavy |=o| and is going to need a beast of tripod |=o| and head to keep it steady especially at maximum zoom.

It's a shame it does not have some sort of vibration reduction technology for use on windy days.

Photographically, the instant set up and awesome field of view will mean it is easier to find and keep birds in the camera.

Optically,the wide field for raptor and sea watching at low power is for me a worthy trade off for losing the extra oomph past x45. On many occasions poor light or heat haze (on sunny days) and vibration due to wind simply do not allow for detailed viewing past x45, never mind digiscoping.

This could be a great set up for digiscoping on a sea watch if you can get out of the wind.

But I come back again to the weight in combination with tripod and head.

I guess carrying it around means I could save money on gym membership so it may be affordable after all ;)

Dave

[Paul Corfield]

3kg should be easy enough to handle out in the field. I carry my astro scope/dslr setup around for a few hours at a time and that weighs a couple of pounds more.

Only problem I see with gadgets like this is you are putting all your eggs into one basket which isn't much fun when it quickly goes out of date. I still see the scope and separate camera as the way to go, especially with the added extras coming out on the new crop of cameras like HD video for instance. For me the whole joy of digiscoping is trying out new stuff like different cameras, eyepieces, lenses, always trying to improve my gear etc. If I was tied down to a setup like this that I couldn't alter then I'd probably give up digiscoping. I'm not happy unless I'm tinkering :-O

I guess for some with deep pockets it will be ideal and if the image quality is any good then I'll have fun beating it for a fraction of the price. :t:

Paul.

[JGobeil]

There have been binoculars with an integrated camera for quite some time and do not sell very well.

IMO, it is not a very good idea. Knowing how quickly cameras become out or date, I would not want my expensive spotting scope to become obsolete in 6 months.... :C:C

[Isurus]

I'd be really interested to see how its put together. If I understand the way its put together properly the image is split out which raises the question of whether a twinbeam cameraless scope might be a possibility which would allow you to use one beam for your own camera/mount etc and the other identical one for observation/composition etc etc.

[RJM]

I don't think the Zeiss 3kg weight is all that bad. Most 80mm digiscoping setups with a swing out adapter would weigh this much.

Not a new concept though except it is a Zeiss with a more traditional scope look. Kowa combined a 3MP digicam with a 50mm fieldscope with their TD-1 a few years ago. Then there is the ubiquitous China-made "Vistapix" marketed now by Celestron and others.

cheers,
Rick