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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

New Zeiss Victory Photoscope (1 Viewer)

I am always a little wary about combining two pieces of equipment like this. As mentioned in the review, the specs for the camera are already looking rather dated and I can't help thinking that the scope will outlast the camera by many years. I would rather have a good scope and a camera which can up updated independently of it, even if it is more fiddly getting the two to work together.

Ron
 
When i checked the first link, it did look like a dream come true ( not for me at that price ) but when i found the other link, as Paul said, there's some serious flaws.

Indeed the camera specs already look outdated, and no IS seems to be a big faux pas
 
I don't think the lack of image stabilization is an issue as most camera makers recommend you turn off IS when mounting a camera on a tripod. Something to do with the vibrations being too small for IS was intended for which can make the camera introduce its own shake.

Reading that review it looks like the scope was announced sometime in 2008 which means it must have been in development for a while before that. We are nearly in 2011 so the technology is maybe getting on for 5 years out of date. The main issues for me in the review were the poor battery life, I think the user said around 100 images on a battery, no HD video but instead quite a low resolution AVI and slow to write images to the SD card.

There's a gallery of photos here. The one that opens up on this link shows some quite bad CA. I noticed a lot of the brighter images had blown highlights too. A lot of the images are acceptable but it certainly doesn't produce images worthy of the price tag.

http://weiw.lightshedder.com/Animals/Birds/Zeiss-PhotoScope-85FL/10019674_kVJRe#685960716_XjQnV


Paul.
 
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This is Zeiss's second attempt to incorporate a digital camera into their telescopes.Some five years ago they produced the DC4,a 20x/30x fixed eyepiece incorporating a digital camera which fitted both of their top of the range scopes.It was a neat concept but when it was launched the camera was already outdated.The only essential function that could be altered was the ISO setting.Shutter speed and aperture were automatically set.Even at that time cheap 'point and shoot' cameras were much more versatile,and many had a video facility.A prototype Phonescope was on display at Rutland Water in 2009,but I again told the Zeiss people that the technology in the camera was,in my view,behind the times,and it looks as if this has not been taken on board.I know that camera specs are advancing at an astonishing rate but for the asking price the imaging is seriously outdated,and there is no way to change the camera as it is built into the body of the scope.
 
Have seen these going for about £4500 so must be brill l have 2 a Vistapix IS70 with a 3mg 14x set mag but for £90 cant go wrong inc PP and a Bushnell Camera scope with set 22x 3meg about again but goes up to 50x if anybody uses that mag, the Vistapix camera scope came with a lovely alum box to carry your scope in get very good results with both,have seen the vista on sites for £350 the bushneell about £430, you have to be keen to get the Zeiss Rick
 
Paul Corfield said:
I don't think the lack of image stabilization is an issue as most camera makers recommend you turn off IS when mounting a camera on a tripod. Something to do with the vibrations being too small for IS was intended for which can make the camera introduce its own shake.

Reading that review it looks like the scope was announced sometime in 2008 which means it must have been in development for a while before that. We are nearly in 2011 so the technology is maybe getting on for 5 years out of date. The main issues for me in the review were the poor battery life, I think the user said around 100 images on a battery, no HD video but instead quite a low resolution AVI and slow to write images to the SD card.

There's a gallery of photos here. The one that opens up on this link shows some quite bad CA. I noticed a lot of the brighter images had blown highlights too. A lot of the images are acceptable but it certainly doesn't produce images worthy of the price tag.

http://weiw.lightshedder.com/Animals/Birds/Zeiss-PhotoScope-85FL/10019674_kVJRe#685960716_XjQnV


Paul.
Click to expand...

That vulture photo is awful. Why would anyone use that as an example to entice someone to buy this contraption. Besides, it's a heck of a lot more fun to read about you tinkering around with a box full of junk and coming up with something that performs at least as well as a lot of the "high performance" equipment :)

Rick
 
Agreed - that shouldnt have made it to the Zeiss gallery, but if you go through the pages of photos, there are some very good ones, ( by no means all ) so perhaps this points to either some poor choice of composition or metering, coupled with less than stellar PP work.

They're certainly not all as bad as that Vulture.
 
I think that criticism is a waste of time so after viewing many of the images (at 3x) I thought I'd waste a little.

My fav compact is a Sony w-300 with a ZEISS lens, when looking for detail ZEISS always came through. These images are complete failures and don't come close to my 6mp images I took years ago on a non ED scope. WHERE IS THE DETAIL???

My conclusion is the site is trying to get something for poor investment of resources or simply a BIG JOKE.
 
Handy for record shots, As for serious photography i doubt the two will not be combined for a very long length of time....

Karpman
 
The Zeiss Photoscope is down to 3000 Euro now in most German retailers. Probably a sign that something new is coming?
But may be also a good buy for some, being cheaper now than a Zeiss Diascope (or Leica or Swaro or Nikon EDG) + Digiscoping adapter + compact Digicam.
 
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