ZEISS - integrated 7Megapixel 85 T* FL announced (1 Viewer)

Agree with your central points, that the sensor is small and so low light performance will suffer and that professionals will keep using the huge lenses that full size sensors require.
Still, the light loss due to the beam splitter is not fatal and the 7meg image size can be readily adjusted as the sensors improve.
So as an adjunct for the professional and as a mainstay for the very well heeled birder,
this glass may yet impose itself. It looks a wonderful piece of gear, which has me wondering what industrial uses there might be for a well integrated recording spotting scope.

etudiant said:

Still, the light loss due to the beam splitter is not fatal and the 7meg image size can be readily adjusted as the sensors improve.

Click to expand...

It may not be fatal, but it causes "bad coatings"-kind of light loss instead of "small exit pupil"-kind of light loss, which IMO is a serious shortcoming - especially for comfortable viewing.

I am also afraid that the technology for this concept to succeed is not there yet. In the current digital imaging markets any significant improvement in sensor or display technologies (many of which are expected in near future) will almost immediately make the earlier models obsolete. Compared to "traditional" high-end optics, the potential profits should be made during very short product life-cycles, which IMO does not suit very well to a company like Zeiss.

But as I have said earlier, a zooming objective is an interesting innovation, which - when well implemented - could bring some true advantages over traditional spotting scope design.

Best regards,

Ilkka

The beam splitter was the hardest part of this design,according to the Zeiss spokesperson.
Keeping everything in phase for both the eyepiece as well as the sensor is apparently a challenge. Of course there may well be other complications that were left unmentioned.
I have no idea whether Zeiss is considering more frequent upgrades to keep the product current as is the norm in the DSLR world, but they may not have a choice once they enter the world of digital optics.

etudiant said:

Still, the light loss due to the beam splitter is not fatal and the 7meg image size can be readily adjusted as the sensors improve.

Click to expand...

The beam splitter is the fatal part. Beam splitters are not optional, they are on all the time and split the beam (i.e. light) in a fixed ratio. Not taking light loss due to reflection and refraction on optical surfaces and media into account your eye will always only see a % of the available light and the camera the other %. No end will get to see full light intensity.

Beamsplitters are great for specific purposes (if you want to split light in different spectra of wavelenghts) or if you have lots of it. In telescopy and photography light is most of the time a limiting factor, and there is good reason why SLR cameras still use a mirror mechanism rather than a beamsplitter.

The sensor size/type/MP is of secondary concern, because every sensor can only utilize the light the the beamsplitter reflects its way.

Ulli