New digiscoping toy from minox (1 Viewer)

Looks like Minox recently came out (or will be coming out soon) with a new toy.

http://minox.com/index.php?id=70&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=141&tx_ttnews[backPid]=8&cHash=e2fb445813

A digital only "eyepiece" to view, film, and take photographs ......
And it will be offered for a number of non-minox scopes as well......


UH

Thanks for posting this UH, very interesting.


Just my luck that fitting it to a Nikon fieldscope does not appear to be an option.


Hmmn! wonder if it could be made to work using a threaded male insert attached to one of the bayonet fittings mentioned?


Kind Regards

Indeed very interesting IF the price is right. I couldn't see a figure quoted - was there one? The trouble is brackets can be had relatively cheaply and mass production/competition will keep the price of suitable cameras down. A specialist item such as this will invariably be pricey. Also I know pixel number isn't everything, but its a pity it's not a 8+ sensor rather than 5 megapixels,

John

Very tasty looking bit of kit indeed - wonder if Leica will be an option ?

For specification and price indicator see here:

http://www.opticsforyou.com/product-31533-0-1-1.html

This topic is also on the Spotting Scopes & Tripods \ Heads forum.

Kind regards.

Well done Minox good to see a bit of innovation.

I suspect it won't be too long before it's copied. Hopefully the next version will have autofocus!

Some bad news...

If it really were a 5 MP that would be just about right. Actually its a 3.2 MP CMOS sensor that interpolates up to 5 MP. Barely adequate depending on how big the chip actually is.

It says it is equivalent to 40X on a Minox scope or 60X on a Leica Scope. I do not do a lot of quality digiscoping at 60X. Even with good optics, that is a lot of vibration to deal with.

Can't tell if it has a focus system or not. If it is strictly manual focus on 2.4 inch screen, it had better be a high rez screen.

Only time will tell, but it does not look the perfect solution.

aomcm said:

Some bad news...

If it really were a 5 MP that would be just about right. Actually its a 3.2 MP CMOS sensor that interpolates up to 5 MP. Barely adequate depending on how big the chip actually is.

It says it is equivalent to 40X on a Minox scope or 60X on a Leica Scope. I do not do a lot of quality digiscoping at 60X. Even with good optics, that is a lot of vibration to deal with.

Can't tell if it has a focus system or not. If it is strictly manual focus on 2.4 inch screen, it had better be a high rez screen.

Only time will tell, but it does not look the perfect solution.

Click to expand...

Might be a bit raw at first. I can't comment without seeing the results. I do know this will become the norm. It's a matter of time but basically it won't be long before you look down your 'scope and click to capture the image you see. No additional cameras or brackets. This sounds like the first step on that journey.

There's another company (can't quite remember) who has already built an all in one view/capture funtionality piece.

As I said on the other thread this looks very interesting, I've been expecting such a product to arrive, though coming fro Minox was a slight surprise. It could be good but the spec doesn't give all the useful info - I'd like to know about start up time, battery life, frame rate, buffer size/write time and of course shutter lag. I'd like to have a play with one, it coudl be a good bit of kit.

One question out of curiosity:
Minox states the mag with their scope is 40x and with the Leica (presumably the big one) 60x. So if I use a regular digicam for digiscoping with a, lets say 20x eyepiece, what' the mag in the resulting image? Depending on the cropping it is more than 20x. And I don't talk about the cropping done afterwards on the computer. It's the cropping done prior to taking the image by zooming in to avoid vignetting as much as possible.
So if the 40x Minox is talking about refers to the square image (as seen in the add on the display) than that would be equivalent to looking into a 20x-25x eyepiece (if I fit a 2:3 ratio square into a circle it covers ~60% of the circle), for the 60x that would be ~ 35x?
For marketing reasons 40x and 60x makes the thing look more impressive than 25x and 35x to the uneducated eye.

If my conclusions are going the right direction we are not talking here about digiscoping with a 60x eyepiece equivalent........

Anyway, I am sure we will here soon some facts from people who had a chance to play with the thing for real.....

UH

As posted in the other thread, i talked to Minox Germany and they answered some questions:

- bajonet mount for minox / kowa (TSN 1-4, 600, 660)/ zeiss / leica / swaro
(not interchangeable by user)
- size: 68 x 56 x 71 mm
- weight: 220 g
- bright 2.4" color display
- water resistant, shock proof
- 128 MB internal Memory
- Slot for SD-Cards up to 4GB
- Li-Ion-Battery (interchangeable)
- wireless remote control included
- 3,2 MP physical resolution
- Video clips (320 x 240 px)
- available: June 2008
- EUR 299,- incl. German VAT (19%)
- USB connection enables switching the display content to an external monitor


Further Versions for Nikon and others will follow.

Bep.

P.S. Most important for me was the information, that Kowa and Minox eyepieces use the same bayonet mount. I love my Minox 62 ED scope, but they dont offer high end eyepieces. Now I'll give the kowa e.p. a chance..

Lawts said:

There's another company (can't quite remember) who has already built an all in one view/capture funtionality piece.

Click to expand...

Kowa had one and so do Celsestron

http://www.oceanwanderers.com/KowaTD1.html
http://www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?CatID=30&ProdID=417

digiscoper62 said:

Kowa had one and so do Celsestron

http://www.oceanwanderers.com/KowaTD1.html
http://www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?CatID=30&ProdID=417

Click to expand...

They do have an all-in-one solution each. Zeiss and Minox offer an interchangeable e.p. with a built in digicam - that is not the same thing. I think that is much more versatile and there won't ever be a need to sell a great scope just because the built in camera is poor.

just my 2 cents..

Bep

Yes I know but I was replying to this :-

There's another company (can't quite remember) who has already built an all in one view/capture funtionality piece.

Click to expand...

Cheers

Way to go, at last a manufacturer has it's thinking cap on. Do away with those adapters, fiddly screws to locate the camera, no hand holding, just need to up the mp and as Peter says give us some more data on battery life etc.

Something to look forward to at the Birdfair!!!

Good afternoon all,

I was wondering how long it would be before these questions appeared and having only had time to check the Minox section in Binoculars etc I see I am a tad behind the times.

Anyway, hopefully as few answers and reasons etc for you who have asked questions.

If you click on the Newpro website link in my signature at the bottom, then click on the obvious DEC 5.0 icon, that will take you to a page which gives as much information as we know at the moment.

Some figures may differ from Minox Germany's own site, but all stated magnifications for the different 'scopes have been calculated from the formulas Minox's own research department gave us.

OK Answers as far as I can give them:

Narawood – we've got the Germans working on a solution to 'scopes with screw fitting eyepieces – as you'll appreciate with a bayonet there will always be a definite 'stop' whereas a screw fit eyepiece may be tightened by some more than others. Standardising this is the problem they’re trying to overcome.

John and aomcm – the actual width of the light beam which reaches the sensor (or eyepiece for that matter) is very narrow. Having a sensor bigger than the light beam will be pointless (wasted pixels) and cramming more 'actual' pixels into the space will clearly lead to more 'noise'. The 3.2MP sensor does the job very well for what it is and the results we've seen so far (including photographing a neon sign at night!) have been very encouraging

Ikw101 – the beauty of this is that it has a fixed focus and all the focussing is done with the telescope so therefore what you see on the screen is your focus screen. I've tried it (albeit very briefly) on my Kowa TSN-3 and it's very easy. That coupled with the infra-red remote release which comes with it means you can track, follow and continually focus on your subject without having to change to a separate af / shutter button on the camera to take your shots.

Mcbep – the specs given by Germany are correct to a point but don't take too much notice of the price for the moment. Also one factor they miss out is that the newer 820 / 770 / 880 series Kowas are all compatible with the DEC 5.0 with the adapter that allows you to use the older style TSN eyepieces with these 'scopes.

Anyway, I hope this helps for the moment. I'll keep a look out here for any more questions which may be raised and do my best to answer them but for now the Newpro website has all that we know!

ATB,

Dave.

A neat looking gadget. 6 megs would have got me excited but 3.2 megs doesn't give you much cropping room. That won't stop me from getting one though . Neil.

Neil look forward to your in depth review in due course.

I had the chance to have a play with one of these at the weekend, it looked very promising. The unit itself is small and light weight, it is clearly very easy to put on the scope (tested on a Kowa). The screen seems clear and easy to view, speaking to the chap from Kowa* they are slightly reducing the size of the screen and doubling the resolution which will be good for manually focusing. The remote release wasn't there to test but would clearly make use easier than jabbing the shutter button.

*opps - teach me to start posting before my first coffee of the day... obviously it was the chap from Minox that I was talking to about this now Minox product!!!

postcardcv said:

speaking to the chap from Kowa they are slightly reducing the size of the screen and doubling the resolution which will be good for manually focusing.

Click to expand...

Kowa? Shhhh, don't tell the boss!

Anyway, glad you liked the look and general use of it Peter - we tried it on the new 883 Kowa which did give very nice results, even at several hundred yards range (or whatever distance the NWT centre to the scrapes is!) all Avocets were sharp :t: and as expected the image was a tad brighter on this 'scope than on the TSN-3.

ATB,

Dave.