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Binocular Camera? (1 Viewer)

Birdy93

Well-known member
How do you feel about Binocular cameras for birding? Getting the nice zoom of the binoculars in an image.

Thank you!
 
I'd really like it if there were a good one I could afford.
Unfortunately, what is offered is junk, generally a cheap set of binoculars with a wretched lens/sensor combination sandwiched between the barrels. So the camera does not get the benefit of the binocular optics at all.
Zeiss sells a scope that has an integrated photo sensor for video photography. It is a superb piece of equipment, with a price to match, around $5k or so. It does use the scope optics for the sensor, which is quite a tricky job.

The other supplier in this game is Sony, which has launched a line of electronic binoculars, basically 2 video recorders strapped together. You look at the screens of the video cameras, which have an HD image and of course the data can be recorded. This is much cheaper, around $1500 or so, but of course the image you see is not as sharp as a regular binoculars image. Against that, these also work in lower light, because the sensor is more flexible than the human eye in low light.
 
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The other supplier in this game is Sony, which has launched a line of electronic binoculars, basically 2 video recorders strapped together. You look at the screens of the video cameras, which have an HD image and of course the data can be recorded. This is much cheaper, around $1500 or so, but of course the image you see is not as sharp as a regular binoculars image. Against that, these also work in lower light, because the sensor is more flexible than the human eye in low light.

I am not sure about this sharpness claim. In my brief "I have seen the future and its a SONY" thread, it appear the EVFs are hi rez and the pixelization normally seen is absent. Kinda like Apples Retina Display on the iPhone 4. The affect is the "illusion" an analog optic. Of course the BIG ADVANTAGES Sony offers over any other previous marriage of camera and binocular is image stabilzation AND Full HD video, and in way cool 3D too. If Sony could bump the optical mag up to 25+, it would totally disrupt the digiscoping/nature photography market.
 
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I am not sure about this sharpness claim. In my brief "I have seen the future and its a SONY" thread, it appear the EVFs are hi rez and the pixelization normally seen is absent. Kinda like Apples Retina Display on the iPhone 4. The affect is the "illusion" an analog optic. Of course the BIG ADVANTAGES Sony offers over any other previous marriage of camera and binocular is image stabilzation AND Full HD video, and in way cool 3D too. If Sony could bump the optical mag up to 25+, it would totally disrupt the digiscoping/nature photography market.

I tried a pair at the Birdfair in the UK at the end of last Summer - I think they were made by Sony. Whilst impressed, I could tell it was a digital image and it wasn't up to the quality of view through a decent pair of binoculars (unfortunately). We're not there yet!
 
I am not sure about this sharpness claim. In my brief "I have seen the future and its a SONY" thread, it appear the EVFs are hi rez and the pixelization normally seen is absent. Kinda like Apples Retina Display on the iPhone 4. The affect is the "illusion" an analog optic. Of course the BIG ADVANTAGES Sony offers over any other previous marriage of camera and binocular is image stabilzation AND Full HD video, and in way cool 3D too. If Sony could bump the optical mag up to 25+, it would totally disrupt the digiscoping/nature photography market.

Rick:

You may be know about how 3-D and how Sony's big bet and the push for it,
is a current threat to the companies success. A large bet on something that
may never catch on. It seems that many, and I am included, do not care a bit for 3-D. Maybe seen like Beta vs. VHS video, and we know which one, one out.

That being said, I do like Sony, my last 2 quality TV's are Sony, as I feel they
do things very well.

Jerry
 
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I'd thought that the display was HD, so presumably 1920 over 1080.
It would be interesting if it is more, but it may in fact be already just as you said, at the limit of the resolution of the eye for the little screen the user sees.
More zoom should be possible, as there are plenty of little video recorders with 30x lenses.
As noted, the 3D feature seems a bit peripheral. I'd wonder why they don't just use a single optics set to feed the binocular screens. It should be cheaper to make and more handy to use, while allowing for a bigger lens.
 
Rick:

You may be know about how 3-D and how Sony's big bet and the push for it,
is a current threat to the companies success. A large bet on sometihing that
may never catch on. It seems that many, and I am included, do not care a bit for 3-D. Maybe seen like Beta vs. VHS video, and we know which one, one out.

That being said, I do like Sony, my last 2 quality TV's are Sony, as I feel they
do things very well.

Jerry

Yes I agree 3D entertainment in the living room will be a difficult slog and suffers from the inconvenient need for expensive addon headsets for everyone watching and the even more expensive-to-produce interesting content to exploit it.

But 3D in a digital binocular solves the headset issue and nature provides the content gratis. I made my "seen the future" post in all seriousness. It is the most fun I have had looking thru an optic in a while.
 
Thinking more about this design, it seems that Sony may have in fact come up with a valid solution to the perennial problem of providing a wide field of view to a high power set of binoculars.
These glasses could easily allow the user to start observing a large area at low power, maybe down around 4-5x, then zoom in once a target was found.
It seems another logical way to exploit the strengths of the electronic sensor/digital screen aspects of this technology.
 
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