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

Future Birding Gadgets? (1 Viewer)

StokeOwl

Well-known member
It seems like scopes with image stabilisation and built in cameras will become more common in the near future.

Just sat here watching the Gadget Show and wondered what things that haven't been invented yet you would like to see (and this is purely for fun btw)

How about a radio controlled duck with a built in video camera? :smoke:

Or an invisibility cloak? - don't laugh the American military are already working on these :t:
 
I really just want a camera-scope that's as good as my scope on its own, so when I look through it at 60x I can take a pic and it will come out exactly as I'm seeing it through the eyepiece. And if someone can develop a way to attach a scope to a tripod without the bloody plate-threads going all the time and thus making yr scope wiggle around would be a great start ;)
 
all your optics in a single device - bins, scope, camera. like a pair of specs but weighing no more than they do already with all the optics contained in the lenses. you could zoom in & out by tapping a small wireless device. photos as well auto stored wirelessly to a tiny usb drive in your pocket with enormous storage. all of this in your pocket... no carrying round of anything heavy ever again... room for bigger sarnies in your bag... or bigger books
 
There have been binoculars with an inbuilt camera!..but they have been produced by ''little known'' companies offering limited resolution producing an inferior image.
If Leica, Zeiss or any other ''blue chip'' manufacturer brought out a quality product 8x/10x sporting double digit mp, linked to a large sensor..ie producing HQ shots/1080p Video, enabling the user to ''image'' exactly what they see after manually focusing. I for one would go into debt for this type of kit, as binoculars are much better balanced for usage/and instant focusing than any camera.
 
Another scope for development is in the glass itself or rather not glass. Spectacle manufacturers are getting increasing performance out of very lightweight plastics, combined with composite bodies then the portability of larger binoculars could fall dramatically.
 
Night vision bins and googles - even models already used by the world's armies. :t:

Imagine seeing owls at night like during day. And wild cats and other mammals.

Scientists protecting tigers, rhinos and other endangered species will have their work totally revolutionized. There will be discoveries among owls, nightjars, petrels and mammals we don't even imagine now.

Unfortunately, all the useful ones are restricted. I hope China or somebody will break the army grip and start mass-producing them to normal people!
 
DNA detecting device - just type the dna code (ref. number) of the desired species and it will show the nearest gps location to you - distance and direction. Then we wouldn't need any fieldcraft at all and census work could be done from the sofa....God forbid!
 
DNA detecting device - just type the dna code (ref. number) of the desired species and it will show the nearest gps location to you - distance and direction. Then we wouldn't need any fieldcraft at all and census work could be done from the sofa....God forbid!

It'd be better if you could stick a feather/ blood sample / poo in it as well. Particularly useful for those Macaronesian seabirds / Cisticolas / Pipits etc ;). Even better still would be a pair of glasses that don't get in the way of your bins or scope ( or get lost out in the field :C ).

Chris
 
It'd be better if you could stick a feather/ blood sample / poo in it as well. Particularly useful for those Macaronesian seabirds / Cisticolas / Pipits etc ;). Even better still would be a pair of glasses that don't get in the way of your bins or scope ( or get lost out in the field :C ). Chris

Bird barcoding work has already led to a call for a handheld reader that could from a feather or blood sample could give a 'first estimate' of species' identity. Given that the database is expanding rapidly, that could be a useful device.

Along similar lines, a handheld light-isotope-ratio reader could provide an initial indication of where birds were when the feathers were growing, but here the necessary data on where these ratios apply geographically is patchy, although any Bird Forum member working in that field might tell us differently!
MJB:t:
 
Something along the lines of a fish finder radar, so that next time I'm staring morosely at a ropey Aytha hybrid for want of anything else to look at, I don't miss the Purple Martin/Yellow billed Albatross/ Pallas Gull thats passing overhead.
 
I would like a 50mm - 1000mm L-class lens that weighs only a few ounces and who's AF can discern twigs/leaves/wobbly water and ignore them.

If it was under a tenner I'd be even happier. :t:
 
A superzoom that really is as good as a SLR + big lens.

Or, possibly more feasible that something that identifies birds on site, a phone app that identifies bird song.

Come to think of it a smart phone that has a battery that lasts more than day, with heavy use, and always gets really good 3G reception.
 
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