Interview with Leica Director of Sports Optics (2 Viewers)

tenex said:

"The binocular of the future will be digital"... that I do not accept. I don't think people want to be walking around looking at birds (or anything else) on a miniature LED screen, as they can do back at home. Direct viewing really matters for appreciation of nature. Whoever also wants the electronic experience will easily carry their phone or digital camera too, for image capture and even identification if desired.

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I think the folks now who are birders, will rarely go in the direction of digital. But the young crowd, who I hope might be future birders and environmentalists and watchers of our nature, will demand more digital. They are digital natives and binocular companies will have to evolve. But as I state that, there will always be a calling for the retro 'you focus your own' binocular. Look at cameras now. All digital but, many young people have now returned to film/retro. Chances are we will have both although digital will be more the norm.

lmans66 said:

I think the folks now who are birders, will rarely go in the direction of digital. But the young crowd, who I hope might be future birders and environmentalists and watchers of our nature, will demand more digital. They are digital natives and binocular companies will have to evolve. But as I state that, there will always be a calling for the retro 'you focus your own' binocular. Look at cameras now. All digital but, many young people have now returned to film/retro. Chances are we will have both although digital will be more the norm.

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Spot on!
The kids are very aware that stuff evolves, Today Internet Explorer, tomorrow Firefox, next year some Google spin out.
It is inherent in any rapid evolution and imho, birders who cling to the prejudice that optics must be stripped of any electronic aids are merely fighting the same battle Detroit and other industries lost long ago.
It would be so much better if these conservatives would share their wisdom of what made birding a joy for them, so that as much as possible could be incorporated into the new generations of electronically enhanced gear.

I'd love to see binocs with a decent built in camera, not some shoddy glue on that really lags the binocular optics.
Likewise, I'd like it if the glass had a built in GPS as well as an audio recorder. The Sony DEV-50 was probably the closest approximation to what I'm hoping to see. Sadly, it did not sell, partly because of the absurdly bad software, so Sony lost interest. My hopes now are on the Chinese...

etudiant said:

I'd love to see binocs with a decent built in camera, not some shoddy glue on that really lags the binocular optics.

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Yes, a third tube for the camera. Trinoculars, they would definitely deserve to be called Trinovids...

Likewise, I'd like it if the glass had a built in GPS as well as an audio recorder. The Sony DEV-50 was probably the closest approximation to what I'm hoping to see. Sadly, it did not sell, partly because of the absurdly bad software, so Sony lost interest. My hopes now are on the Chinese...

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I had the DEV-3. They were complete unadulterated garbage, with abysmal image quality. I am attaching shots of the same flock of red-masked parakeets, the first with a DEV-3, the second with a Canon DSLR (downsampled to 1600x1200 due to BirdForum attachment size limitations).

Many people do use digital for birding, just not in stereo, using digital cameras with telephoto lenses.

Very interesting, thanks!

Curious if anyone has seen the Wetzlar assembly of Uvids and Nvids as mentioned...I've heard varying reports on these pages. What does "final assembly" mean?

Asking for quality images through a binocular is like playing tennis with a badminton racquet. It is a suboptimal tool and will disappoint. Sorely.

There's merit in keeping things simple.

I've had my fair share of weak moments, where I've been enticed by the glamour of high-tech gadgets. And it's almost always resulted in disappointment.

I hope future generations will be able to see through all the glitter.

It's a perpetual cycle: high-tech 'things' create high-tech problems...which can only be solved by high-tech 'things'. It's insanity. It's a treadmill without a stop button. The only way off is to jump, and accept that there will be a lot of pain - if only momentarily.

I know this is an old thread, but I am trying to determine what exactly the "N" means for this particular Leitz Trinovid binocular.
Thanks to anyone who knows.

Hi Farrand,

See post #63 and on at: LEITZ’S TRINOVIDS - Models and Numbering



John

John A Roberts said:

Hi Farrand,

See post #63 and on at: LEITZ’S TRINOVIDS - Models and Numbering



John

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Right you are, John, of course.
I forgot and apologize.
Thank you.