The 'next big thing' in binoculars will be some time coming, because this is a small and stagnant market whose customers are very conservative.
So there won't be serious innovation unless it can be carried across at no real cost from the camera or video sides of the business.
Unfortunately, the Swaro lifetime service strategy has paralyzed the innovative drive of the sector. People don't buy superior performance such as offered by the Canon stabilized optics, in good part because of the limited warranty life and high repair costs. It matters not that these same terms are the norm for cameras, we expect more from our binoculars, but no one can provide that.
Eventually, there will be evolution along the lines laid out by the Sony DEV 50,
an all digital binocular feeding a high resolution screen. Because the sensor can be made more responsive to low light, it will not need big lenses to capture more light, but there will be a wide zoom range and built in photo/video.
It will be interesting to see who hooks up with who ....
Already there are relationships, and little alliances here and there.
I think you are right, and it will be some time coming, and for, and when, the reasons you explained.
I think the ultimate convergence will be the digital zoom binocular connected via a wireless net (5G or so by that time), with AI capabilities that will Id your subject, and then automatically log and share the experience via your social media hub (ands well as discretely take a call from your mum at the same time!
AFAIK the highest widely commercially available EVF has a resolution of 4.4MP. We need to go well beyond the resolution of the human eye, and at a minimum scan rate of 200Hz p, for viewing comfort ..... even then, there would be questions, and a whole area of health research needed on the effects. I know that if I am looking at my HD smartphone screen for any length of time and then look out into darkness - I see millions of fireflies!. VR headsets face the same questions (along with spatial cognition and balance).
I'm not entirely sure this is the path I want to go down (though it may be fun to briefly view a truly sophisticated instrument). I would like to think that there will be places in the world unaffected (and immune) from the net of electromagnetic reception - where I can just purely experience and sense the natural vibrational frequency of a pristine unaffected world.
I would like to see advances in the classical optical instrument though - more fluorite elements, eliminated CA and other aberrations, thin lens design, lighter, advanced chassis materials and mechanical quality and tolerances, greater transmission over the full visible spectrum, better glare control and indexed coatings, more resolution (higher standards), eyeglass suitable wider fields of view - suitably flattened a 'la the NoctiVids petzval? field curvature, and a few other bits and bobs .......
Eventually I see the world diverging into two camps - those classical folk enjoying the analogue optics, and ....
- those at the pub, or club enjoying a drink, or maybe even in the lounge room having a cup of tea, while their virtual presence robot or drone takes the digital bins out into the real world to have their experience for them! and report back a highlights reel ! :-O
Chosun :gh: