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

New digiscoping toy from minox (1 Viewer)

DaveM, how about showing the photos?

Also please clarify, does Kowa own Minox? and this is to all intents and purposes a Kowa product. Alternatively please clarify why a Kowa guy was talking of "improvements"?
 
Photos from the DCM will be made available as and when it has been used it in all possible light / weather conditions to show as many varied results as we can. Also, all we have at the moment is a prototype on short loan which is due to go back to Germany very soon.

@Robert: I think Peter's slip of the keyboard may have confused. I work for Newpro (Minox's UK distributor) and it was I who was talking of the improvements to be made to the production models.

Kowa does not own Minox.

This is not just a Kowa product. Far from it. The fact that the prototype we have access to is (naturally) a Minox mount which just happens to be the same fitting as the original Kowa TSN eyepiece bayonet fit. Therefore it has been demonstrated on a Kowa TSN-3 (mine) as it has a 77mm objective lens and will therefore be better than the Minox MD 62 for the purposes of digiscoping and light gathering.

Full details of the mounts it will be produced with and the relevant approximate magnifications for each of these 'scopes are available on the website.

HTH.

Dave.
 
Thanks for that clarification Dave. (just wait till I get hold of Pete's keyboard!! LOL)

Very interesting though what you have said, I still use my old TSN4 so your unit would fit no problem.
 
Sorry for the confussion that my incorrect comment caused... I do know that it's a Minox unit (hats off to Minox for making such a bold move into the digiscoping market), but wasn't thinking straight when I posted yesterday (getting confused as I got to see it on a Kowa 883). Anyway based on the prototype that I saw it does seem that this new toy from Minox could be very interesting indeed...
 
On the Minox website they show now a couple of sample pictures.
What instantaneously got my attention was the darkening towards the periphery. Oh yes and there are sensor dust specs visible in some of the images.

No information on any post processing or if the images shown are straight out of the camera module. It will be interesting to see what a real digiscoper can get out of this thing......

UH

P.S. No mention if they plan to come out with a version for 1-1/4 inch scopes (Pentax etc.)
 
seaspirit said:
Oh yes and there are sensor dust specs visible in some of the images.

No information on any post processing or if the images shown are straight out of the camera module.

P.S. No mention if they plan to come out with a version for 1-1/4 inch scopes (Pentax etc.)
Click to expand...

I can only really speak of the top two images as I took them...

They are absolutely untouched - not even levelled as you can see by the Garganey!

The unit they were taken with was pre-production so not too much should be taken as gospel as to final quality. They were also taken without the aid of the remote (which will come as standard) so at 38x I had to press the button on the unit causing some unwanted vibrations.

We have since supplied them with better photos so hopefully they should put them up soon.

The mounts for the moment are as on the websites but we are working with Germany to see how many more are feasible.

As for dust specs, can't seem them on the top two I'm afraid.

Dave.
 
Will there be a version for Kamakura scopes made? Or do anyone know of a Kamakura compatible camera eyepiece from another manufacturer?
 
The 'better' images I hinted at are now on the Minox Germany website.

The two shots of the GGS are straight out of the can and the only adjustment that has been made is a resizing of the original image to 800x600px.

Dave.
 
In principle the idea is good but for me the photos just don't show enough quality to beat tried and tested methods with either point and shoot cameras or dslr digiscoping. Plus with either of those methods you have a camera that can be used for other things. For a specialized unit like the Minox I'd like to see it pushing into new territory as far as image quality goes but none of the photos shown so far do that. Some show some pretty bad distortion away from the centre which suggests the optics aren't up to scratch. With standard digiscoping I can try various eyepieces, camera lenses etc and have built up a nice piece of kit capable of very sharp photos with no distortion. With the Minox you can't do that so it should be close to perfect in my mind rather than just average.

Paul.
 
davem said:
The 'better' images I hinted at are now on the Minox Germany website.

The two shots of the GGS are straight out of the can and the only adjustment that has been made is a resizing of the original image to 800x600px.

Dave.
Click to expand...

Hello Dave,

thanks for information and example pics. Is it possible to show some high resolution examples without any further compression?

I think the resolution of the shown examples suffers both from resizing and compressing too much.

The dark corners and poor center adjustment are not the problem as a well done photoshop action (hot folder..) will eliminate it automatically.

Cheers

Stefan
 
As someone who'd love to get into digiscoping but is restricted by funds (wife, 3 kids and long term ill health 8-P ) I'll be watching the development of this product with interest. Have to add my concerns about the megapixel size though.
 
@Stefan, at the moment we're unable to supply original images as...

a) they were taken on a 1st generation prototype and shouldn't be considered as final prodction model quality.

and

b) Minox Germany do not want us to! (They are due relatively soon so I hope to be able to get shooting in earnest as soon as the production models roll in)

@Grumbledook et al, 3.2MP is a constraint governed by a) the amount of light coming through the telescope and b) they physical dimensions of the light beam arriving at the sensor.

Yes, we'd have loved a 7MP or 8MP sensor but it was a physical impossibility.

More news hopefully to follow soon, and if any of you are attending the Midlands Birdfair at Middleton Hall over the weekend, I will have the prototype on the Focus Optics stand.

ATB,

Dave.
 
Thanks for that info Davem, I'm a looong way off being an expert in these matters and so didn't know that. I'm watching with more interest now.
 
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