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The next Alpha technology - electronics will be the next frontier for alpha glass (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter dwever
- Start date
Gijs van Ginkel
Well-known member
Yesterday I visited a fair of historical photographic instruments and binoculars and telescopes.
I found a 6x20 Zeiss porro from 1900 in perfect condition: beautiful instrument: worked perfectly well. Images nice and clean. In 120 years we gained a lot in optical performance that is obvious eg due to improved optical glass and the application of coatings.
In our country there is a complete uprising of farmers, builders, traffic users etc. because of the coming restrictions to farming, building and traffic because of all environmental problems. We as human beings succeeded to destroy a lot of our earth resources, polluted our oceans, destroyed forests etc. and exploited humans for the delving of rare earth metals to construct new electronic equipment a lot of which is not needed and after using it for a short time it is thrown away so one can buy another electronic toy. In that light this discussion is kind of special, since we really do not need electronic supported binoculars for civilian use in my opinion.
Gijs van Ginkel
I found a 6x20 Zeiss porro from 1900 in perfect condition: beautiful instrument: worked perfectly well. Images nice and clean. In 120 years we gained a lot in optical performance that is obvious eg due to improved optical glass and the application of coatings.
In our country there is a complete uprising of farmers, builders, traffic users etc. because of the coming restrictions to farming, building and traffic because of all environmental problems. We as human beings succeeded to destroy a lot of our earth resources, polluted our oceans, destroyed forests etc. and exploited humans for the delving of rare earth metals to construct new electronic equipment a lot of which is not needed and after using it for a short time it is thrown away so one can buy another electronic toy. In that light this discussion is kind of special, since we really do not need electronic supported binoculars for civilian use in my opinion.
Gijs van Ginkel
Rotherbirder
Well-known member
No backlash from me, despite my being a self confessed polluter.
Unless we bring our aspirations way down and stop making billions, if not trillions of LEDS etc. humans are lost.
But the truth is that we are not going to change our ways.
Change will come when our Earth fights back.
B.
Unless we bring our aspirations way down and stop making billions, if not trillions of LEDS etc. humans are lost.
But the truth is that we are not going to change our ways.
Change will come when our Earth fights back.
B.
NDhunter
Experienced observer
Sancho, you speak for many that are regular posters and experienced binocular users. I have a sense
and can tell this is a veteran crowd that post on here, many are happy with quality optics at all price ranges
and just like things the way they are.
I tried a Canon IS binocular some months ago, I did not comment on it, as I did not want to condemn it,
but it was not anything I was going to want or use. It was very unwieldy and I can see why Canon has not had
any traction or sales in binoculars.
Jerry
and can tell this is a veteran crowd that post on here, many are happy with quality optics at all price ranges
and just like things the way they are.
I tried a Canon IS binocular some months ago, I did not comment on it, as I did not want to condemn it,
but it was not anything I was going to want or use. It was very unwieldy and I can see why Canon has not had
any traction or sales in binoculars.
Jerry
And a one year warranty for electronic parts? :smoke:
45northmt
Well-known member
You've got the baby boom generation off a bit. It's 1946-1964...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers
As a boomer, I'm still in the workforce. I don't want electronics in my bins. Laser rangefinding technology has long been available in Leica binoculars. I've avoided owning a pair, and carry a separate Leica rangefinder if I need it.
Kevin Conville
yardbirder
I guess I stand corrected. My understanding for all these years was that Boomers were born in the first decade after WWII.
Still, "Boomers" who missed the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, didn't experience the JFK assassination, or Martin Luther King and RFK assassinations, weren't given drills to dive under your desk in school for when the A Bomb goes off, the Sunday casualty reports from the Vietnam War, didn't have to register for the draft, the Woodstock period, Love Ins, Watergate, weren't driving during the Iran oil embargo, and came of age during disco just doesn't sound like the same generation. At all.
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Hi Jerry!B
I actually have a pair if IS (I've owned them all except 18x50 at some stage). But they are a speciality item, I use them for seawatching. On a more general note, I've been haunting this forum for the best part of two decades, and the advent of amazing digital optics has been oft-heralded, but never really happened. Not even general-use IS, never mind digitally-enhanced viewing with embedded ID and recording. Any attempts to combine a viewing device with digi-recording have been laughable cheap junk, or one Zeiss scope that flopped miserably. How many birders of any generation have bought it?
And the technology is definitely available to do it, to combine all three in one device (emhanced viewing, recording, ID). It's just that there's no demand, or even requirement. ID-ing with one's own cerebral capabilities is the whole point of the exercise...with, occasionally, a Little Help From One's Friends, and a camera.
I think we have reached Peak Binocular, and just because something can be done with more complicated technology, it doesn't make the job simpler or represent any meaningful improvement. Like the guy's self-lacing shoes in the movie 'Back to the Future'. It can be done, but no-one needs or wants it.
It would be interesting to do a search here and on CN to see how many times in the last twenty years the Coming of digi-binos has been predicted.
P.S.- I dislike the whole marketing segregation of currently-surviving humanity into categories like 'Boomers', 'Millenials' etc. I was born in 1962, I teach kids aged 12 to 18, we're pretty much the same species, and future archaeologists will dig up our fossilised thumb bones or whatever and give us all the same scientific name. Meanwhile, because I look at BF and an Irish bird-sighting website, the Internet has been sending me adverts for Talking Caged Parrots. So much for clever technology.
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I don't think you are wrong about the binocular device that you are describing. All the technology you list exists in one form or another. It's just about improving and putting the pieces together now. I mean, Swarovski did debut a prototype of a monocular with a built-in camera just a few months ago. Who knows if it will ever go into production, but I bet there would be a market for it - especially if the camera were incorporated into binoculars instead. And range finders and image stabilization have been around for a long time. And image recognition software is getting pretty good now. And Bluetooth is already good. And it is hard to imagine how binoculars could be improved significantly over the current alpha class.
As far as the glasses/scope combo, again the technology exists already it would just be about putting it together.
An example of this type of thing already exists in rifle scopes. Check out the Swarovski dS scope. With a single click of a button, the scope ranges the target, then places illuminated crosshairs at the correct position accounting for the ballistics of the gun that it is mounted to and the ammunition that gun is shooting. All that's missing is the wind calculation.
I just don't think these electronic viewers will take over the market. If anything they will exist in parallel with traditional optics. I think I will always want something that resembles modern binoculars and scopes over what you describe, and I'm a millennial. Who knows though, maybe you're right.
Also, your timeline strikes me as unrealistically aggressive.
As far as the glasses/scope combo, again the technology exists already it would just be about putting it together.
An example of this type of thing already exists in rifle scopes. Check out the Swarovski dS scope. With a single click of a button, the scope ranges the target, then places illuminated crosshairs at the correct position accounting for the ballistics of the gun that it is mounted to and the ammunition that gun is shooting. All that's missing is the wind calculation.
I just don't think these electronic viewers will take over the market. If anything they will exist in parallel with traditional optics. I think I will always want something that resembles modern binoculars and scopes over what you describe, and I'm a millennial. Who knows though, maybe you're right.
Also, your timeline strikes me as unrealistically aggressive.
WJC
Well-known member
Technology may easily get beyond physiology. But what then? So much of what is touted these days as making a binocular ... better is demonstrably beyond what the average observer can see or even cares about. Thus, we push reason into the realm of the nitnoid.
Today's world is full of knowledge but is running on empty when it comes to wisdom.
Knowledge teaches us that a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. But it is wisdom that teaches us not to put it into a fruit salad. :cat:
Bill
As others have said bridge cameras (super zooms) already get used as spotting scopes that take pictures and video. They're image stabilised, some aren't too heavy and some pack quite small. The optics are very good on some.
I too would like to see duel EVFs built into one to get an enhanced emersive view. That one step with ergonomic design is all that's needed. The result wouldn't compete with regular binoculars, but would just allow enhanced viewing through the camera and be more comfy than 1 EVF. Good for open areas especially shorelines where spotting scopes are traditionally used.
So leave binoculars alone, but enhance already tech-heavy cameras to allow binocular viewing.
I too would like to see duel EVFs built into one to get an enhanced emersive view. That one step with ergonomic design is all that's needed. The result wouldn't compete with regular binoculars, but would just allow enhanced viewing through the camera and be more comfy than 1 EVF. Good for open areas especially shorelines where spotting scopes are traditionally used.
So leave binoculars alone, but enhance already tech-heavy cameras to allow binocular viewing.
Chosun Juan
Given to Fly
Blasphemer !!! :storm:
Vámibimbero
Well-known member
I have seen an article seven years ago, that the next big thing with optics will be to incorporate electronics, IS, etc. in the next five years.
Nothing happened. The explanation is quite easy, that is my opinion: those equipments are too expensive to spread widely. Just check, what is about new Zeiss scopes, Nikon IS scopes, older Zeiss photoscope model, or how many SF will you see while birding out, etc.
Chosun Juan
Given to Fly
The whole digital binocular thing has already been and gone :cat:
https://www.sony.com.au/electronics...l-recording-binoculars/dev-50v/specifications
Sensors in the latest mobile phones are about 3 times larger than this. Really you would be looking at two lenses around the size of that on the Sony RX 10 IV for 0.5x to 12x zoom. A little bit unwieldy to hold.
The top spec EVF's now offer twice the resolution (or somewhat less than that if you want a decent more relaxing framerate). There is still further to go.
You could put together quite a reasonable outfit with today's tech. Would make Alpha's seem cheap though .....
With Phablets now around 6" in height I'm waiting for some smart cookie to put 3 or 4 lenses at either end for some pretty nifty 3D effect binocular vision on a 4K display screen. :cat:
That should bring the horse and buggy drivers out of the woodwork again ! :-O
Chosun :gh:
https://www.sony.com.au/electronics...l-recording-binoculars/dev-50v/specifications
Sensors in the latest mobile phones are about 3 times larger than this. Really you would be looking at two lenses around the size of that on the Sony RX 10 IV for 0.5x to 12x zoom. A little bit unwieldy to hold.
The top spec EVF's now offer twice the resolution (or somewhat less than that if you want a decent more relaxing framerate). There is still further to go.
You could put together quite a reasonable outfit with today's tech. Would make Alpha's seem cheap though .....
With Phablets now around 6" in height I'm waiting for some smart cookie to put 3 or 4 lenses at either end for some pretty nifty 3D effect binocular vision on a 4K display screen. :cat:
That should bring the horse and buggy drivers out of the woodwork again ! :-O
Chosun :gh:
45northmt
Well-known member
Boomers are the generation born to the WW2 generation, pure and simple. It has nothing to do with sentimental cultural touchstones.
