Binoculars that take pictures (2 Viewers)

[walkingintheair]

I have seen some binoculars that are capable of taking pictures. Can anybody recommend any good ones that can take high quality pictures of birds? I don't really like handling cameras, and I really just want a pair of binoculars that works well and at the same time can snap a good picture of what I am seeing so I can identify it later.

 

[Mono]

There have been many attempts to make binocular/camera hybrids the vast majority have been shockingly awful.

There have been a handful that have had any merit.

The Sony DEV series of the early 2010s, which was a still/video camera that you could also look though as binoculars. They were of dubious utility and shockingly expensive.

Swarovski dG is monocular/camera hybrid that can also Bluetooth the photos to your phone and use Merlin to id the bird. All the reviews seem to focus on this aspect rather than its utility as monocular.

The Canon Powershot Zoom is a monocular/camera hybrid.

A search on here will lead you to reviews and opinions of folk who have actually used these. I believe member @fazalmajid has used all three.

 

[fazalmajid]

None of them takes good pictures or is a good pair of binoculars. The Canon PowerShot Zoom is compact, relatively inexpensive and usable for documentation purposes, but again optically relatively mediocre. I have some samples on my review:

Canon Powershot Zoom review · Fazal Majid's low-intensity blog

blog.majid.info

I had the Sony DEV-3 digital binoculars, they were garbage. The samples from the Swarovski dG are not that impressive either (I haven't used one).

Your best bet is to get a small mirrorless camera and a compact telephoto lens. My current small-and-light camera for when I don't want to pull out the Nikon heavy artillery is the Fuji X-T4 with their 70-300mm lens, which is a 10x equivalent.

You could also try digiscoping with a monocular and a phone, but I've always found that combo quite awkward.

 

[james holdsworth]

Market opportunities abound but remain unrealised….I’d snap a good one up in a second, if it could take a picture of similar quality of what I’m seeing at the time.

 

[Canip]

I’d snap a good one up in a second, if it could take a picture of similar quality of what I’m seeing at the time.

That‘s exactly the point - unfortunately, not even Swarovski‘s dG takes pictures of a good quality; they work for identifying birds with the Merlin app, but are not high quality pics as you would expect from a halfway decent camera.

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

On the WEB-site of House of Outdoor I have published a copy of my powerpoint presentation for the Binocular History Society, which is entitled "Multi functional binoculars.."and part of it is devoted to "camera-binoculars"
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[james holdsworth]

That‘s exactly the point - unfortunately, not even Swarovski‘s dG takes pictures of a good quality; they work for identifying birds with the Merlin app, but are not high quality pics as you would expect from a halfway decent camera.

I realize it would likely involve a beam splitter but I think one of the big 4 could produce something pretty good if they devoted resources to the design.

 

[walkingintheair]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions. I thought it seemed too good to be true that there was a good one out there.

 

[fazalmajid]

I realize it would likely involve a beam splitter but I think one of the big 4 could produce something pretty good if they devoted resources to the design.

They could make a trinocular, or a middle barrel with the camera, but I think the real problem is fitting a good quality sensor (1” type, preferably APS or larger) and an optical system with sufficient light-collecting capability in such a slender form factor. If you had a separate diopter for it and some way to calibrate on a point light source, you could probably even get rid of autofocus.

A 1-inch sensor has a 15.9mm diagonal. In a 8x lens, you would need a focal length of 127mm and a 25mm objective is thus f/5.

 

[ZeNiTh-PbArM]

Hi

Below two examples of digiscoping through a 8x30 Porro 150m@1000m using a 3yr old €200- smartphone, both handheld.
The smartphone has a wide-angle lens which is not ideal for image magnification and image is fuzzy on the edges due to field curvature. Not to mention the phone struggling to reach focus through this kind of a lens.
Image definition is reduced for uploading here but the center sharpness is quite good (I couldn't read the writing on the ship through the binoculars but could do so by enlarging the picture...) despite poor lighting condition.
So I wish a company would produce a device based on the same technology but optimized optically and mechanically - I would be in the market for this. Does not seem out of reach in XXIst century?

Cheers
zp*

 

[Maljunulo]

Hi
So I wish a company would produce a device based on the same technology but optimized optically and mechanically - I would be in the market for this. Does not seem out of reach in XXIst century?

Cheers
zp*

How much are you prepared to pay for such an “optimized” device?

 

[stevenberk]

None of them takes good pictures or is a good pair of binoculars. The Canon PowerShot Zoom is compact, relatively inexpensive and usable for documentation purposes, but again optically relatively mediocre. I have some samples on my review:

Canon Powershot Zoom review · Fazal Majid's low-intensity blog

blog.majid.info

I had the Sony DEV-3 digital binoculars, they were garbage. The samples from the Swarovski dG are not that impressive either (I haven't used one).

Your best bet is to get a small mirrorless camera and a compact telephoto lens. My current small-and-light camera for when I don't want to pull out the Nikon heavy artillery is the Fuji X-T4 with their 70-300mm lens, which is a 10x equivalent.

You could also try digiscoping with a monocular and a phone, but I've always found that combo quite awkward.

I see that in Europe there is a Canon PS Zoom with Enhanced Firmware. Is it a significant upgrade?

 

[01101001]

Possible setup for phonescoping:

 

[fazalmajid]

I see that in Europe there is a Canon PS Zoom with Enhanced Firmware. Is it a significant upgrade?

It looks like those are features for surveillance (higher ISO range and timestamps embedded in the video). Not sure if they are only available in the black version or can be applied to the white one also.

 

[stevenberk]

It looks like those are features for surveillance (higher ISO range and timestamps embedded in the video). Not sure if they are only available in the black version or can be applied to the white one also.

Best Buy is selling Canon Power Shot Zoom kit (+micro SD card and PD charger) for $250. I bought it in Black. Came with firmware 1.1--not European Enhanced Firmware. Plenty of faults, as many have observed. The device is small, light, and fun, and does not replace a good telephoto lens. Bluetooth link to Android phone with Canon app took three fresh starts.

 

[stevenberk]

Best Buy is selling Canon Power Shot Zoom kit (+micro SD card and PD charger) for $250. I bought it in Black. Came with firmware 1.1--not European Enhanced Firmware. Plenty of faults, as many have observed. The device is small, light, and fun, and does not replace a good telephoto lens. Bluetooth link to Android phone with Canon app took three fresh starts.

After more use, it is not enough fun (or more utility than a phone camera) to be worth the price. Image quality is poor, battery life is short, and importing photos is frustrating. Not recommended.

 

[fazalmajid]

After more use, it is not enough fun (or more utility than a phone camera) to be worth the price. Image quality is poor, battery life is short, and importing photos is frustrating. Not recommended.

Yes. I almost never use mine, and opt for a Fuji X-T4 with 70-300mm lens instead. Much larger, obviously, but decent image quality.

Also worth mentioning the Sony RX100 mark 6, which has a 200mm-e lens on the tele end, and the Panasonic ZS series (I've found their IQ disappointing but nowhere near as bad as the PowerShot Zoom).