Or -de-accelerate the learning curve.Kind of like learning a foreign language. If you immerse yourself in it, it helps and don't speak your native tongue. But chances are most people find their native tongue to speak somewhere within that foreign country, thus de-accelerating the learning process.
If that analogy makes sense to you
Makes sense.Or -de-accelerate the learning curve.Kind of like learning a foreign language. If you immerse yourself in it, it helps and don't speak your native tongue. But chances are most people find their native tongue to speak somewhere within that foreign country, thus de-accelerating the learning process.
If that analogy makes sense to you
Or -de-accelerate the learning curve.Kind of like learning a foreign language. If you immerse yourself in it, it helps and don't speak your native tongue. But chances are most people find their native tongue to speak somewhere within that foreign country, thus de-accelerating the learning process.
If that analogy makes sense to you
Yes it is.Per, if you have an accurate scale, could weigh yours? I think the published weight it a bit optimistic.
The compass in mine was roughly 20 degrees off when I first started it. Moving the Visio, as indicated somewhere in the documentation, around all three axes in „8-shaped“ movements helped dramatically. I find the compass still quite „delicate“, so I don‘t expect high precision. I will have to work with it to find out more.How reliable is the compass in yours? The one I have been trying shows rather widely varying directions for the same target from my balcony. I'd like to know if this is an anomaly or representative of how these work.
The equivalent, in my GPS analogy, of blindly following the route onto an impassable track.I review ebird records for my county and find Merlin mostly a curse. Many observers rely too heavily on it, disregarding my caveats, and continue to submit obvious errors, just because Merlin said so. Any decision that doesn’t jive with Merlin is met with scorn and disbelief.
Merlin is a great beginning but makes some obvious errors and has trouble with certain species over and over. If used with the understanding that Merlin isn’t infallible, it can be used selectively and can be helpful. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, most of the time.
This strikes me as analogous to the “amateur astronomers” who can’t find the first-quarter moon, an hour after sunset on a cloudless night, without a computer controlled telescope.
Not to mention that you can go to the photo file and re-live your trip.Agree. In the end even the 5000$ AI powered binocular is just a tool, and can only be used for reliable identification combined with experience and good judgment.
But it can makes things more fun and help accelerating the learning curve.
And more people are good at using a GPS than are able to use a map...This feels likes the arguments about maps and GPS. They are not mutually exclusive - they both have pluses and minuses but being prepared to use them together can bring great benefits.
A crutch is a tool that helps you walk. Binoculars are tools that help you see. Photography is using a tool (camera and screen/film/whatever) to show what you saw that didn't manage to slip away while you were fiddling with the 4,500 quid new Tele lens.The line between a tool and a crutch is a slender and flexible one, and is highly dependent on the individual.
That's interesting... I wonder how other reviewers see it used. In my birding circle at least, it's a tool but never used exclusively for ID. I might be living in a bubble :-oI review ebird records for my county and find Merlin mostly a curse. Many observers rely too heavily on it, disregarding my caveats, and continue to submit obvious errors, just because Merlin said so. Any decision that doesn’t jive with Merlin is met with scorn and disbelief.
Merlin is a great beginning but makes some obvious errors and has trouble with certain species over and over. If used with the understanding that Merlin isn’t infallible, it can be used selectively and can be helpful. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, most of the time.
James, I predict you will start having to review eBird reports that not only sat "Merlin confirms," but "Swaro sez!"I review ebird records for my county and find Merlin mostly a curse. Many observers rely too heavily on it, disregarding my caveats, and continue to submit obvious errors, just because Merlin said so. Any decision that doesn’t jive with Merlin is met with scorn and disbelief.
Merlin is a great beginning but makes some obvious errors and has trouble with certain species over and over. If used with the understanding that Merlin isn’t infallible, it can be used selectively and can be helpful. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, most of the time.
I’m sure that everyone reading this thread is delighted to hear that you are enjoying it.Not to mention that you can go to the photo file and re-live your trip.
I know, you can do that with a camera as well, and that is exactly what is in the third tube. And as the pictures earlier (edit: in one of the other ax threads) show (which are a first-and-a-half effort) it works quite well. And it did manage to differentiate whooper and mute swan consistently.
Per (having fun with his new tool)
Certainly not the majority, but I know some birders that turn Merlin on at the start of their walk and, when finished, that’s their list. Harder still, for reviewers, is that too often the observer doesn’t indicate that they were relying on Merlin for most everything.That's interesting... I wonder how other reviewers see it used. In my birding circle at least, it's a tool but never used exclusively for ID. I might be living in a bubble :-o
That is absolutely correct for you, and might be for me, but I suspect not for all.A crutch is a tool that helps you walk. Binoculars are tools that help you see. Photography is using a tool (camera and screen/film/whatever) to show what you saw that didn't manage to slip away while you were fiddling with the 4,500 quid new Tele lens.
I don't have the Tele lens...That is absolutely correct for you, and might be for me, but I suspect not for all.
(See Post #448 and #457)