Binocular Cameras

I wasn’t aware such a thing existed, but in today’s age of electronic convergence it is hardly surprising that someone has combined a pair of binoculars with a camera. Simple and genius!

I normally don’t travel with binoculars, but many people do–especially birders. I have, however, experienced the disappointment of spying something very cool through a pair of binoculars and then being unable to capture it with my non-telephoto camera. I imagine this happens quite a bit with birders.

Mary Forgione of the Los Angeles Times is a birder and has thoughtfully tested out three such binocular/camera combinations–which incidentally, haven’t been properly named yet. Are they Binocameras or Cameroculars? Both sound pretty lame to me.

Nonetheless, all three models faired well during her testing. Each seemed to have its pros and cons with varying degrees of magnification (8-by-22 to 8-by-32) and megapixals (3.1 to 5). Her favorite, however, was the Celestron VistaPix with its “mind-jamming array of options” that included shooting video and listening to a built-in FM radio (above).

The other two models reviewed were the Baraska Point ‘n View (“easy to use and lightweight…requires a lot of juice”) and the Bushnell Image View (“doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles”).

For the full review, click here.