Sony DEV-50V digital binoculars with HD video

Water resistant 20 megapixel camera and HD Video in a 12x optical zoom binocular!

This sounds simply amazing. Check these specs.

• Sony OLED Electronic View Finder – the highest resolution for a reasonable price. Not as good as your Zeiss, Leica or Swarovski of course, but perhaps good enough?
• Built in GPS
• 0.8-12x optical zoom
• 25x digital zoom
• Full HD recording in 2D and 3 D with AVCHD video files
• Exmor R CMOS image sensor which is very sensitive in low light conditions.
• 20.4 Megapixel stills
• Optical Digital Image Stabilizer
• Water resistant
• jacks for mic, headphones and for additional light source.

This product came out last year from Sony, without the birding world much reacting on it. At the announcement there was a discussion on BirdForum – that is all I have found. Did anyone try them yet? One imagines that they will not be great for proper birding, but the fact that you get to keep what you see could make them attractive for some birders.

Here is a sample video made by these binoculars. The result is quite satisfying I would say.

Price is a bit hefty at S1998 at Amazon. Be sure to get additional batteries and do read the Amazon reviews as they are quite useful.
It seems that SONY is on a good way to make the birder’s dream come true – to be able to record/photograph while watching. I would love to try them out and make a review from a birders point of view, Sony! 🙂

Have you tried them? Any comments?

Disclaimer: Link to Amazon.com is an affiliate link.

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Gunnar Engblom was born in Sweden and lives in Peru. He is BirdingBlogs.com’s webmaster. He is a birder, runner, post-punkrocker and blogger and he is especially keen on social media for birders – which is how this project started in the first place. Gunnar Engblom organizes birding tours in Peru and the Neotropics with Kolibri Expeditions. Gunnar is passionate about new Peru tours that support community based ecotourism and conservation and has initiated several projects this way. Gunnar blogs on his own blog – A birding blog from Peru.
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