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Do not waste your money on this or any other Bushnell product, customer support is non-existent. Now I am stuck with a product that is useless to me. The driver disk that I have will not work anymore, so I figured that I could download it online. However, it is not available anywhere for download.
Along comes the Bushnell 10 x 25 VGA Digital Camera Binocular. The original software installed readily in my PC with Win XP Pro and those original software drivers work just fine. Now it is quite possible to buy a high-power spotting scope and put your camera lens right on the viewfinder and snap the image. Even with manual adjustments, you simply cannot correct them like a normal digicam shot. Does your digicam give you 10x optical magnification.
Maybe Bushnell will come up with a VR feature in the future. Telephoto shots are notoriously fuzzy because you simply can't hold the camera & lens that steady without VR built-in or something like a stump, tree, or monopod to make it rock-steady. My Nikon VR telephoto lens does an outstanding job even hand-held so I know that it is feasible with the right equipment. But the spotting scope isn't nearly as portable.
This binocu-camera combo does a reasonable job. Do your binoculars store the images you are viewing. For the price, it's just fine. Colors are not true unfortunately. Are these National Geographic images suitable for framing. No way.
Don't expect mind-blowing images folks. and import the images after doing the transfer with no difficulty.
It does NOT come with VR (vibration reduction). 3.5-4.0 stars (good to very-good)
And don't forget to use a monopod to steady the device. Likely the answer is no to both questions.
It's just a great little device for carrying in your backpack or pocket. Detailed editing proceeds normally.
I first saw a demo in Costa Rica by a nature guide pointing out a huge iguana sunning on a log 50-60 ft from us. When it asks about the editing program, I simply asked it to use my Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.
They focus like normal binoculars and I didn't have a problem with them (other than not being able to see through both lenses at the same time).The extra buttons and the on-screen menu for the camera were easy to understand. Perhaps the people having trouble with this were just using the camera memory.Overall, I would say think very carefully about what you need them for before you go ahead and buy this particular set. These binoculars are good, but they do have their limitations.1. It has a set focus range of 30 feet, which means that unless you are at least that distance away, your target will not be in focus in the photograph. I wonder if this is because I was using an SD card. With the extra equipment between the two eye pieces, I couldn't look through both lenses at the same time. I felt that they also drained the batteries quite heavily.The binoculars themselves are good enough.
The on-screen menu also allows you to go through your pictures to preview and delete if you wish. I was also able to turn off the beeps that some have mentioned.
If they were further away, they were still out of focus because the camera would focus on leaves and trees that were at the 30 feet marker.2. I was able to do this.
The camera DOES NOT adjust focus with the binoculars. The little preview screen was very useful - I would search for my target through the binoculars, then center it on the screen before I took my picture.I'm not sure why other people are having trouble previewing their pictures.
I imagine they will suit some purposes well - like racing tracks where your target is over 30 feet away and there is nothing between you and the target for them to focus on - but the fact that you can't adjust the focus on the camera was a huge problem for me.I'll be happy to answer any questions in the comments. I found this a particular problem as I wanted to use them for backyard bird spotting/photographing, but a lot of the time the birds were just too close.
the binoculars wouldn't close in narrow enough for my skinny nose.3.
This is true for any digital camera.As binoculars go, this pair isn't bad. I would give this 3 and half stars. I wouldn't advise paying full retail price else you may be disappointed. It's good for what I use it for.
I think not. My suggested use is to collect evidence of the neighbor's dog going through your garbage or of a suspicious car parked across the street. Bird watching. The built-in camera is a toy by all accounts.
What I found best for all software which comes in the box, never open the CD. Chromatic distortion is slight, good sharpness and detail, although there is some fogginess around the outside of the field of view. I received one of these as a free gift, so free is good. It's small, rubberized, has a focus and rubber eye cups.
You do NOT need and do not want the software which comes in the box. After reading the horrible reviews, I debated opening the box when it arrived. If you have any other OS, other than Win98, then just plug it in to a USB port and the camera memory will appear as a disk drive.
Would have given it 5 stars but it is a little hard to hold the camera still while snapping a picture because the button is on top. All in all, it was a great buy, shipped fast to Hawaii, and a welcomed addition to our camera/binocular collection. This camera binocular is great. Same with focusing, a little difficult for the same reason. Can't wait to use it in Yellowstone. Good magnification, light weight, with fantastically fun software. Comes with everything you need to take, save and edit photos.
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