Sony preps Luke Skywalker-style digital binoculars

Now you too can hunt missing droids in the Jundland Wastes thanks to Sony - and its new "world's first" digital binoculars. Sony DEV-5 digital binoculars And you don't just get too watch riderless banthas - you can video them in 1080p HD too, geotagging the location so you can avoid getting bashed with a Gaffi stick next …

[Bunker_Monkey]

What no HUD demo?

Please please I hoped to see a HUD demo or at least a photo of how it looks? Does it have distance measurement as well?

[Undergrid]

And when the power runs out...

And what do you do when your in the middle of nowhere and the power runs out?

[Thomas 4]

Then its your damn fault

Should have gone out to pick up the power converters before your uncle set you chores to do.

[LuMan]

Absolutely!

If you'd taken your T-16 you'd be there and back in no time. AND you could've bullseyed a few womprats on your way back!

[Dave 142]

Sony

Being as it's Sony then you'll need special power convertors that cost more and only work on Sony's stuff. They'll also sue you if you use them to look at non-Sony products and put a rootkit on them for good measure too.

[Thomas 4]

A Sony product

That I actually want? What madness is this?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not madness.

THIS. IS. TATOOINE!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Like it very much.

Look fairly brick-like though. Might wait for 2nd or 3rd gen.

[Tegne]

I can already hear the footfall of hundreds of neighbourhood voyeurs running to Comet

And the imminent outcry from the Daily Mail.

[D@v3]

i dont like sony

But i do like these

[Anonymous Coward]

For GBP 1,780 to 2,300 ...

... it better come with those fantastic military/Star Wars -like moving crosshairs, digital display range finder and live local weather telemetry minimum!

[Wize]

and other modes...

...like thermal, night vision, etc

[Anonymous Coward]

DEV-3 for $1,399 and DEV-5 for $1,999 USD

from: http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=4807&p=2

I don't have a business case to spend that much on a pair of binoculars that have image stabilisation and capture stills and video in 3D.

[Pooka]

TK-421

It needs to have a range finder, and it needs to make odd beeping noises. Instead, it looks like it's just a funny shaped digital camera - complete with a hotshoe mount on the top of it.

Even so, I still want one!

[Caff]

dune style?

But when will we get Dune style oil lens ones?

[Jim 59]

Peeping tom's hardware

Time to order those black-out curtains.

[I know better]

Want

Really want. Likely to buy a £50 old school version from eBay though...

[Anonymous Coward]

We've spotted imperial walkers!

And they're wandrin' off footpath and worryin' moi laaaaambs.

[Craig Chambers]

Must get my eyes tested

Initially read that as "Imperial wankers"

[Daniel Garcia 2]

Nothing wrong

"Imperial wankers" is a good example of tautology....

[Tom 38]

I have absolutely no use for this

But I really really want it. If it had a nice green HUD, that would just be gravy.

[jai]

These tracks are side by side.

Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their numbers.

[PrabMan]

For sale in UK by Park Cameras

Park Camera's in the UK lists the DEV-5 at £1999 a pair

http://www.parkcameras.com/21112/Sony-DEV-5-binoculars-.html

Err... I have no commercial link with Park Cameras other than as an occaisional customer

[petur]

For a proper review, look here

http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=4807

[Anonymous Coward]

Proper Review?

Hardly a proper review; they seem to have conflated the sensors with the display!

[Voland's henchman]

Disagree

Disagree with the conclusion

I am willing to lug around a DSLR for exactly the same reason - you have a proper visor and you see what you shoot.

This is the first 3D camcorder which gives you this option and probably there is no way to create a smaller one. Similarly, it is smaller than most 2D cameras which give you a similar "proper visor" option. I know quite a few people who will gladly augment their DSLR or camera with this.

[sandman]

Oh no! Techno Lust!

Really, really, can't think of any sane justification for buying them, but really want a pair. Now I know how iPad buyers feel. Must go and scour out my mind with wire wool.

[TeeCee]

Have they sorted out...

...the way the battery always runs flat at the wrong time, leaving you in the pitch dark surrounded by nasty, jumpy, bitey things and getting nibbled to death?

[Anonymous Coward]

How exactly do you avoid mosquito bites using binoculars?

The mind boggles at your implication that if the batteries in the binoculars did not run out, you would not be in the dark and would not be bitten by insects. What are you planning to do, look through the binoculars and see the mozzies coming? I can just picture it lol "AAARGH THERE'S A GIANT MOSQUITO COMING STRAIGHT FOR ME RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!"

[Uncle Slacky]

Giggety!

"Sandpeople? Like in Star Wars?"

"Err, no."

[Neil Barnes]

3-d?

With the lenses so close together? Bit of a waste of time, then...

[Ru]

Are they closer together then your eyes?

Can you see in 3d?

[Alan Edwards]

Peeping Tom's Hardware?

Uh no, not powerful enough. The bits I've read confuse zoom ratio with magnification a bit, but I think they top out at 10x magnification before you have to use digital zoom. My little Bushnell folding binoculars are 12x magnification (no zoom) and fit in your back pocket.

What yer Peeping Tom wants is my big Sunagors, that zoom from 20x to 60x magnification. They are the babies now, the later ones go to 120x. They are about the same size as the Sonys, but probably weigh more.

The DEV-5s are a bit overpriced, aren't they? Optically both models are the same (10x zoom), the DEV-5 gets a digital zoom, a GPS chip, and bits of cases and covers that ought to be standard on both.

[sgb]

I don't get it

Is this not just a pair of modestly-featured video cameras stuck together? I could make this with a pair of HD camcorders and a couple of rubber bands for less than quarter of the price.

[Bod]

But when...

can I have Geordie's Visor or better still the fancy digital eyes he got as replacement with zoom functionality.

Though as Kryten observed, we have zoom functionality anyway, so long as we move our heads.

[Oninoshiko]

Interesting

ok, cool and all, but what do we gain for it being digital?

Apparently recording, anything else?

<--icon with optics....

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Does it record to Betamax or VHS tapes?

This proves that Sony is harnessing the power of time travel to design their products. Too bad they stole a prototype from 10 years ago. Next time they should try traveling forwards a bit so they have a product with proper stereo imaging, a microphone that aims forwards, magnification better than squinting, and something higher tech than an MPEG encoder. Where's the night vision? What about the pulsed laser trick that the military uses to find people looking back at you? How about compensating for atmospheric distortion?

[Dropper]

meh

I had a set of digital binoculars about 10 years ago, the pictures it took were shite. Obviously this product will have a better camera installed, but what about weight? Looks like a novelty toy and I don't see why anyone except a Star Wars fanatic would choose these over a decent digital camera or even a cell phone like an Andriod - which can also record HD video and output to HDMI.

Besides you'll look like a weirdo stalker if you used them in public.

[Anonymous Coward]

Caption competition

for the last photo:

"Invisible man forgets to don balaclava"