Sony is back with new digital recording binoculars in the DEV-50 model. Sony made the case with the previous DEV-3 series that electronic binoculars can do things that optical ones just can, like zooming in and out seamlessly to easily spot and observe a moving subject. Digital binoculars can also capture photos and record/play movies natively in 3D since they have two complete camera and viewfinder systems – one for each eye.
The new model improves Sony’s previous approach by making the DEV-50 much smaller and 2.5X lighter than the Sony DEV-3 (which was huge and weighted 2.65lbs). In just a couple of years, the reduction is size has been staggering, the DEV-50 is impressively small. Not only it is much smaller and portable, but it can zoom up to 25X, record in 1080p 60FPS in 2D, or 1080i 60FPS in 3D. The DEV-50 has 20.4 Megapixel sensors where the DEV-3 had only 7 Megapixel.
When you’re back home, you can either copy the files from the flash card (SD or Memory Stick) to a computer, or play the movies/photos directly on a TV via HDMI. If you want to tape some serious adventure, the DEV-50 is dust and water resistant.
By now, many of you are probably drooling, but before you get too excited you should know that this is a $2000 pair of binoculars, so I don’t see it becoming a mass-market product quite yet. That said, the lucky ones who can afford it will have some real fun. What do you think?
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