Customer Reviews

Bushnell ImageView 8x30 2.1MP Digital Camera Binocular

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this over the summer, and as an ecologist and bird enthusiest, I wanted a good pair of binoculars with a camera built in so I can capture good shots of birds in their natural habitat. The magnification was pretty good, I could see things from a pretty far distance. However, every single one of my pictures that I took were very blurry. Being that its almost impossible to stand perfectly still or to NOT shake or move at all, these are not functional camera binoculars if you cant get a clear picture. Especially when you'rein the field and want to get a quick shot. The only way to get a clear shot is to put it on a tripod, and thats too much trouble and not possible when out in the field and you come across a great photo opportunity. By the time you set up everything, its too late! More thought needs to be put into these products before manufacturing them.

These binoculars are horrible. First off, the software is way too complex (and I am a software engineer so I know it doesn't need to be that way). My dad, who is good with computers, couldn't even get the pictures off the camera. And of course the ONLY way to get the pictures of the camera is through the Roxio software (i.e no way of browising to the pictures). But the worst thing is the picture quality. The picture my dad took of deer were all dark and blurry. I thought maybe it was him taking pictures wrong, so I took some pictures at my well-lit workplace. COMPLETE GARBAGE! So,If you buy this after reading this review then I think that you and these binoculars are a perfect match. BTW, I have the camera binoculars from Simmons, which are not that great, but at least they are functional, which is light years ahead of these Bushnell ones.

My wife and I received these binoculars for Christmas. We were very excited because we do a lot of traveling to national parks and these would also be great for biking. The binoculars work great but the digital camera picture quality is very poor in my opinion. The picture quality is not close to the picture you see when looking through the binocs. It seems like the issue stems from trying to hold the binocs as still as possible when you take the picture. Most pictures are a little blury and some will be so blury you won't be able to tell what you're looking at. The best picture will not be "crisp". Note that I posted two pictures I took with this product to this website (customer pictures).

Also, when you hit the "SNAP" button to take a picture, it takes a second or two before you here the sound indicating that the picture was taken. Because of this, you're never really sure when the picutre was actually taken ... is it when you hit the SNAP button or when you hear the sound ... or between those two times. The bottom line here is that while this sounds like a great idea I'm not sure that the technology is to the point to satisfy my expectations.

The camera requires an unusual battery that isn't included. So I went to Radio Shack to get the battery. The camera powered up. I inserted a 2GB SD memory card. The screen showed an error message "ECO" that wasn't in the manual. I called Bushnell and they said it can't handle bigger than a 1GB memory card. That isn't in the manual. I tried to remove the memory card but it wouldn't come out. I tried harder, got it out, and now the camera won't power up.

Other complaints: the SD memory card slot isn't covered so rain or sand could get into it. The binoculars are OK but have the black shadows of a narrow exit pupil size. This is as bad as 10x20 binoculars, even though the 8x30 binoculars should have an exit pupil twice the diameter of a 10x20!

My wife purchased one of these for my b-day. I took it to my daughter's U-8 soccer game. From the sidelines, I was able to zoom in on her and take some incredible close-up action shots. I also used it at a Raider's football game and took some great pics of the folks in the Black Hole.

I highly recommend this binocular/camera combo!

I returned this right away. Couldnt get the individual lenses to focus. No battery included.