Customer Reviews

Celestron VistaPix 8x32 3.1 Megapixel Binocular/Digital Camera w/LCD (Champagne Gold)

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

 

 

Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, and not necessarily those of my employer. (To tell the truth, I'm not paid enough to speak for my employer.)

The Celestron VistaPix 3.1 Megapixel Binocular/Digital Camera is a handy compromise between binoculars and digital cameras. Its biggest advantage is convenience -- 2 devices in one moderately small package, for a comparatively low price. The images I've gotten are almost as good as the views I remember, and I can display them on my computer screen without having them become pixelated. The field of view of the image is about what you'd get with a 200mm or 300mm lens on a 35mm camera. I can upload to both Mac OS X and Windows XP.

But if you want a professional quality digital camera or a really high end pair of binoculars, you'll have to spend more money and carry a larger, heavier device.

They went through the first set of batteries a lot faster than I was expecting and became hard to turn on. (I started to think that the "on" switch was malfunctioning.)
Also, the first pair that arrived were defective -- one eyepiece wasn't attached, so I had to return them. When I'm in a noisy place, it's hard to hear the "beeps" that the binocs use to tell me that they've taken a picture -- I missed a few shots because of that, so I've started checking the display to make sure.

In summary, this binocular/camera is a handy compromise that I have had fun with. I will enjoy sharing the vacation pictures that I took. I'm happy with the pictures in part because I'm not a professional photographer, so I don't need to worry about whether my pictures are perfect, either technically or artistically.

I bought this binocular for the digital camera for a wilderness vacation this summer. I tried it out in my backyard and found that you need a steady hand for the pictures to come out clear. It's a 50/50 chance on a good picture. A tripod would be ideal but impractical if you want to take a quick photo opprotunity. The SD memory card slot is a plus and would suggest getting at least a 512MB. Plan to take lots of pictures so that at least half come out halfway decent. I wouldn't rely on this camera for all your vacation pictures. Bring along your other digital camera for closer up shots. The binocular digital camera takes only far away shots. The LCD is only good for reveiwing pictures. It's hard to see the picture because it jumps around too much. The binoculars are excellent. The magnification is nice and clear and easy to adjust.

I recently purchased this Megapixel Binocular/Digital Camera for a trip to Maui. This seemed like a nice addition to the 3x zoom limit of my normal digital camera.

It works well, but with limitations:

1. The zoom is fixed at 8x. Ideally this would have the ability to choose a magnification level. On the other hand, if you treat this as a nice set of binoculars with a bonus of a camera, you should be pleased.

2. The small memory card that comes with it is adequate, since 3MP pictures are not very large (~600K).

3. The video mode is useful, but this is not a video camera. It is handy for 30second to one minute videos though that a tourist might like. You will want to purchase more memory if you make heavy use of the video feature since 30seconds is about a 2Meg AVI file. This camera uses the old Sandisk technology which is very reasonably priced, so there is no good reason to not buy it right away.

4. Definitely practice with it before taking photos you care about. My initial photos were poor because it took time to get used to the fixed 8x zoom and the extremely steady hand required to take clear photos at this zoom, especially in near darkness. Later, I found this ideal for the whale watching cruise.

For the price, this is great technology but will quickly be obsoleted as newer digital cameras drop in price and offer adjustable optical zooms of 10x at high resolution.

-Dan

My wife bought me these binoculars for Christmas. It has finally warmed enough to try them out, DISPOINTING! The camera has no focus dial so you have no ability to get a clear picture no matter what distance you are from the subject. The binoculars are not that bad, just a little small. So save your money because these are not worth the price.

this productcame to me defective -=furthermore,when I tried to get technical help from celestron it was quite difficult to obtain..The product was returned!

I purchased these to record my bird sightings and although the binoculars were very good the camera images were never in focus. The instructions said to be 49 feet away from the subject to use the camera, but even then the images were fuzzy. When birding the details are important, and this camera just doesn't deliver the quality needed. If the bird had a color close to its background it was difficult to just pick the bird out of the picture, let alone tell what kind it was. In addition when using the optical zoom the images were incredibly grainy. I just can't recommend this product.

Picture resolution is very poor after pics are transferred to the computer. Shutter delay is way too long to catch intended pic.

I bought two of these digital binoculars as birthday presents for my twin brother and sister. One didn't work at all, the other worked a little for one outing and then never worked again. Utter junk.

Not a very good binocular and a lousy digital camera. Save your money and buy a good spotting scope and a digital camera adaptor. Product returned.

A friend and I used them on a few events and these things are awesome. Not the best camera, but remember these are Binoculars first, camera second.