Product Description

Celestron's VistaPix binocular/digital camera gives you the best of both worlds! VistaPix is a high-quality powerful binocular for clear, sharp, bright views of the outdoors and a versatile digital camera - all in one!VistaPix is all you need to view the world around you and save those memorable moments to share with others. VistaPix images can be stored using its internal mass storage until you're ready to download them to your PC. Once downloaded, the fun begins. You can crop, re-size, manipulate color and much more. You can even record and play back videos! VistaPix gives you the tools to add that creative touch.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30972 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: Celestron
• Model: 72214
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• Integrated binocular/camera design
• Flip-up LCD screen for easy viewing
• Features continuous video capability
• Plug and Play compatible with mass storage and no need for drivers
• Tripod adaptable

Amazon.com Product Description
The Celestron 72214 VistaPix 8 x 32 3.1 megapixel binocular / digital camera with LCD (Champagne Gold) gives you the best of both worlds. This latest in the line of high-quality Celestron's products combines a powerful binocular for clear, sharp, bright views of the outdoors with a versatile digital camera ready to capture all of your distant sightings.

With a comfortable, rubber-coated textured body, the Celestron 72214 is a rugged, durable, and functional set of binoculars. The multi-coated lenses and high-quality roof prisms deliver images twice as bright as 22-millimeter binoculars. The binoculars feature an 8x magnification and an objective lens diameter of 32 millimeters, giving it a four-millimeter exit pupil.

(The exit pupil size--the diameter of the objective lens divided by the magnification--determines the amount of light available to your eye. The larger the exit pupil, the brighter the image obtained will be. A three-millimeter exit pupil is generally sufficient for daytime use, five-millimeters is suitable for daytime and twilight, and seven-millimeters is generally necessary for maximum nighttime or astronomy use.)

The Celestron 72214 also sports a digital camera that delivers high-quality images as well as continuous video footage. So when you come across a herd of elk on the distant horizon, with a simple click you can bring them up close and personal for your friends and family back home.

With 16 MB of flash memory, the Celestron 72214 can hold up to 25 high-resolution, or 100 low-resolution, images. (The camera includes an SD slot for additional storage.) Once you download your images to a PC, Celestron's VistaPix Photo Express SE software will allow you to manipulate your images to your heart's content. Turn your favorites shots from your vacation into postcards that will make your colleagues back at work green with envy. Celestron VistaPix gives you all the tools you'll need to add that creative or personal touch to your still images or video footage.

About Celestron VistaPix
VistaPix is Celestron's newest line of binoculars with digital imaging capabilities. The VistaPix binocular / digital camera gives you a high-quality and powerful binocular, and a versatile digital camera -- all in a single integrated design. VistaPix images can be stored using its internal mass storage, or on a separate SD card (not included) until you're ready to download them to your PC. Once downloaded, you can use the VistaPix Photo Express SE software to crop or re-size your images, create 360-degree panoramas, manipulate color and even play back videos. With VistaPix Photo Express, there is no need to install new drivers for most versions of Windows. All VistaPix models come with a two-year warranty.

What's in the Box
Celestron 72214 Binocular/Digital Camera and VistaPix Photo Express SE software

Customer Reviews

A Handy Compromise
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.

Excellent Binoculars, Okay digital camera.
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.

Reasonably priced older technology
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