RE:Birds watchers here?I'm not a birder, but I would label myself a passionate naturalist. I spend a large amount of my leisure time hiking and looking for wildlife(including birds). I usually lug along a heavy pair of decent($500) binoculars. I had a small light pair but found that they lacked enough magnification to properly identify the bird/mammal/reptile that I spotted at a distance. That leaves me with the larger heavy pair. The problem with those are that I can't comfortably carry them around my neck for long periods so I keep them in my backpack. By the time I pull them out I've often missed getting a good look at what I've spotted. There's also the other problem with binoculars, and that's finding something quickly through the binoclars that you can easily spot without them. Since I'm often trying to spot a moving target through tree branches, it's very challenging to go from eyesite, to binocular, and back multiple times as the target moves around. Now imagine setting up the tripod and camera and losing all that valuable time before the specimen flies\runs\scurries away.
Nexoptics doubletake has got me so excited because I see how it solves a number of problems conventional binoculars and cameras have. To start, it's light enough to carry around my neck yet has powerful enough magnification to satisfy my needs. Second, I can switch from looking at the target with my eyes to looking at it with the screen at 2.5x magnification and back again without losing the target, which can sometimes be a real challenge with tracking wildlife. Second, once the target has slowed it's movement I can then switch to 10x magnification and be instantly on target still using the little target box on the screen (a smart feature). To top it off, I can now take a good quality picture or record some video without changing to a different piece of equiptment.
I could go on and talk about how most animals are more active at dusk and dawn, and that the patented lens tech and new AI will take spotting wildlife to the next level in low light conditions. I could also go into detail on how it will soon have apps that you can add that will identify the species type right on the screen as your'e viewing it.
This is all really exciting stuff and I am counting down the days to get my hands on a Double Take, so I can put it to the test and see what it can do in the field.