Quirky camera for scoping

Leonard Goh | Mar 11, 2008

Fancy an eye-piece camera? Not too long ago, German camera manufacturer Minox unveiled the Minox Digital Eyepiece Camera (DEC) 5.0, and at first glance, it looked nothing like a shooter. But underneath its quirky exterior, you'll find a digital camera, monitor and eye-piece, all rolled into one light package of 220g.

The DEC 5.0 acts pretty much like a dSLR camera body, but instead of fitting a lens, you attach a spotting scope to it (thus the term digiscope). The camera comes in several different mounts, each adapted for different brands of telescopes.

Bird lovers now won't have to lug around heavy equipment but can contend with just their telescope and this 5-megapixels camera. The 2.4-inch TFT LCD screen is not really big (compared to other digital cameras), but is ample for more then one person to view.

The DEC 5.0 is also shockproof and waterproof, so you can carry on scoping and shooting even in adverse weather conditions. It comes with 128MB of internal memory, but if you require more space, you can always pop an SD card into the expansion slot.

Though it is marketed for hunters (to scope their prey) and bird lovers, we're sure others will think of other quirky uses for it soon. Since a spotting scope can give magnification ranging from 40x to 60x, you can get much closer than using an expensive telephoto lens for dSLRs. Investigative work, anyone?

It's weird that we cannot find this on the online store at Minox's site, but there are plenty of other sites touting this innovative gadget at US$449.

Filed under: Digital Cameras
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