Hi all,
Have sent this info to a couple of birders who were interested in
camcorders for birders. As several other people have expressed interest in
it I am sending it out to the list. If anyone wishes to see the quality of
the pictures, contact me & I will send a few as attachments - they take 2-3
minutes to download so will only be sent if requested.
I use, & can thoroughly recommend the Sony PC3 - a mini
digital camcorder.It is about the size of a Sony Walkman. I use it for
birding & it is small enough to fit in the pocket. I have a Nikon ED angled
scope which I use to take video shots up to times 200 !!. Anything over 200
& you get too much shake!! The camcorder has an optical mag. of times ten
(zoom) & holding it on a times 20 eyepiece of the scope gives times 200
which is about the highest that you can get a reasonable quality picture. I
also bought a times 2 lens which screws on the front to give times 20
optical mag. The digital zoom is times 40 but I keep it permanently
switched off as all it does is to enlarge the pixels making up the picture
with a consequent loss of clarity. The image you see on the LCD & through
the viewer is in colour. The quality of videos produced is TV quality -
however it does depend how good you are!! I got some superb footage in the
Gambia recently - and I should say some poor footage as well but that was
down to me.!!!
Other features that I consider good are the night viewing
feature - works in total darkness - good for nocturnal animals, and a
memory stick which will take stills that can be stored and then put onto
your computer using a decoder box (supplied)and then the pictures can be
sent out as attachments to e:mails Great for 'gripping off' other birders
and also for sorting out identification problems. This mini camcorder is not
cheap - In the UK. mine cost £1000 + about £85.00 for the 2 times converter.
Quite a lot of serious birders in the UK have bought this. The PC1 E is also
excellent but does not have the memory stick or night vision - they seem to
have stopped production of this model over here..
Cheers,
Chris
Helen & Chris Padley
The Old Bakehouse,
Little Walsingham,
Norfolk.
England.
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
in the message body (without the quotes)
|
