When I first plugged my face to the Sony DEV-5 HD 3D video binoculars it was a little difficult to know what the fuss was about, but as my fingers began to decipher the slightly off ergonomics the device began to reveal its true power.
The DEV-5 is the love child of a ménage à trois between a set of relatively good binoculars, a 2D/3D video camera and a GPS. The result is actually quite awe inspiring. Without consulting a manual, I was able to set up the unit using its built-in walk-through mini-tutorial. To record, playback and view 2D and 3D video footage and 7.1MP photographs was easy enough. Being able to record full 1080 HD and stereo audio and get steady footage (because of effective image stabilisation) then watch the footage on a big screen TV without much effort was a pleasure. The binocs have a 5.4x zoom in 3D, and 10x optical zoom and 20x digital zoom. Digital zoom leaves much to be desired, especially if you’re recording the footage, but still gets you in close enough with arguably enough detail to identify that rare mega-tick. If set to do so, the footage will be geotagged for reference, viewable in additional software.
In testing, I managed to record a very docile pride of recently satiated lions and when playing footage back could see flies buzzing around the irritated cats’ mouth – in 3D, nogal.
Costs R25 999 for the body with 35 mm f1.4 lens kit from Foto First retail stores. www.fotofirst.co.za.
