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Meade CaptureView 8x22 Digital Camera Binocular (Compact)

Meade CaptureView 8x22 Digital Camera Binocular (Compact)

List Price: $79.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: SAD
Review: Internal timer with no controls? No 'OFF' switch. Turn it and take pics...great. As long as you keep taking pics all is well.If you loose track of the 2 minute window..it turns off! RATS No way to extend the 2 minutes? Looking thru binocs you have no hint (is the camera on or off?)
PROBLEMS:
1) Internal timer-that can be fixed with a firmware download but if you extend the timer to 30 minutes..ya can't turn it off.Well you can by removing the battery cover. And that's another problem.
2) plastic battery cover.A toy .Not long for this world
3)no cover for memory slot or USB port or lens covers (5)
4) Beeper? What beeper? I can't hear any beeper.
5) Battery labels? + and - are confusing for first time

Just turned it on,took one picture..it turned off. Turn it on, take another picture,set it on the counter..it turned off??????
Grrrrrrrrr

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: SAD
Review: Internal timer with no controls? No 'OFF' switch. Turn it and take pics...great. As long as you keep taking pics all is well.If you loose track of the 2 minute window..it turns off! RATS No way to extend the 2 minutes? Looking thru binocs you have no hint (is the camera on or off?)
PROBLEMS:
1) Internal timer-that can be fixed with a firmware download but if you extend the timer to 30 minutes..ya can't turn it off.Well you can by removing the battery cover. And that's another problem.
2) plastic battery cover.A toy .Not long for this world
3)no cover for memory slot or USB port or lens covers (5)
4) Beeper? What beeper? I can't hear any beeper.
5) Battery labels? + and - are confusing for first time

Just turned it on,took one picture..it turned off. Turn it on, take another picture,set it on the counter..it turned off??????
Grrrrrrrrr

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a rip
Review: My kid got this for me last week.It's a toy.When my wife told me how much it cost I flipped.I told my kid I loved it ,didn't want to make her feel bad.Good company,this one stinks

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For what it is, and the price, it's a fun combo.
Review: Okay, I've read the other reviews. Luckily, I just got one from my wife for Christmas BEFORE I read the reviews, or I'd have been skeptical. However, I really like it. The optics are better than my Bushnell 8x22; clearer and brighter. And, the photos are pretty good for a low-cost digital camera. But, since it's essentially an 8 power lens (equivalent to 400mm), if the unit is not properly braced, the photos will (quite naturally) be blurry. Heck, my 35mm with a 300 telephoto would yield pretty lousy shots if not properly braced! Actually, my only complaint is that Meade did not include a camera mount adapter. The use of a small tripod would eliminate the blur caused by an unsteady grip. This can be corrected - as I have already done - by sticking a small square of velcro on the underside of the binoculars (actually the battery compartment door), and sicking the other piece of velcro on the camera mount (such as my pocket-size tripod/car window mount). Problem of blur solved!
If you want better optics in a compact binocular, or a better quality digital camera, expect to pay a good deal more than the cost of the Meade Capture View. But for a good, lightweight (7.1 oz) pocket-size (4.5 x 3.5 x 2.2") binocular with the very cool feature of being able to take a snapshot at the touch of a button, it's a good deal.
Recommended close focus is a minimum 16', and at this distance, I got a acceptably sharp portrait of my cat. At 150' (with tripod!) I got a surprizingly good shot of a cardinal. In high-resolution mode, the camera's 8MB can store up to 45 640x480 photos. The 10 second timer is also a nice feature. Images can be downloaded via included USB cable (CD with installation and image editing software included). Individual images or the entire bank can be cleared with the touch of a button.
Overall, I'm very happy with my Capture View. It'll be in my pocket every time we go hiking or fishing come summer!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Looking a lot closer at things.
Review: Purchased meade Capture-View two weeks ago. Haven't had great deal of time to devote to it. For the price, the quality is there.
As it states in manual.What you see(optics)is NOT what you get. The camera lens are seperate from the optics used for viewing . There is a range that the focus of camera seems to be right on with setting of camera lens.Appears to me to be about 100 yds. Give or take few yards. Pictures look clear and with good color.
Going now to PC..When the disc is inserted in pc, it has the driver recognition of "Scope Cam" When you go to programs like IRFRANView,or ADOBE PHOTO DELUX. IT COMES WITH "ULEAD PHOTO EXPRESS".(I didn't load it because I Have other programs)Open chosen program. Go to "FILE" at Tool bar,(TOP OF SCREEN). Select "TWAIN SOURCE" THEN, SCOPE CAM.It will then have screen to download 1 or all pics taken. The Capture View binoc/camera would be a nice extra to take along on an outing. Bringing back rememberances of your trip without taking along your camera. The CaptureView is all you need..BUT DON'T FORGET THE BATTERIES. 2-AA's.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disappointed - disgusted
Review: Received as a gift, tried first time at a full daylight baseball game. Camera auto-shutoff between pitches makes it impossible to get quick action shots. Difficult to retrieve the photos, due to the poor driver software that locks up your PC, requires disconnecting other USB devices. Defective photos: images have jagged horizontal lines in neon colors bisecting the middle (where the interesting part of the photo should be). The (partial) images below the jagged horizontal lines have incorrect colors - baseball fields are not deep purple! I'm sorry I wasted my time with it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Meade Capture View by semi-pro photographer. FK Walter
Review: Received Binoculars/Camera as a Christmas gift. The Binoculars seem to work fine. However; the digital camera leaves a lot to be desired. Do not expect to get a Sharpe picture on distant objects!! I have taken at least 60 different shots and the only fair ones are from 50 to 200 feet. I am using the Nikon Colpix 5000(5Mega Pixils)!! The difference is like night and day!! Do not expect the Meade camera to even come close to the quality of our Nikon 5000! We Plan to use the Binocular portion mainly on hiking trips and to take an occasional picture at about 200 feet out. This would be OK for someone new to digital photography and wants a entry level camera. A nice toy, but not a quality camera!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Shame on Meade...
Review: Thank goodness I [paid less], although I don't like throwing away any amount of money. Oh Capture View, how do I dislike thee? Let me count the ways:

1. Binocs cannot be adjusted for someone like me with fairly close eye spacing--camera is in the way, so I cannot fuse left/right images. Duh!!

2. The on/off/shutter buttons are prominent and thus easy to accidentally press...of course this is why the [people] who designed this thing have it automatically shut off after 10 seconds of idling (unbelievable!!). This latter attractive behavior is not (that I could find) mentioned in the instructions.

3. The quality of the pics at "hi-res" is terrible---the product is just [not good] in this regard. Even resting on a support to prevent motion the pics are of such lousy clarity that they are practically useless. My regular digicam at 640/480 produces vastly better images. In fact, holding my digicam up against the eyepiece of my regular binocs and shooting thru the binocs gives much better pics than the Meade pics. This is my big disappointment with the device...I had hoped to get nice hawk pics, but I see it is virtually useless for a subject with any detail at all.

4. The need to reboot the computer after disconnecting the camera, before re-connecting it. Huh?? This makes the USB hot-swap feature useless.

Oh well...whaddaya want for [money]?? My sincerest condolences to those who wasted [more than] that.

Shame on Meade for putting their name on this piece of... And shame on them for absurdly hyping it in their ad copy.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Meade Capture View
Review: The binoculars are actually pretty good, but the digital camera is the worst I've ever seen. I can't believe they would put such a lousy camera in a name brand product.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Meade capture view scopecam The worst
Review: This camera crashed my computer 4 times and the one time I did get it to work the pictures were blurred,unfocused and dark. I even got on their website to download a new driver compatible with wiindows xp and it still crashed my computer. I almost lost all my files and my system has not been the same since I may have to get a repair person in to reset everything! I would NOT recomend this camera.


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