Meade CaptureView 8x22 Digital Camera Binocular (Compact) Editorial Review: This tremendously versatile 8x22 compact binocular with it's integrated 640x480 resolution digital camera is perfect for anyone who wants to view all the action up-close, and capture it digitally as well. The built-in digital camera captures what you see in the 8-power view of the binocular.
Customer Reviews: SAD 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
Disappointed - disgusted 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.
Not sure I like it yet I opened the box and installed (or tried to install) the software for this piece of equipment, and found that the software loaded ok, the driver installed properly, but the Tutorial WOULD NOT RUN. I am VERY disappointed in the documentation (instructions for the software and technical info for the camera/binocs)! As another reviewer stated, the thing shuts off after 10 seconds of non-use - a pain in the neck when you are out 'birding' and trying to catch the perfect shot - and that is NOT DOCUMENTED anywhere!
I will keep trying with this...I have a trip coming up and plan to take my REAL camera, too. I am sure the technology on these things will get better. I hope to contact Meade and let them know how disappointed I am.
A good camera This camera is excellent for birdwatching & catching those great shots. The perfect picture is about 16 feet from you- I have taken some prize winning photos with mine.
It is fixed focus and takes some time to learn to perfect your technique- but by and all I am pleased with the price and the product. My boyfriend also bought one and we enjoy taking pictures together and comparing.
A good product- a good price.
Shame on Meade... 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.
Closer Look
