Swarovski's New Scopes

Swarovski Optics Austria announces new line of their spotting scopes.

It is modular, it has zoom functions and the new model, the 95mm is what we call, re-inventing the telescopes! With its world's famous High Definition glasses, it would be exciting to read its review when it launches in England on the 17th. August, 2012.

This hot news  came in 16 hours ago and you can read a report from Birdwatching UK. here.
Enjoy!

Teleconverter Lens

Cokin

Tested out this lens from France.

It is a 2x teleconverter adaptor which is placed over the lens of the camcorder to make its zoom twice the power.
The zoom on the Panasonic HDC TM-300 is 12x. Placing this over would make it around 24x. Tested it. The picture quality is good because it is a digital lens.
It would be better if made out of Flourite glass but then, none is available.

So I bought it. I deliberately chose the oversized one for my camera's 43mm filter thread. Just add a 43mm-58mm ring, the large 58mm lens works great. This is the best that I have come so far.
The model is COKIN 58mm 2x Digital teleconverter adaptor.
A word of caution. There are many other that I have tried, failed miserably. Ghosting, Flares, Image distortion and bluring at the side are common. Do try it out first before buying.

Just imagine this. Many high end spotting scopes (top brands such as Carl Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski, Kowa..) do NOT support full HD 16:9 Video shooting. They are all designed for 4:3
and for photo use. I was very sad about this as full HD videoscoping is almost non-existant!
A scope like this and with all necessary adaptors and rings costs RM18,000.00!
I blogged earlier about this (the above) but the test failed. It did not justify spending so much money if that is the result I am going to get.

16:9 is what your new LCD TV width is all about. 4:3 is the old 29" TV you have just chucked out. If you are watching Asstro in full screen on your new LCD TV there is something wrong with you! Please see closely. The images are distorted. People looks fat and short yah? Use your remote and select 4:3 for Asstro then the images are not distorted. But then, you would have two black bars on the right and left of your screen. Why? Go figure!

When discussing with the people directly from the Optic Factories, I sounded like as if, I am from another Planet!!!

The search continues.! Sheesh!

The Stork have arrived!

NEW BABY!
The Panasonic HDC-TM300

Just purchased a new camcorder today.

This new baby was launched last week. Needing a High Definition video camera to record on the new AVCHD format, I selected this model because it is the best at the moment. I chose this over my other favourite brand, the Sony. Panasonic have taken this model as their flagship and with advanced features in technology, they made it affordable too. This left Sony way behind!!!!

The main plus points are as follows:-

1) Full Solid State Recording without any (HDD) Hard Disk Drive. It is on SDCard.
2) 3xMOS 1/4.1" Sensors. That means three sensors. Not one!
3) Optional Manual Controls for focusing, zoom, aperture,shutter speed & white balance!
4) Zoom microphone control including Dolby5.1 System.

5) Leica Dicomar lenses with 12x Optical Zoom
6) Full High Definition 1920x1080 AVCHD format.
7) 10.6 megapixels still picture recording.
8) HD Crystal Engine.
9) Ultra small in size and weigh only 385 gms (less battery)

It will take a while to build-up my HD footage and will be featuring some clips on You Tube in HD format soon.

As for shooting birds in the wild, this time in HD video, I am planning to marry this camcorder to the Swarovski STS 80 HD Spotting Scope. This is really getting up close and personal!

Of course, storage of HD files in preparation of HD video editing, my data banks of HDD is ready and is at 5TB Raid system.
It is gonna be a lot of work!