A few days ago I had a chance (courtesy of Zeiss UK) to use the ‘new’ Zeiss PhotoScope 85 T* FL, a combined telescope and 7 megapixel digital camera first demonstrated at the 2008 Photokina and which, according to a Zeiss press-release of October 2008, “features a high-power digital camera with a super tele-lens in one unit and offers a magnification range of 15-45x for observation and outdoor photography“. The same press-release also noted that the launch of the PhotoScope was scheduled for spring/summer 2009 (which is something I’ll return to).
I don’t normally like to write reviews for a product that undoubtedly a great many people will be interested in without extensive use under different conditions – especially when it’s retailing in the region of 4,000GBP/6000USD – but on this occasion the PhotoScope was on a short-term loan and I personally used it for a very short time. Much of what follows here is derived from conversations in the field with a colleague who was using the PhotoScope next to me while we were crammed into a small hide. He is a digiscoper while I’m not (I use a Canon dSLR with a range of lenses), and his experience of the Photoscope is of course very relevant.
Firstly, let’s look at the technical specifications (taken from the Zeiss website).
Weighing in at about 3kg, the Zeiss PhotoScope T* 85 FL is a newly-designed telescope with an 85mm ‘entrance pupil’ (as Zeiss calls it), a claimed close focussing distance of 5m, magnification from 15x to 45x, and a field of view at 1000m which ranges from 80m down to 27m.
The PhotoScope features a completely integrated 7 megapixel camera which uses an SD card and takes JPEG, DNG (a RAW file format) and AVI. The battery is a standard 7.4V Li-ion rechargeable Canon 911-type (more or less the same I use in my dSLR, so it’s widely available and relatively inexpensive), and it, the card, and a USB2 socket are protected in a waterproof housing on the right hand side of the scope barrel.
On the left is a hinged 7cm OLED monitor which Zeiss says “is the control center for camera functions and setting parameters“. Images and/or video are taken using a line-of-sight wireless remote control (set in the battery/card housing on the right): there are no mirrors or other moving parts which eliminates ‘mirror slap’ and other vibrations which can easily ruin a shot.
The PhotoScope has had to be designed more or less from scratch. Zeiss apparently toyed with the idea of attaching a separate camera unit to a re-designed telescope, but instead opted – presumably to make the whole package more portable, rainproof, and durable – for an internal system which has led to a compete redesign (and presumably again, extensive investment in factory production equipment). The image is sent to the camera’s electronics using a beam splitter. To quote Zeiss again, “The starting point of the new system is the complex, newly computed lens with triple zoom setting and FL elements for bright, crisp and high-contrast images. A beam splitter makes this brilliant image available for both visual observation through the eyepiece and digital photography.”
Zeiss are understandably keen that this costly bit of kit sells well and they end their sales-pitch with the words, “With the new PhotoScope™ 85 T* FL, Carl Zeiss provides not only birdwatchers and nature photographers with a new technology that is unique on the global market. The combination of photography and observation is a new high-end solution that offers uncompromising quality and ease of use.”
“…a new high-end solution that offers uncompromising quality and ease of use.” Quite a claim, and one that anyone who has ever used Zeiss optics will know that the company are clearly able in theory to deliver. The question is – have they succeeded this time around. According to my colleague, a digiscoper remember, a somewhat qualified “Yes”; according to me, someone who normally yearns for every new optical toy that comes to the market, a somewhat qualified “No”.
As I said at the start of this review, I am not a digiscoper and I have hardly used the PhotoScope at all so I have no doubt whatsoever that other users will reach different conclusions, but I have to admit that if I had 4000GBP I wouldn’t buy the PhotoScope.
Let’s get a minor point out of the way first: it’s a purely subjective opinion but the PhotoScope to me looks lumpen and from a design POV almost still ‘pre-production’ and unfinished. This was not ‘love at first sight’. I didn’t have the ‘sweaty-palms and racing heart’ reaction that my first view of the Canon XL-1 (yes, the link’s to the XL-1s, but they looked pretty much the same) caused some ten years ago. I’m sure others will disagree, but that’s my opinion. Yes, I know the way equipment looks shouldn’t influence anything, but don’t tell me companies invest in design departments because they want to help out starving designers…
On the plus side, the PhotoScope is incredibly easy to use. Everything you need is right at hand in one integrated package, and taking images and video (you do need to choose which using the camera’s menu – there are no buttons on the remote to switch between the two oddly) is quick and easy. It’s as portable as a telescope, the camera won’t fall off some dodgy home-made rig, there is no internal vibration, images are – in our limited experience – excellent (and I have no doubt that if we’d had a week or so to play with the ISO and shutter settings etc they’d have been even better), and it feels solid and well-made (though if the electronics fail the camera can’t be detached which means that the whole thing will be unavailable while it’s being repaired). The (small-ish) monitor uses contemporary OLED technology, is crisp and clean and perfectly useable in the field, and as well as providing ‘live view’ you can zoom the displayed image live using the remote.
While the PhotoScope is surely not intended to be used as a standalone telescope (it’s very expensive compared with eg Zeiss’s own superb Victory Diascopes of course) optically it is everything you would expect a Zeiss ‘scope to be – bright, capable of extremely sharp focus, distortion-free, and high-end (though some users – or perhaps just me – may find the graticules in the eyepiece a bit intrusive).
The Zeiss PhotoScope 85 T* FL seems, then, to be a technological break through and the answer to the prayers of researchers and field-workers who spend hours watching birds and need to record their behaviour and movements. However, while some aspects of the PhotoScope are thoroughly well-designed it’s frustrating to find that there are some negative elements that need remarking on.
In my opinion the PhotoScope seems overpriced for what is in effect a (very good) telescope and a (reasonably good) 7mp digital camera that doesn’t have image stabilisation and that crucially doesn’t record in HD but AVI – video at 320×240 resolution. AVI is fine for websites but not for documentary makers (and while I’m remarking on AVI, it’s an audio + video format but there is no inbuilt microphone or hot shoe for a mic). The Samsung Omnia mobile phone introduced HD recording to the cell phone market back in May 2009 and there are a raft of HD camcorders available for under 500GBP. Surely Zeiss could have struck a deal and put an HD chip into the PhotoScope without too much trouble?
While we’re on upgrading, the PhotoScope (or this one anyway) runs out of processing puff remarkably quickly. While I was firing as many images as I wanted with my dSLR, my colleague next to me was taking three (perhaps four, he wasn’t sure) images and having to wait for the data to be written to the SD card: that’s simply not good enough. I was reminded of my first dSLR, a Canon, which had shutter lag and long write times: I bought that perhaps eight years ago.
Lastly the camera ate the supplied battery (which may of course have ‘done the rounds’ and be on its last legs) and it ran down in less than a hundred shots. It may well be that the OLED monitor is using most of the power. It is easy to take photos directly through the eyepiece without using the monitor, so there is a workaround, but potential purchasers would be advised to stock up with batteries if they’re going to filming away from a mains supply for any length of time (and, no, there is apparently no way at the moment to charge the PhotoScope via a cigarette lighter if you’re filming from your car).
Oh, and don’t lose the remote control or you have an expensive bit of kit that you can turn on using the external power button (sat by the remote control sensor on the left) but can’t take images with! Why aren’t a small range of controls built into the housing itself in case you lose the remote, or its batteries run down? There will be a good reason, of course, but if you’re forgetful or clumsy (I put my hands-up to both) order a spare remote at the same time as you buy the PhotoScope.
As I said, I didn’t use this scope for anywhere near long enough to get to know it well. It’s apparently in demand by reviewers everywhere and the Zeiss rep who supplied it wanted it back quite quickly. I have, as regular readers will know, a suspicious and deeply cynical streak and I wonder why Zeiss were so keen to lend it to us now? I wouldn’t even ask the question except that I couldn’t find a long review of the PhotoScope on the internet – and this thing was first demonstrated over eighteen months ago. How come there are no reviews: Zeiss are surely extremely confident about their ‘new’ equipment aren’t they…?
So, would either of us buy it? Zeiss implied that the PhotoScope was practically made for small conservation projects, but 4000GBP is a hefty chunk from a small charity’s budget, and while my colleague liked it he thought it was expensive and was irritated that there was no line-out function so that the PhotoScope could be hooked up to an external monitor (eg a flat-screen TV set up in a hide or information centre). It didn’t interest me but then I’m not a digiscoper (even though I’m something of an optics geek), and I’m convinced anyway (and I must stress that I have no inside information whatsoever) that by the time Zeiss recover their initial production costs there will already be an updated version with eg better processing power, image stabilisation, and line-out capability ready to hit the stores.
I really wanted to be impressed by the Zeiss PhotoScope – and all kudos to Zeiss for being the first to launch an integrated product – but I’m left a little unconvinced. I may be wrong but it seems to me that the length of time it’s taken to design and then bring the PhotoScope to such a swiftly-moving market makes it already a little dated. There is no doubt at all that the Zeiss PhotoScope (or a product like it) could be ‘the future’ of digiscoping, but right now – in my opinion – you’d need both deep pockets and an extremely good reason to buy it.
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