The FS608R Digital Camera Binoculars FHD 1080P from Gear Best is a low-end binocular with a built in camera that takes up to 2592 x 1944 (defaults to 2,048 x 1,536, and can go lower) pixel photos or avi movies (no sound).
Really good binoculars cost hundreds of dollars, but there is a range of inexpensive binoculars that everybody who uses binoculars (especially bird watchers) and/or has kids owns a few of. This is the extra set of binocs you keep in your car, near back yard window, let your kids play around with, or if you are a biology teacher, bring to school for the trip down to the nearby wildlife park on sample collection day. Everybody’s got a few of these, and this particular binocular could easily be one of those.
The FS608R at the discounted price at GearBest of just under $70 is not as good as comparable low end binoculars optically, but the photographs it takes are actually impressive. (The same binoculars are Amazon are $170, elsewhere in the $80s or $90s.) Clearly, you are paying for the electronics. Interestingly, the quality of the photographs is much higher than one might expect when just looking through the binoculars. The movies are not anything special, don’t get it for the movies, but it is a nice feature to have.
As is the case with any binoculars, the focusing is key. If you are used to self-focusing or almost-always-infinity cameras, you will have to learn to respect the focus, but once you get that straight, the photos are amazingly good for the price of the device. The camera uses a micro SD card (not supplied, and if you don’t have one you’ll want to get an SD card adapter so you can get the micro SD card in your card reader). The camera also has a USB connector as an option for getting the shots off the binoculars.
It think this set of binoculars is going to get a lot of use in our family, and in Amanda’s classroom.
I don’t know much about GearBest, but it seems to be a relatively new China-based outlet for medium to low range (in price) electronics. The normal price for the FS608DR digital camera binocs is 180.00, which is more than you should pay for this device, but the discounted price is reasonable.