Friday, May 29, 2009

New impending digiscoping products from Leica!

Leica APO Televid 82 & 65 mm scopes
Pictures of Leica's smaller 65 mm APO Televid scopes have been around for over a year, but it has been only recently that working prototypes have been available. I finally got to see one of these "in the flesh"just a week ago now and it looked sweet!

comparison of Leica APO Televid 82 mm & 65 mm (rear) spotting scope

Personnel at Leica in Solms, Germany are still hopeful that the first "production" models of this product will ship before July of this year so the wait is almost over for those wanting the lighter-weight model of NEW APO Televid 65 mm.
prototype of Leica Digital Adapter 4
Equally exciting for user groups in all fields, is the announcement of the NEW Digital Adapter 4 from Leica! This sleek camera adapter is exclusively machined to couple the critically acclaimed Leica D-Lux 4 camera onto the new wide-angle zoom 25-50x zoom Televid eyepiece and is expected to be released over the summer as well.
Leica D-Lux 4 camera

The adapter screws to accessory threads on the face of the camera and simply slips onto the eyepiece as seen in the image below. Since the two are machined to mate flawlessly, the coupling is fast and intuitive with no adjustments necessary to center the camera on adapter or adapter to eyepiece. As such, you are able to move from viewing to imaging in mere seconds and quickly preserve memories of even fast-moving wildlife. This combination will be a real boon to those who simply want to take beautiful images with minimal effort.

Leica APO Televid 82 mm with 25-50x zoom, D-Lux 4, and new adapter
Examples of recent wildlife images using this combination:

immature Bald Eagle, May '09

adult Bald Eagle, May 2009

Dall's Sheep, ewe, May 2009