*** Binoculars Experiment ***

[Rob Wijhenke]

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible. Second attempt by placing both the binoculars and cam on book on a pillow were slightly better. Still unhappy with the results I removed the rubber eyepiece of the binoculars thus positioning the cam's lenses as close to the bino's lens as possible. The result amazed me, you can actually look into the livingroom of an appartment in a flat about 1 kilometer away. You can even see the painting haning on the wall! At Night!

I think I start making my own telelens...

The original picture was highest res 1600x1200 preset shutter 1/1, f4.0, auto iso (no noise!). The shot below here is a part of this shot, original size, no touch ups or anything.

happy experimenting,
Rob

 

[Michael11945]

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in
front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible.
Second attempt by placing both the binoculars and cam on book on a pillow
were slightly better. Still unhappy with the results I removed the rubber
eyepiece of the binoculars thus positioning the cam's lenses as close to
the bino's lens as possible. The result amazed me, you can actually look
into the livingroom of an appartment in a flat about 1 kilometer away.
You can even see the painting haning on the wall! At Night!

I think I start making my own telelens...

The original picture was highest res 1600x1200 preset shutter 1/1, f4.0,
auto iso (no noise!). The shot below here is a part of this shot,
original size, no touch ups or anything.

happy experimenting,

This shot is worrying, several obvious points:
1 it is of people's apartments at night
2 the people are clearly oblivious to your presence

3 do you stop when innocent of your activities they start to undress, make love or do whatever?

worried Michael

Rob

 

[Tom Makowecki]

Michael;
You worry too much!

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in
front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible.
Second attempt by placing both the binoculars and cam on book on a pillow
were slightly better. Still unhappy with the results I removed the rubber
eyepiece of the binoculars thus positioning the cam's lenses as close to
the bino's lens as possible. The result amazed me, you can actually look
into the livingroom of an appartment in a flat about 1 kilometer away.
You can even see the painting haning on the wall! At Night!

I think I start making my own telelens...

The original picture was highest res 1600x1200 preset shutter 1/1, f4.0,
auto iso (no noise!). The shot below here is a part of this shot,
original size, no touch ups or anything.

happy experimenting,

This shot is worrying, several obvious points:
1 it is of people's apartments at night
2 the people are clearly oblivious to your presence
3 do you stop when innocent of your activities they start to undress,
make love or do whatever?

worried Michael

Rob

 

[Coly]

Rob,

I'd wondered if this would work. Image quality doesn't look real great - is that just because of low light? How about a daytime experiment.

Coly

 

[max]

Your questions are moot as obviously there are no people visible in that shot. Following your line of thinking
1) should all telephotos be banned as potential invaders of privacy?

2) Maybe license the users.Establish criterias for the licenses. We would need a governmental body to administer said licenses.

3) PeepingTomLicenseAdministration, PeToLA , (you can come up with your own acronym) will need its own enforcement arm, trained in the issues and techniques specific to this unique field, PeToLA Police, also known as PePeToLA.
4) We will need a judiciary to administer the enforcement of PeToLA ukaz'.

5) To finance this great defense against dangers to society, like Rob, we will establish a taxing scheme on both license holders (tax the lenses by length and aperture, throw in speed as a fudge factor) and upon the people we are going to protect (there is a lot more of those).

6) Eastablish Ministry of Paranoia, PeToLA becomes a fully blown Department of the Ministry. Michael becomes the Director of the Department, pulling $240,000.00 per anum, government pension and administering 17021 people.

Rob, you have no idea how dangerous was your little experiment !

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in
front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible.
Second attempt by placing both the binoculars and cam on book on a pillow
were slightly better. Still unhappy with the results I removed the rubber
eyepiece of the binoculars thus positioning the cam's lenses as close to
the bino's lens as possible. The result amazed me, you can actually look
into the livingroom of an appartment in a flat about 1 kilometer away.
You can even see the painting haning on the wall! At Night!

I think I start making my own telelens...

The original picture was highest res 1600x1200 preset shutter 1/1, f4.0,
auto iso (no noise!). The shot below here is a part of this shot,
original size, no touch ups or anything.

happy experimenting,

This shot is worrying, several obvious points:
1 it is of people's apartments at night
2 the people are clearly oblivious to your presence
3 do you stop when innocent of your activities they start to undress,
make love or do whatever?

worried Michael

Rob

 

[wim #13414]

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in
front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible.

Hi Rob, I did the same as you today with a S10, an expensive 10x42 and an old monocular 20x. You can see some examples here:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1005&message=217212

Wim

 

[Coly]

PeepingTomLicenseAdministration would presumably also regulate Rob's binocs?

Rob, you have no idea how dangerous was your little experiment !

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in
front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible.
Second attempt by placing both the binoculars and cam on book on a pillow
were slightly better. Still unhappy with the results I removed the rubber
eyepiece of the binoculars thus positioning the cam's lenses as close to
the bino's lens as possible. The result amazed me, you can actually look
into the livingroom of an appartment in a flat about 1 kilometer away.
You can even see the painting haning on the wall! At Night!

I think I start making my own telelens...

The original picture was highest res 1600x1200 preset shutter 1/1, f4.0,
auto iso (no noise!). The shot below here is a part of this shot,
original size, no touch ups or anything.

happy experimenting,

This shot is worrying, several obvious points:
1 it is of people's apartments at night
2 the people are clearly oblivious to your presence
3 do you stop when innocent of your activities they start to undress,
make love or do whatever?

worried Michael

 

[max]

Thanks for pointing out :

Rob's binoculars would require 2 licenses, his camera 1, in addition to Rob being licensed as a Multitool Operator (2 barrels + the camera).

Rob, you have no idea how dangerous was your little experiment !

I just experimented a bit with the 950 by holding a 8x25 binoculars in
front of its lens. First attempts were handheld and obviously horrible.
Second attempt by placing both the binoculars and cam on book on a pillow
were slightly better. Still unhappy with the results I removed the rubber
eyepiece of the binoculars thus positioning the cam's lenses as close to
the bino's lens as possible. The result amazed me, you can actually look
into the livingroom of an appartment in a flat about 1 kilometer away.
You can even see the painting haning on the wall! At Night!

I think I start making my own telelens...

The original picture was highest res 1600x1200 preset shutter 1/1, f4.0,
auto iso (no noise!). The shot below here is a part of this shot,
original size, no touch ups or anything.

happy experimenting,

This shot is worrying, several obvious points:
1 it is of people's apartments at night
2 the people are clearly oblivious to your presence
3 do you stop when innocent of your activities they start to undress,
make love or do whatever?

worried Michael

 

[shavebo]

Hell with the picture on the wall lets see some real actions and see if that darn thing works ,,,With the ATF and the INS going wild in this country it will not be long before they have the PTS (peepingTomService) raiding your home with guns drawn... remember I said it here first ..

 

[robert jeantet]

Michael;
You worry too much!

Interesting to see that in this forum exchange the Europeans seem to worry about invasion of other people's privacy, the Americans seem to worry more about government intervention and limitation of their own freedom (to invade other people's privacy).

Instead of worrying about these things, just follow this rule: don't do anything you wouldn't be willing to tell your mom about!
regards
Robert Jeantet

 

[Chuck Ruscher]

I prefer the Gloden Rule

"Do on to others as you would have done onto you" or whaterever varation you like.
In this specific case it would not bother me if the photo was my house.

Chuck Ruscher

Michael;
You worry too much!

Interesting to see that in this forum exchange the Europeans seem to
worry about invasion of other people's privacy, the Americans seem to
worry more about government intervention and limitation of their own
freedom (to invade other people's privacy).
Instead of worrying about these things, just follow this rule: don't do
anything you wouldn't be willing to tell your mom about!
regards
Robert Jeantet

 

[Mike.]

Rob,
You may be interested in some tests I conducted with compact
binoculars -

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=331615&a=5019383

and also the zeiss monocular (not very impressive considering the name)

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=331615&a=3291925

Ive since dismantled the tasco 8x21 and will use the barrel as a monocular
until my Kenko arrives (ordered from ckcpower) - the image quality is
about the same as the zeiss which is quite a feat considering it cost
4 times less...

One thing ive noticed with all the monocular / binocular tests ive done, is
a slight blue / purple haze in some areas of the image, specially in high
contrast areas - does anyone know why this happens ?

BR
Mike

 

[max]

Actually, what we have is a European who started this thing in the first place, we just came to his defense to bail him out.
History repeats itself.

Seriously, it is a call to preserve some common sense.

Then again,
even paranoiacs have enemies.

Michael;
You worry too much!

Interesting to see that in this forum exchange the Europeans seem to
worry about invasion of other people's privacy, the Americans seem to
worry more about government intervention and limitation of their own
freedom (to invade other people's privacy).
Instead of worrying about these things, just follow this rule: don't do
anything you wouldn't be willing to tell your mom about!
regards
Robert Jeantet

 

[Rob Wijhenke]

Okay Okay! I got the picture (metaphorically speaking...)

I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!

please don't ban me from this forum as I was just trying to show what you can achieve with some simple tools and a pillow... Altough I am NOT in the habit of spying on people I couldn't resist this shot as it was the only subject good enough to try this out. As far as spying is concerned: Yes this should be regulated. I will work out the proper procedures and distribute them appropriately. #1 for yours truly.

bibi
Rob

P.S. thanks for all other comments!

 

[Rob Wijhenke]

Mike, great shots! I still have a lot to learn
You were not peeping right?

 

[max]

That blue TV has privacy rights too.........

Mike, great shots! I still have a lot to learn
You were not peeping right?

 

[Andreas P.]

Hi,

well here is my experiment with a monocular. At least the object won't cause
problems regarding any privacy discussions.

Regards,

Andreas

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=212069

 

[Mike.]

No Rob, I took that shot from the back yard - didnt really pay much attention
to the subject - now that you pointed it out I had to go back and check the
other images! - I was busy swapping binoculars and testing them

I took a walk to the end of the lane after the initial "oh it works!" and
shot from the same place I tested the zeiss monocular mentioned previously.

The "blue tv" is actually two water barrels, a water well is in shot, just
behind the metal roof laders...

I think the most difficult aspect using binoculars/monoculars is getting
the focus right, if Im shooting a static subject I tend to use my cams
digital zoom, and zoom to its maximum (digital+optical) then focus
the binocular or monocular and the turn off digital zoom - that
technique seems to work quite well, as for moving & fast subjects
I guess its luck of the draw

BR
Mike

 

[gene]

I guess I shouldn't try my Bushnell 7-21x40 binoculars with my CP950. But you got my curiosity sparked.

"Do on to others as you would have done onto you" or whaterever varation
you like.
In this specific case it would not bother me if the photo was my house.

Chuck Ruscher

Michael;
You worry too much!

Interesting to see that in this forum exchange the Europeans seem to
worry about invasion of other people's privacy, the Americans seem to
worry more about government intervention and limitation of their own
freedom (to invade other people's privacy).
Instead of worrying about these things, just follow this rule: don't do
anything you wouldn't be willing to tell your mom about!
regards
Robert Jeantet

 

[Rob Wijhenke]

No Rob, I took that shot from the back yard - didnt really pay much
attention

Mike, maybe should or you will be BANNED from this forum...