Last week I visited the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. During my wandering through the various halls I happened upon a technology that was quite intriguing. 

Swarovski was showing binoculars with a built-in camera. That was nothing new. Others have tried it and, for the most part, failed. At least in terms of poor sales. But the Swarovski AX Visio has a new trick up its sleeve. It can actually identify birds as well as some other animal species. It is a seamless experience. Focus on the bird, press a button, and the binocular presents the name right in your view! Now, I realize there have been some apps for smartphones that can do this. But using a phone for bird watching is not fun or easy. You can only pinch/zoom a phone so far. Looking through a high-quality 10×32 binocular with this identification feature is a wholly different and enjoyable experience! 

At a $4,800 USD list price this is a product I’ll have to take a pass on it. But, how long before this technology trickles down into more affordable binoculars? I’m reminded of the days when telescopes from Meade and Celestron hit the market with the ability to auto locate stars and planets. As time went on that technology improved and the cost came down, a lot. 

OK, now here’s the really fun part. The dream if you will. And I hope someone at OM System (the company formerly known as Olympus) is reading this because I think they are the most likely camera manufacturer to embrace this technology. Imagine subject identification in your camera! Birds would be a terrific start. It could be expanded into all types of things including animals as well as flowers, trees, insects, etc… For me, at least, that would be an incredibly fun way to take photos whilst learning along the way. Sure, a purist might say “you should know your birds, or flowers, or whatever “. I love learning. And I’m a pretty technical guy. But there’s only so many hours in the day and learning all these species just doesn’t fit into the schedule. But if I could go out with a mirrorless camera, long lens, tripod with a gimbal, and do some wildlife photography while the camera tells me what I’m taking photos of I would honestly be smiling, even giggling, and enjoying it oh so much. 

It’s surprising to think this is coming from me, a person who takes a manual approach to my photography. I’ve never been a fan of technology for technology’s sake. Technology is a tool. I only use it when it is helpful, and I ignore it when it isn’t. In my humble opinion, this is a marriage of technology (subject identification meets digital photography) that has some real benefits. It’s not through a crappy lens on a phone. It’s not being done on a computer, at some later time. It would be real time, in the wild, in nature, learning on the fly! What an experience.

Please OM System, or any camera company for that matter, take a good hard look at this.