See it, snap it

I love the idea of double-duty gadgets — say, a blow-dryer that makes great cappuccinos. OK, maybe a better example is the ubiquitous Razr cellphone and camera. It didn’t take long for someone to figure out that binoculars and digital cameras also click. I took three models bird-watching to test the tiny pop-up cameras. In all cases, the binoculars worked fine. I thrilled to the prospect of snapping close-ups of turkey vultures and Swainson’s hawks. But by the time I focused the binoculars to sight the bird, switched to the camera screen, for a better view, reviewed the settings and clicked the button, the bird was gone. (Best to click while you’re looking through the binocs, I quickly learned.) I fared better shooting Joshua tree blossoms, which never flew away. —Mary E. Forgione

First look: Barska’s Point ‘n View features 8-by-32 magnification binoculars with a nice grip and adjustable lenses. The 5-megapixel camera shoots magnified images and has a handy 4x zoom, an attachment spot for a tripod and a movie-shooting option. Like the other models, it comes with a USB cable and editing software to download images to a PC; Mac users use a memory card and download with a card reader. Likes and yikes: This model was easy to use and lightweight. Two small keys mounted on the binoculars allowed me to set image size, play back images, change to movie shooting, etc. My pictures came out fine, but I found the slot for the memory card (wedged between the barrels) difficult to access. Also the camera requires a lot of juice: four AAA batteries. The 411: $240; call or visit website for list of dealers: (888) 666-6769; www.barska.comv+.+