PATIENCE TESTER

First look: Bushnell’s Image View bino-cam has a dual-focus knob and 8-by-30 magnification for binoculars and a 3.2-megapixel camera with zoom. This two-tone gray-and-beige model shoots still pictures and video (without sound) and doesn’t have a lot of other bells and whistles, though it is tripod-ready and comes with a small shutter-release cord. Runs on two AAAs. Likes and yikes: I wasn’t wild about this bino-cam. It was easy to use and images were sharp, but it felt as though I was shooting with the slowest shutter speed in the West. (It took awhile for each image to download each time I snapped.) The key pad and menu display were difficult to use every time I made an adjustment. The 411: $185 at B&H ([800] 952-1815, www.bhphotovideo.com); check with Bushnell for other dealers: (800) 221-9035 or www.bushnell.com