Fancy yourself a bird watcher do you? Good -- be they the hollow-boned or British-beach going variety, this is the cam to catch 'em. The Kenko Field Catch image spotting digital camera features a 14x, 70-mm optical zoom lens, 3.1 megapixel CMOS, SD slot, and optional power from a pair of AAs. In addition to a viewfinder, a high / low throw-switch on top allows for a quick 24x or 7x zoom on the 2.0-inch LCD. Thing is, this is the same VistaPix IS70 announced for star gazing back in January by Celestron -- a company which recently disappeared from the interwebs. It's expected to fetch ¥64,800 (about $589) and possible hefty fine depending upon use when launched mid December in Japan.

Update: Celestron seemed to be having a case of server blues this morning -- they're back.

[Via Impress]

Nothing like birdwatching to put your hobbies and line of work into perspective -- you've really got it pretty well off. Take this robo-birdwatcher, for instance. Ornithologists have gotten wind of a recent ivory-billed woodpecker sighting, and have set up the bot in a snake and mosquito-infested swamp to watch for the bird -- which was thought to be extinct for more than half a century -- for months on end. The bird-bot has dual cameras that photograph the sky at 22 fps, and automatically sorts out all images but the ones with foreign objects in the sky, which usually turn out to be birds. To keep hunters from putting this poor bot out of its misery, its designer has affixed a radiation hazard sticker to it, which seems to have done the trick so far. Next up is a bot that can spot birds in a more complicated environments, such as the forest floor or in trees, but there's some serious algorithm design needed before that can become a reality.

[Thanks, Dan]