The DWARF II Smart Telescope has quickly become a firm favourite here at BINTEL.
This is a small, fully computerized telescope, tracking and imaging device. The entire system, including a tabletop tripod, fits into a similar sized carry case to a pair of traditional style 7 x 50 binoculars. You don’t look through the DWARF II with your eyes – you view everything through an app which runs on your phone or iPad/tablet. The same app also controls the movement of the DWARF II and offers some great features including AI based tracking of moving objects like birds and time lapse photography.
If you’re planning to get into photographing birds or taking videos of them, we feel the DWARF II is an easy-to-use, affordable alternative to an introductory model spotting scope with a DSLR camera.
The DWARF II – lenses and features
The compact DWARF II has two built-in cameras. They’re roughly equivalent to a f/4.2 675mm telephoto lens and a f/2.4 48mm wide angle lens.
The telephoto lens is significantly more powerful at capturing remote objects like birds than even the best phone cameras available today. While a DSLR camera with high-quality telephoto lens would provide better images than the DWARF II, such as system would be much more expensive, much larger and lack tracking capabilities.
Another advantage of the DWARF II is the convenience of viewing birds or other wildlife on your phone or tablet. Handy for your own use or sharing the views with a group.
BINTEL suggests that for long-range bird of nature photography, the DWARF II Smart Telescope is the best value option available today.
The DWARF II package includes a padded nylon carry case which will fit the DWARF II itself, the tripod and has room for a small number of accessories. We’ve just put it on the scales and it’s around 1.8kg, which we think is very reasonable for a complete outdoor photography system.
Images and videos captured can be downloaded via the DWARF app, by connecting it to a PC, or by reading them off the MicroSD card. The DWARF II package includes a 64GB MicroSD card, but you use a larger one up to 512GB in size.
The DWARF II charges via USB-C. The battery is removable, and you can purchase additional batteries that allow you to swap out batteries allowing for longer periods of use in the field. Alternatively, you can power the DWARF II with a USB power bank. It’s waterproof to IP54. This means it will handle being sprayed with water or rain without any issues but try to avoid submerging it in water for any period of time.
It can be mounted on any tripod with a standard 1/4″ screw thread. The DWARF II has a rubberized foot and can be used on a solid surface. It can move quite quickly, so we suggest using at least the bundled tabletop tripod to secure it.
All you need to do to start with the DWARF II is to do download the DWARF app onto your phone or tablet/iPad. The quality and resolution of the images and videos are not dependent on the type of device you use to control the DWARF II.
Attaching your device to the DWARF II via Wi-Fi is quick and straightforward. Recent feature updates to the DWARF app also lets you connect it to a Wi-Fi network. This is especially handy if you want to put the DWARF II outside and would like to control it somewhere else such as inside your house.
DWARF II Smart Telescopes are arriving on a regular basis at BINTEL. If we’re out of stock, you can order from the link above or call us in the store on 02 9518 7255 to reserve one.
Taking Photos with the DWARF II
The DWARF II app will show both wide and telephoto views on the phone or tablet view. To switch between the two views, you simply tap on the screen. The telephoto view is about 20x magnification. This is higher than binoculars and at the lower end of the magnification found on spotting scopes. The view below shows the DWARF app running on a phone
On handy feature of the DWARF II is its tracking capabilities. Draw a rectangle around what you’d like to keep track of, and the DWARF II will follow it as it moves around. Capturing birds in flight is one major advantage of this feature. (Please note, these short videos are screen captures of the app – the videos recorded are much clearer.)
. The images taken by the DWARF II are bright and detailed.
There are some great full-length videos now popping up on YouTube such as the one below.
Another handy feature of the DWARF II are its time lapse capabilities
Once a time lapse sequence has been set up, you can disconnect your phone or tablet from the DWARF II and leave it to do its thing over the coming hours.
A short video of a European green woodpecker taken with a DWARF II by Michael Merrifield. We’re looking forward to seeing some photos of Australian birdlife in the near future!
Software updates and improvements
DWARF Labs have been refreshingly quick to fix bugs or issues once they’ve been raised by their customers. There’s also been a steady stream of firmware and application updates and improvement that’s added even more features.
Astro photos too
The same DWARF II that’s been happily taking bird and wildlife photos all day can then spend the night taking astro photos of the Moon, deep-sky objects in the Milky Way or even distant galaxies.
Drop us a line if you’d like to know more about the DWARF II Smart Telescope.
Cheers,
Earl White
BINTEL