Swarovski AX Visio 10×32 Smart Binoculars

The Swarovski AX Visio 10×32 Smart Binoculars might just be the most revolutionary product to hit the optics market—ever. Dubbed “The World’s First Smart Binoculars” by Swarovski, we can tell you firsthand that it lives up to the name. It is the first binocular with an integrated camera that can identify animals, capture images and video, livestream the view to nearby smart devices, mark locations, and do so much more all while providing a breathtaking view of the natural world.

With the AX Visio, the Merlin Bird ID software is integrated into the binocular itself, providing instant identification while keeping the bird in view! This lets you stay focused on nature and eliminates the need to fiddle with your phone or a field guide for ID info. With over 9,000 species in the Merlin Bird ID database, it can identify any bird you would encounter in the field. Better yet, the AX Visio’s GPS connection automatically factors your location into the ID process. This feature is especially useful for birders traveling to exotic lands without much knowledge of the local birds. But this feature helps you anywhere; it prevents outlandish IDs like Emperor Penguins in Texas or Great Hornbills in Antarctica. The AX Visio is also honest: alongside the displayed species name, it also displays a confidence level so you know how reliable the result is.

Also onboard the AX Visio is the Swarovski Optik Wildlife ID app that supports Mammal ID as well as Butterfly ID and Dragonfly ID. While they don’t cover the vast number of species and locations as the Bird ID, this is simply a starting point, and we expect massive improvements and additions to this technology in the future. The AX Visio has the potential to one day identify any animal in the view!

Between and on top of the two main barrels of this 10×32 binocular lies an independent camera channel with a 13 MP sensor to capture high resolution images and 4K video. The electronic display appears in the right optical tube of the binocular, and the center focus also controls the camera’s focus. Diopter wheels on both eyepieces ensure the electronic display and the image are in perfect focus for anybody’s eyes. The electronic display changes according to which of the functions you choose on the selection wheel.

The Share Discoveries mode lets you mark a location in the view, and it will directionally guide you back to this point if you deviate from it. This allows you to hand the AX Visio to someone else who can then easily relocate the point of interest you chose, a huge advantage when trying to describe the location of a distant or well-camouflaged subject to others in a group. This also greatly expedites isolating a single bird among a large flock.

You’d think all this fancy technology wouldn’t leave much room for high-quality optics, but Swarovski made no compromises! The SWAROVISION optical system includes Swarovski’s top-tier glass, lens coatings, and field flattener lenses that provide uncompromising image sharpness, brightness, color rendition, and a distortion-free view that maximizes viewing comfort over extended viewing sessions. Swarovski uses the same optical technology in their famous EL and NL Pure Binoculars and modular spotting scopes, consistently the favorites among those who demand the most from their optics.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the AX Visio is its future potential. While periodic firmware updates and improvements to the identification software are inevitable, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Because Swarovski included a 3rd party app developer interface, anyone can create software for the AX Visio! An astronomy-savy developer could write software that identifies celestial objects. Or a security firm could use it for facial recognition. We just don’t know yet, and that’s what makes it so exciting (and just the right amount of scary!).