BinocularsBlog – Advice on Digital, Waterproof, & Compact Binoculars for Bird Watching, Sports, Astronomy, Night Vision, & more!
Friday, April 30, 2010Binocular field of view
Binocular manufacturers often load up their ads with a ton of high tech data to impress someone looking to buy binoculars. Hey, if it sounds "scientific" it must be good, right? Actually, no, not unless you know the basics on optics. All that high tech jargon can just as easily confuse a customer that wants to buy a birding binocular, for instance and needs to compare one binocular model to the next.
Field of view, for instance, is one spec that is sometimes posted in a variety of ways. When birdwatching, for instance on birds at short range, a wide field of view can be a real advantage. So, how do you translate and compare field of view in a binocular when it can be listed as true field of view, apparent field of view or, most commonly, as feet at 1000 yards, though sometimes we go metric and advertise meters at 100 meters. Help!
True field of view (also known as angular field of view) is the measurement in degrees of how much sky you can actually see with the binocular expressed in degrees. You can easily convert this to the more familiar feet at a thousand yards by multiplying the degrees by 52.5 to get your feet at 1000 yards.
Field of view expressed as meters at a thousand meters is also quite simple. Just multiply the meters by 3 to get your approximate feet at a thousand yards. It will be plenty close enough for comparison sake.
Apparent field of view is more commonly used with telescope eyepieces, but now and then. you will see it used to specify field of view in binoculars. Just divide the apparent field of view by the magnification and you get the true (apparent field), then just multiply by 52.5 and you are back to feet at a thousand yards.
Okay, for your homework ....
Feeder watching with the birds
As I sit at my kitchen table every morning, writing this blog, I sometimes struggle to find another topic on binoculars. After all, just how many things can you write about when it comes to binoculars? The birds I see, outside my kitchen window at my bird feeders, sometimes provide topics, but, more often they are a pleasant diversion as I rack my brain for another binocular topic. I view my feeder birds as companions as I write and take sips of my coffee. They may be unaware of my presence, but I am certainly not unaware of theirs as they go about emptying my feeders. If not for my “feeder watching”, my life would be much emptier.
Birdwatching or this feeder watching is somewhat out of place in our current high tech, complicated, give it to me, instantly, society. Feeder watching is simple, uncomplicated and unhurried. The birds set the pace and they come and go as they please; you can’t order ahead or set schedules for them and you can forget high tech digital or software solutions for days when the birds aren’t working your feeders. All you can do is sit back, sip your coffee and wait. As for equipment, there is no equipment required for feeder watching other than a bird feeder and a supply of bird food. The birds will find your feeder almost any place you choose to put it, but some places are definitely better than others. Anything else in the way of equipment is optional and even this optional gear doesn’t amount to much.
A binocular, any binocular, will provide you with up close and gorgeous views of the birds that visit your feeder. No need to spend a ton of money, but if you want to start searching for birds in a more serious way, beyond your backyard, you might as well get birding binoculars. A knowledge of the different bird species makes feeder watching more fun, so a simple bird field guide can help, although I know plenty of feeder watchers who call it good with just seeing birds; they really don’t care about identifying birds as long as there are birds at the feeder to watch. If you are like me, though, and have a laptop in front of you as you watch birds, head to the All About Birds website and try to match what you see, there, with what you see at the feeder. It's a blast and the All About Birds site also has great info on feeding birds.
Oops, gotta go! There’s one of my favorites, a Red-bellied Woodpecker.
7x binoculars
Whatever happened to 7x binoculars? There was a day, many years, ago, now, when 7x was actually the most common binocular magnification, followed by 10x. If you wanted easy to hold and nice wide fields of view, you choose the 7x binocular. Indeed, the 7x35 was considered the "universal binocular". If you wanted more detail or “power” you chose the 10x binocular, but only if you were steady enough to handle it - only the "experts" used 10x binoculars. 8x binoculars were a distant third. 12x binoculars were rare as hens teeth. Life was once simple when buying a binocular.
At some point, marketing got involved and changed all that. 8x was touted as the best “compromise” between a 7x and a 10x, though, in fact, an 8x binocular has more in common with a 7x binocular than any 10x binocular. No matter, the idea caught on and, today, the 8x binocular is now the most common binocular magnification; the 8x binocular outsells all other binoculars when it comes to magnification. The 10x binocular still remains a strong second, but the 7x has seen better days, now rarely found in anything but marine binoculars. In fact, there may be more 12x binoculars sold, now, than 7x. The “more is better” crowd has spoken and the binocular manufacturers have listened, even though more is quite often NOT better when it comes to binocular magnification.
I still love a good 7x binocular. When it comes to easy to use and comfortable viewing, nothing beats a good 7x binocular and, trust me, you will never notice the difference, in terms of how much detail you can see when you use a 7x binocular instead of an 8x binocular or even a 10x binocular. If you can’t see it with a 7x binocular, you need a spotting scope, not a 10x binocular.
The moon through binoculars
We are approaching full moon and, for many astronomers, that means their telescopes and binoculars won’t see action, tonight. That *&%^ moon is the way I’ve heard some astronomers refer to our big bright satellite in the sky. Yes, the moon’s light does ruin the view when we are looking for those faint deep-sky objects; in fact, it puts most examples of light pollution to shame. So, how do you cope with a full moon in the sky when you want to do some astronomy?
It’s simple – you just observe the moon, instead. The moon is anything but boring, whether you use astronomical binoculars or whether you use telescopes and to see the moon at its best, you really should use both. Just as the moon viewed through a binocular is quite different from the moon viewed with the unaided eye, the moon viewed through a binocular is quite different than the moon viewed through a telescope. Using a binocular to observe the moon is not, as you might expect, a watered down version of using a telescope. Each change in magnification shows us what appears to be another world. With my astronomical binoculars, for instance, I can see all the maria and many dozens of craters in a single glance. You don’t get that huge field of view in a telescope. Even better, using binoculars, I get to see the spectacular rays emanating from large craters, such as Tycho. Those features tend to disappear under the higher magnification of telescopes.
So get out with any binocular you might have and take a look. The moon is not our enemy when it comes to astronomy.
About the pic: This is actually a shot through my spotting scope at very low power - roughly approximates what you can expect to see with a typical binocular.
Goldfinches at the feeder
Windy, cool and lots of rain over the weekend, so the astronomy binoculars and telescopes had the weekend off. The weather wasn’t exactly favorable for birding, either, but, of course, there will always be some birdwatching regardless of the weather. It’s just a matter of how you go about it.
I’ve been meaning to add a finch feeder in the yard for the Goldfinches for quite sometime. It’s not like I don’t get Goldfinches – they are regular visitors to my feeders – but a successful finch feeder is kind of a status mark among folks who feed birds. Goldfinches tend to be very fussy about bird feeders and it is something of a mystery why some finch feeders are a big hit and some are a dismal failure. Making a finch feeder work is something of an art and oftentimes a matter of trial and error. In the past, I have turned a dead finch feeder into a very active and lively finch feeder just by moving the feeder thirty feet, though the two locations appeared identical to my eyes. Of course, my eyes don’t count; the Goldfinches definitely saw things, differently.
True to form for all my feeders, almost as soon as I put the new finch feeder up, I had Goldfinches using it. I had no doubts, since the Goldfinches were already using my other feeders, but it was nice to prove to Bill that buying a finch feeder was money well spent. Not that Bill has ever been anything but supportive in my love of feeding birds, but it was nice just the same. Let’s hope he will be just as supportive when I ask him to get me that Oriole feeder and Hummingbird Feeder next month.
Will post some pics of Goldfinches on the new feeder, soon. The spotting scope is set up and today is sunny and bright, so it shouldn't take long.
best astronomy binocular
What makes for a good astronomy binocular? In truth, the requirements for good astronomical binoculars are not as specific as, say birding binoculars. In fact, any binocular can be used to do some astronomy; any binocular will show you more in the night sky than your unaided eye. However, that doesn’t make any binocular a good choice for astronomy.
In general, a good astronomy bino will have mid-size to large objective lenses. I have done quite a bit of astronomy with typical birding binoculars with 40mm or 42mm objective lenses (large front lenses on a binocular). This is what I suggest as the minimum. When people think astronomy binoculars, they really have binoculars with 50mm objective lenses or larger in mind. It’s a matter of optics; large lenses offer better resolution than smaller lenses and larger lenses are the a big part of the mage brightness equation. This is important in astronomy binoculars because much of astronomy is about seeing faint celestial objects.
What binocular astronomy is not all about is magnification. 40x is about as high a magnification as you will find in a designated astronomy binocular, but even 40x is puny compared to the magnifications you get out of a telescope. Furthermore, the higher the magnification, the more difficult a binocular is to steady. Most folks use a tripod with binoculars that go much over 10-12x for the sake of steadiness. In other words, unless you want the hassle of using an astronomy binocular tripod, keep those magnifications down. Although I have owned several very large binoculars of 20x and 25x on tripods, I much prefer and more often use the models with lower magnifications in the 7x-11x range so I can avoid the tripod. If I am going to all the trouble of using a tripod, I just grab a telescope. As always, the best astronomy binocular for you is the one you will use the most.
Birding binocular basics
What makes for good birding binoculars? Good optics, of course; that goes without saying. More specifically, though, what most birders and birdwatchers want in the way of optics is good color correction. We want to see those sometimes very subtle color differences that can separate one bird species from another. That may seem to be a given, but, in fact, it is not. There are many binoculars that have mediocre color correction, though that is most likely to happen with cheap binoculars. Even the binoculars that feature good color correction can show some bias toward one color tone over another, because manufacturers use a wide variety of lens coating formulas. Other than true color rendition, we birders also want good image brightness, resolution, contrast and all the other optical goodies that other uses want. Okay, we’re greedy.
The other feature that is needed to qualify as a good birding or birdwatching binocular is close focus. People who aren’t birders and birdwatchers don’t realize that much bird watching is done at very short range. In heavy cover, this can be as close as 10-15 feet and, now and then, even closer. A binocular that won’t allow you to focus on such close range targets is useless. Now, it might seem a binocular is not needed for anything this close, but, keep in mind that we are talking small targets, here, typically tiny songbirds, and the markings we want to see on those small birds are smaller, yet.
There was a day when a binocular that focused closer than 15 feet was hard to find, but, these days, that is very easy to find. In fact, a good many binoculars now allow you to focus down to ten feet and a few, down to 5 feet or so. The manufacturers have responded, nicely, to the needs of the birding community. I certainly wouldn’t settle for anything that can’t at least get down to 15 feet, now and a good many birders now consider ten feet to be the cut off point for close focus.
Astronomy binoculars around the yard
The weather, this past week, has been sunny, but quite cool, so not much in the way of insect activity. That translates to not much action in the way of birding, in general, and warblers, specifically. Still, I make my daily bike ride, birding binoculars at the ready, just in case some birds are in the area. To be honest, I don’t mind the cool weather or even the slow birdwatching; it’s all just part of life in a northern state. Besides, there is always something to do for us outdoor folks, this time of year.
Although the moon is now waxing its way to quarter, I have been giving the astronomy binoculars a workout to take advantage of the clear night skies. I typically use my astronomical binoculars more than my telescopes for my “step out the door” astronomy for the sake of convenience and portability. My backyard has quite a few trees and thus only a narrow window of sky is visible. My front yard also has trees, but a different patch of sky is visible. In order to really see a large chunk of the night sky, then, I actually have to walk down the driveway and stand by the street. My best and most open location, though, is the park, less than a block away. So, depending on how much ambition I have and what part of the sky I want to see, I have to move around quite a bit. That task is much easier with an astronomy binocular, even a giant binocular than with a telescope.
I suspect that many other astronomers are in a similar position and, if they don’t have an astronomy binocular, they should add one to use on nights when they don’t want to pickup and carry a telescope all around the yard. They might be surprised at how much they use the binoculars.
Binocular lens covers
When it comes to binocular lens covers, I am hot and cold. Binocular lens covers can be invaluable binocular accessories or they can be more trouble than they are worth; it all depends on where you use binocular lens covers.
Eyepiece covers, either in the form of individual caps or in the form of a one piece cover known as a rain guard are, for me, at least, essential binocular accessories. The eyepiece lenses on binoculars take all the abuse of weather, dust and dirt; you must keep binocular eyepieces covered when things get nasty, outside or your binocular no longer functions. The eyepieces lenses are also the binocular lenses that are most likely to be scratched, especially if you are carrying other gear, such as cameras, firearms and so on. In forty years of using binoculars, I have managed to scratch the eyepieces on only two binoculars, but it really hurt; one was a fine Swarovski binocular. It was bitten by a camera, which I was also carrying around my neck.
Objective binocular covers I could care less about. In fifty years of using binoculars without objective (front lens) covers, I have never scratched a single binocular objective lens; objective lenses are recessed back in the binocular housing, so they are somewhat protected against scratches. Objective binocular lenses are also pointing down when you wear a binocular around the neck, so they are much less exposed to the weather and dirt. For these reasons, even when a binocular is supplied with attached objective covers, I remove the covers and leave them in the box. When I need too use the binocular in a hurry, I don’t want to mess with covers and, even when the covers hang lose from the binocular, they always seem to be in the way.
Binocular interpupillary distance, binocular IP
On binoculars, there is always a way to adjust interpupillary distance, which is a fancy way of saying the distance between your two eyes. The only exception would be toy binoculars and they don’t count. This interpupillary adjustment is almost universally accomplished in binoculars with a center hinge that allows the two halves of the binocular to pivot and open and close as needed (see pics). A binocular is properly adjusted for interpupillary distance when you see a single circular field of view rather than two or parts of two, as typically depicted in a movie when our hero is looking through a binocular. What does Hollywood know about binoculars, anyway?
Most folks just leave their binocular adjusted for their own particular IP (interpupillary distance) and forget it, unless the binocular needs to be folded to put in the binocular case. In fact, it is considered something akin to bad manners to look through someone else’s binocular and change this adjustment without asking. Since most binoculars have markings in the form of hash marks, numbers, or both, on the center hinge, this is not exactly a disaster if someone changes your IP; just make note of your IP on the provided scale for your individual IP and you can get right back to business.
Manufacturers design their binoculars with enough interpupillary adjustment to cover just about 99 percent of the population, but there are a few people with either a very short IP or a very wide IP who cannot find a binocular with enough adjustment to fit. For these folks, finding a binocular is a battle, since manufacturers seldom list the IP adjustment range for their binocular models. This means a trip to a store and a lot of trial and error testing.
On binoculars that get folded and opened a lot, such as compact binoculars, the hinge apparatus sometimes becomes so worn and loose that the binocular flops closed after it is opened and set for your IP. What to do? One thing not to do is grab a pair of pliers; this is a repair job for a binocular repair technician and that typically means returning the binocular to the factory for service.
Binocular Wow! factor
You will sometimes hear folks talk about a Wow! factor in regards to binoculars. No, don’t look for the Wow! factor rating under the specifications for a binocular or a Wow! factor number or index when it is time to buy a binocular. This binocular Wow! factor is a subjective thing; it is a literal expression of your reaction when you look though a binocular with great optics. The Wow! factor is the cumulative effect of great resolution, sharpness, contrast, brightness and all the other things that make for great optics in a binocular. However, Wow factor cannot truly be measured, since it is your emotional reaction and that, of course, is somewhat unpredictable. What’s more, it may take better optics for one person to say, “Wow” than another. Lastly, the only way to know if a binocular has that Wow factor for you is to get the binocular in your hand and take a look.
Now, for you technical types that must have a measurement or a number, the Wow! factor may seem like a lot of nonsense. There is, however, a useful and very practical benefit to using a binocular that makes you go, “Wow!”. A binocular that has that effect on you is a binocular that you will be more inclined to use and want to use. If you are a birder, then, you may be more inclined to go birdwatching if you get to use a birding binocular that makes you go, “Wow”. In the end, that makes you a better birdwatcher. If you are a hunter, you may be more inclined to go hunting if you get to use a hunting binocular that makes you go, “Wow” and so on. Then too, if a binocular that makes you go, “Wow” is also a binocular that adds more enjoyment and pleasure to your birding or other activity each and every time you use it.
Everyone should own a binocular that makes them go, “Wow” at least once in their lives.
Warblers are back!
With the temperature in the 70s, yesterday, I couldn’t resist a few hours on the bike trail to soak up some sun, loosen up those muscles and also do my daily birdwatching. I felt a bit guilty, given that I had a huge load of work at home that begged for attention, but, hey, I have priorities, after all, and my first duty is the call of the wild! Lookout bike trail, here I come! The mood must have been infectious, because Bill wanted to hit the trail, too, as soon as he walked in the door after work.
I’m glad I remembered my birding binoculars. Saw my first warblers of the spring! The Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere as were thick clouds of gnats hovering over the bike trail (had to clean my glasses and wipe off my face more than once). Those were the only warblers I saw, though I did check flocks carefully for the presence of other species. Still, it only takes one warbler species to claim that the warblers are back and that is always great news for a birdwatcher. Also saw the first Northern Flickers of the spring as well as hear their distinctive jungle-bird like call. That call brings back many memories and never fails to put a smile on my face.
About the pic: I did carry a digital camera, yesterday, as always, mostly in hopes of getting some bird pics. No luck, there, but I did get some other pics, that were interesting, just the same. As we were biking down the trail, I just happened to glance though the trees and spotted these two deer in our neighbor’s yard. I hope those deer were not helping themselves to any flowers!
Leaving a binocular in the car
I know some folks who leave binoculars, spotting scopes, digital cameras and other optics in the car, full-time, just so they’ll have a binocular, spotting scope or camera when they need it. I can certainly understand that, since I am an known advocate for always carrying a binocular, just in case you want a closer look and I suspect that is the reason that binoculars are the most common piece of equipment left in the vehicle. However, I am not a fan of leaving any binocular (or monocular, spotting scope or digital camera) in the car. I have talked to far too many people who paid the price for this practice.
For one thing, leaving a binocular in the car is an invitation for theft. Should you forget to stash that binocular in a good hiding place before you leave your vehicle, it will be in plain sight for someone up to no good and, believe me, fancy car alarms and locks notwithstanding, it only takes a second or two for a thief to break your window. Forget, just once, and you may lose your valuables. I know, it has happened to me and I guarantee it will make you sick to your stomach to walk up to your vehicle after a good hike in the woods and discover that someone smashed your window and cleaned out your car. Yes, your insurance may car the loss, but that is not going to provide you with a binocular for your birding or hunting trip. I’ve talked to more that one upset customer who lost a premium grade binocular to just such a break in. Don’t let it happen to you.
For another thing, leaving a binocular in a vehicle is hard on the binocular. Those huge fluctuations in temperature in a vehicle parked out in the open are very hard on binocular seals, since the seals have to expand and contract to keep up with those changes in temperature. I have talked to many customers who pulled that binocular out from under the seat of their car to discover they have a fogged binocular and a repair issue on their hands. Besides, do you really want your binocular exposed to all that dirt and dust that accumulates in a vehicle, not to mention all the bouncing and shaking a binocular endures when left under the seat?
Do yourself a favor; don’t leave that binocular in a vehicle.
Compact binoculars focusing
When it comes to premium compact binoculars and premium compact binocular fans, there is sometimes a mini controversy as to the best design when it comes to the placement of the focusing knob. The Swarovski Pocket and the Nikon Premier LX compacts (binocular on the right, in the pic) both place the focusing knob at the front of the body. This places the knob under the third or fourth finger for focusing. The Leica Ultravid (binocular on the left) and Zeiss Victory, on the other hand, place the focusing knob at the rear of the body in a more conventional binocular style. This places the knob under the index finger, as per larger binoculars.
I own and use both styles. If I had to say I had a preference, it would be the more conventional design with the focusing knob at the rear of the body. After 40 plus years of using binoculars, this is the most familiar setup for me and it makes it easier to go back and forth between full size and compact binoculars. The focusing knob at the front in a compact binocular causes me no real grief – just a matter of getting used to it – though I sometimes find myself looking through the binocular backwards when I grab the binocular when I am in a hurry. It’s just hard to break the habit of picking up a binocular so that the focusing knob is under my index finger when the binocular is in my hand. Again, not a big deal and certainly no reason to pass on a binocular such as a Swarovski Pocket or a Nikon Premier LX. Guess that’s why I own these, too.
Clear nights for astronomy
Just when I thought I had a chance to do some binocular astronomy, the clouds moved in and so did the rain. No astronomy, last night. It’s a familiar story, in this neck of the woods and the price you have to pay if you are an astronomer, regardless if you prefer astronomical binoculars or telescopes. I’m not complaining, really, just wishing for a clear sky when I have the time to do some astronomy, though that is becoming harder to do. No to worry, though, my binoculars and telescopes are not for sale. The first thing you learn as an astronomer is persistence. The moon is new as of April 14th and I will be ready to go, if and when.
I did find a website at City-Data.com that will give you a detailed profile of every city in the US and, included in each city profile is a graph showing the relative amount of sunshine and clear days a city receives compared to partly cloudy and cloudy days. Milwaukee, them where I live, gets between 20 and 30 percent clear days, depending on the season; the rest is cloudy or partly cloudy. Ouch.
How do I cope with this? I could, of course, relocate to another area, most likely to a drier climate, out west. I may do this very thing at some point, but, for now, I will have to do a better job of taking advantage of the clear nights I do have. Given the number of astronomers in the eastern half of the country, I probably have lots of company. Our binoculars and telescopes are ready.
Binoculars and birds by state
I have been fortunate enough to live in a variety of different states, from as far east as upstate New York and as far west as Oregon. In every state I have lived, I have kept a list of birds I have seen. This is common practice when birdwatching and it adds a little spice to living in different states and it is also a big part of why birding binoculars are my constant companions. While there are, of course, birds that are common to nearly every state, the birds that not common to all states are the one I most remember. Since one of my favorite bird groups is the sparrows, living from east to west has allowed me to add a variety of sparrows to my life list and I often find myself thinking of what sparrows I remember from each individual state.
In Oregon, I loved seeing Golden-crowned Sparrows in the binoculars. They are a treat in the binocular and that gold on the mature birds is striking. In Colorado, I remember the Sage Sparrows and was often able to watch them from great distances in my spotting scope. In Nebraska, I was in sparrow heaven, but the sparrow I most remember was the Harris Sparrow and, to this day, the Harris may still be my favorite, both in terms of its appearance and its call. I also remember western Nebraska for its abundance of the much less spectacular Vesper Sparrow. Here in Wisconsin, I will no doubt remember the White-throated Sparrow; the sheer number of these in my backyard, this winter, amazed me and I spent hours watching these in my birding binoculars. It is also a handsome bird by any reckoning, as you can see in my pic.
Birding for sparrows
The Sparrow family happens to be one of my favorite bird groups for several reasons. First, if you take a good look at sparrows with a birding binocular, they are quite handsome birds. No, they are not as flashy and colorful as warblers, but they are far from plain, in my opinion. Second, identifying sparrows can be a challenge, at least at first; in time, they actually become relatively easy. Unfortunately, some beginning birdwatchers write sparrows off as LBB – little brown birds – and avoid any attempts to identify these birds. That is unfortunate, because identifying sparrows only takes a little work and they are a very interesting group. Lastly, I grew up and started my birding in great sparrow country, the prairie states. It was not at all unusual to see a dozen sparrow species every day in that open grassland habitat, but seeing that many warblers in a day was much tougher. Sparrows, then, are a very familiar group for me.
Identifying sparrows is sometimes as much watching their behavior as it is actually using field marks. The Fox Sparrow, in my pic above, is a regular visitor to my backyard and without even raising my binoculars, I can tell when it is present, simply by spotting his chicken like behavior of constantly pawing at the ground as it looks for food. The pawing and scratching even goes to the point of the bird walking backwards and scratching. Still, even if you didn’t know of this characteristic behavior, the Fox Sparrow is hardly difficult to identify. It is a large sparrow with heavy bold streaking and, at least in this area, a bright rusty brown. This one was nice enough to pose for me in the spotting scope and wait while I grabbed my digital camera.
Binocular prices
It’s been a long time since I’ve had to buy a binocular out of necessity. When I buy binoculars, I buy quality and enough quality, at that, to last several lifetimes, so it’s not like I need to replace a binocular that fell apart. Choosing a binocular, for me, then, is simply a matter of adding another binocular to the binoculars I already own and it’s a matter of want, not need.
I realize, though, that normal folks are not interested in buying a house full of binoculars. They simply want one or, at most, two, binoculars to cover all their binocular needs. So how much should a person spend on binoculars? In terms of performance, you can buy just about any binocular over $50 and it will do what you ask, at least to some extent, but, in terms of durability, you will need to spend much more than $50 if you want a binocular that will last the rest of your life. Of course, much depends on how hard you plan to use binoculars. For casual or only occasional use, you get the best bang for the buck in terms of both optics and durability in the $250-350 binocular price range. Spending more will get you better optics, of course, but, above about $300, you will need to spend much more to get ever smaller increases in optical performance. The good news is that there are more binoculars in the $300 price range than any other binocular price point, simply because that is where most of the binocular sales are.
If you plan to use binoculars on a steady, day in, day out, basis or plan to use binoculars in extreme conditions or situations where you absolutely cannot take a chance on a binocular failing you when you need it most, it is time to spend more money. Spending more gets you better materials and construction, but, just as importantly, it also buys you more quality control. That means the odds of that binocular failing are greatly reduced compared to a cheap binocular. How much to spend? That depends a bit on the type of binocular in question, but there are certainly many $600 binoculars that are capable of lasting a lifetime with reasonable care and, in this price range, you can also get excellent to superb optics.
Bird identification clues, bird size
Bird size is one way we often use to identify birds, since bird size is often the most obvious difference between closely related species. Size is never the only difference, true, but, out in the field, size may sometimes be a good clue when more information is needed for bird identification. However, using size to identify birds is fraught with danger and is a method that all good birders use with a healthy dose of caution. Size is a feature best saved for last or when all else fails.
The problem is that we humans are not that good at estimating absolute size of things in our environment when they are at a distance. We do fine with objects within arm’s reach, but that’s about it. Objects out at a distance in our environment are subject to far too many variables of light, shadow, perspective and so on to make size estimates reliable. This has been supported by plenty of research. So when are we safe using size as a way to identify birds when we are out to do some birdwatching?
Size is reliable only when it is relative to objects of already known size. If that shorebird in question is standing next to a Killdeer, you can check the size of the Killdeer in your bird guide and get a good idea of the size of that unknown shorebird. However, even this is subject to caution, since the two shorebirds must both be at the same distance. If not, your estimate is not reliable; move on to another feature you can use for identification. Be especially careful of this foreshortening issue when using birding binoculars or birding spotting scopes. Magnification in our binoculars and spotting scopes robs the observer of depth perception; magnification can make objects appear to be at the same distance when, in fact, they are not and it only takes small differences in distance to make your estimate unreliable.
The Hairy Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker are very similar in terms of appearance, but actually quite different in terms of size. In the pic, both are at the same distance and the difference is obvious. However, out in the field, even this much difference in size is not always obvious, especially when you only catch a fleeting glance at the bird as it moves through the branches. Hey, that's the fun of birdwatching, though. It's not always so easy.
Drive by birding
Birding binoculars are, of course, the basic tool used by all birders, but, if you know your birds, there are plenty of opportunities to identify birds that do not require binoculars. In fact, you can identify a great number of birds from your vehicle as you drive cross country, as I did over the weekend, on a visit to St. Paul, Minnesota and never uncase your binoculars.
New to my 2010 birdwatching list, is the Wilson’s Phalarope. Spotted a whole flock of these shorebirds, feeding in a marsh, in suburban St. Paul as we were stopped at a light. No birding binocular needed to spot Phalaropes when they are feeding – they swim in circles, but you can also identify Phalaropes from their distinctive silhouette. However, in the off chance that you might spot a much rarer Red-necked Phalarope swimming with a group of Wilson's, you should take a look with a binocular when you have a chance. The light changed before I could get my binoculars uncased in this instance.
Next addition to my 2010 birding list was the Canvasback. This is one of my favorite ducks and it, too, has a very distinctive silhouette that allows you to identify it without binoculars from quite some distance, but the Canvasback is really too pretty a bird not to view with binoculars. In a spotting scope, I’ve spotted these in mixed flocks of ducks at tremendous distances.
Saw quite a few Bald Eagles, too, on the way to St. Paul. Most folks probably just think hawk when they see eagles, but the shape and proportion of wings and body size make any eagle easy to distinguish from a hawk, also no binocular needed.
Even easier to spot and distinguish from a hawk are Turkey Vultures. The distinctive V shape they create by the way they hold their wings can be seen from incredible distances without the aid of a binocular.
All in all, there are a good many birds that you can identify long before you raise your binoculars to your face.
More binoculars, spotting scopes, telescopes in my future
Bill retires in a year and, along with doing a lot of camping, we have been thinking of selling our Milwaukee home and heading either up north our out west where the skiing, biking, fishing, hiking, camping, wildlife photography, birding, canoeing, astronomy and, well, everything we like is better. It will give us a better opportunity to use our digital cameras, telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes and so on, of course, but it will also give us a chance to just plain get the smell and sounds of the city out of our blood and breathe some fresh air. Nothing against Milwaukee – it’s been a great place for both of us and our home is about as far from the hustle and bustle of the city as a home can get and still be in the city – but, there are signs that it may not suit us, anymore.
So off we go, cruising the on line real estate ads for homes out west or up north. I know that most folks think of heading south when they retire to avoid the winter, but we are not most folks. We are outdoors folks and winter, to us, means time to ski, snowshoe, ice fish and all those other wonderful things you do in the winter where we live. My mother headed right back up to the far north when she retired from her career in Nebraska and I am my mother’s child. Forty below and the calls of timber wolves sounds great to me.
Cameras and binoculars on thr go
Bill and I are going to visit his daughter in St.Paul, over the Easter weekend and I have been busy packing. Packing for a trip is one of those chores I detest, but I have learned, the hard way, what happens when you get sloppy. The downside to all my planning is that I have a tendency bring something along, just in case and that tendency can quickly turn a weekend trip into an expedition. Not good.
Of course, the digital cameras are packed and ready to go and I am also taking one of my favorite film cameras. This photographic safari will be family photography, of course, but I also hope to get some landscape photography done, along the way, so I will be taking a selection of short and standard camera lenses in the camera bags. I am leaving the big telephoto lenses behind, so no need for the tripods. Image stabilization in digital cameras does have its advantages.
Not sure, though, if we will have a chance to do any birding or astronomy, so I will be leaving the birding binoculars and astronomical binoculars, behind. However, I will, pack my compact binoculars in my purse, just in case I need to do some birding. That’s the beauty of compact binoculars – when in doubt, just put a compact binocular in your purse and go. Try that with an astronomy binocular.
Great binoculars
Having been in the binocular sales for more than twenty years, I have seen many binoculars come and go. For the most part, these binoculars were similar to one another, just a matter of quality and performance, of course, price. After all the binocular market has always been very competitive, so a truly different and great binocular does not come around that often. There have been a few, though.
One of the binocular series that I do miss are the old Zeiss Classic series, the venerable Zeiss 10x40 Classic, the less popular Zeiss 8x30 Classic, Zeiss 8x56 Classic and, my favorite, the Zeiss 7x42 Classic. There was nothing revolutionary about those old Zeiss binoculars; in fact, the external focusing on the 7x42 and 8x56 were a bit retro. Still, those old Zeiss Classics were the benchmark of what a premium binocular should be. They weren’t labeled Classics till just a few years before they disappeared; they were just Zeiss binoculars back when that was the only line of binoculars Zeiss produced. I loved the 7x42 Classic for its balance and super pleasing wide field of view with great optics. As with that 8x56 Classic binocular, you could spot the profile of the Zeiss Classic 7x42 profile from a great distance; the silhouette was distinctive. That was one binocular I wish I had bought when I had the chance.
Early in the 90s, the only binoculars in production to earn the title of premium or best binoculars, in terms of performance and quality, were European binoculars. Then along came that first Bausch&Lomb Elite (which survives as the quite different Bushnell Elite). It was slender, sexy with optics that gave the best European binoculars a challenge. The first Bausch&Lomb Elite binocular was revolutionary in that it announced to the world that a binocular, made in Japan, could compete with the best European brands. That’s another one I wish I had bought.
I was at a birding festival, back in the late 90s and stopped by the Swarovski table to see what had drawn such a crowd. When it was my turn, Clay, the Swarovski rep, handed me an odd looking binocular; it had two barrels that were attached only at the front of the barrels and the back of the barrels; the center was completely open. When I picked up that first Swarovski EL binocular, though, I was floored with how sweet it felt in my hands and, even better, the optics were breathtaking. That first Swarovski EL was truly revolutionary for its now much coped open body design. (That was one that didn’t get away.)