BinocularsBlog – Advice on Digital, Waterproof, & Compact Binoculars for Bird Watching, Sports, Astronomy, Night Vision, & more!
Monday, February 28, 2011Binocular doubles
Bill got up to let the puppy out and throw a few more logs into the wood burning stove about 5:30, this morning, and managed to wake me in the process. I wasn’t sleeping all that well, anyway, and, out of habit, I stumbled to the sliding doors on our deck to check for clear skies and some stars.
In the small window of sky above our house I could see Lyra and its showpiece star, Vega, burning brightly. In a telescopes, this constellation is known as the home of M57, the Ring Nebula which I have seen, even in small telescopes and even spotting scopes, as a small round fuzzy disc with as little as 60x, though this planetary nebula can stand much more magnification.
Even 60x, though, is beyond the reach of conventional astronomy binoculars, even giant astronomy binoculars. That does not mean that the constellation Lyra is lacking in objects for binoculars. In fact, Lyra is loaded with double stars and most are easily split with even compact binoculars. Those "binocular doubles" in Lyra were one of the first things that caught my attention when I first turned my binoculars to the night sky, well over forty years, ago. The fact that so many stars that appeared single without binoculars were, in fact double stars in my binoculars inspired me to turn me to search for other treasures that could be seen in the night sky and I am still searching with my binoculars to this day.
Binocular size
On paper, the performance gap between compact binoculars and full size binoculars would seem to make an airtight case in favor of larger binoculars. In terms of image exit pupil and twilight factor and all the other numbers that you see listed in the specs for a binocular, the numbers favor larger binoculars. It is not even close. Why would anyone buy compact binoculars, then?
Funny thing about those numbers, they really don’t carry over into real world use. How much resolution do you really need? How much image brightness do you really need? Is there that much difference between a twilight factor of 20 versus 10. The answer is that we may not need all that performance. Smaller binoculars often give us ample performance to do the job, despite the numbers we read in product descriptions. Most importantly, the compact binoculars benefits of less weight and size may more than offset what we lose in performance compared to larger binoculars.
Compact binoculars are not a perfect optical solution for all our binocular needs any more than full-size binoculars are a perfect solution for all our binocular needs. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, though, that one spec at the bottom of a spec table, namely weight, is the most important spec of all.
Birding lists
There was a time when I kept multiple birdwatching and birding lists. My life list of all the birds I have seen in my forty plus years of birding has always been kind of my data base, but after forty years, there are not too many more birds for me to add to that list. My yearly list of all the birds I have seen for a given year has typically been my most active and used list. Then there have been state lists, municipal lists, regional lists, monthly lists and so on. Yes, there was a time when I probably spent as much time with my lists as I did my birding binoculars. Such is the nature of the birding bug and I have always had it bad.
These days, as I ease into retirement, my yearly list survives along with a rare entry on my life list, even though I spend as many hours with the binoculars and birding spotting scope as ever. It’s not that I don’t enjoy keeping all those other lists, it’s just that I prefer more time with binoculars, in hand and less time with pen in hand. I do enough writing and clerical work as it is. However, I can and I do recommend having fun with birding lists, especially for beginners. Lists are a great way to motivate you in your birding. The desire to add one or two more birds to your lists is often the difference between heading out one more time or sitting at home.
Easy does it on the cleaning with binoculars
How often do you clean your binoculars? With most equipment, it usually pays dividends to clean a bit more than necessary for the sake of functioning and performance and, besides, who likes dirty equipment? To that end, you will never find me with a dirty bike, a dirty fishing reel or, in days past, a dirty gun. With binoculars, spotting scopes, digital cameras, telescopes and just about anything that uses lenses, though, I tend to clean sparingly and will usually wait until enough dirt, dust and smudging collects on a given lens surface to seriously reduce performance before I clean. Why?
Every time you touch a lens on your expensive birding binoculars or astronomy binoculars, for instance, you risk a chance of damaging the lens, though, in truth, it more correct to say you mostly risk damage to lens coatings rather than the actual lens, itself. It takes a much more severe accident to actually scratch the glass on a lens than the coatings on a lens. Lens coatings are very thin and relatively easy to scratch or smudge if you overdo it with the cleaning or fail to use proper cleaning materials and technique. Indeed, I have seen binoculars with objective lens that have had the coatings worn off in places from a cleaning happy owner.
Easy does it on the cleaning with the binoculars.
Binocular reviews
What’s your favorite pet peeve about binoculars? Which specific binocular feature upsets you the most when it is not to your liking? When it comes time to buy binoculars, which binocular feature is the deal breaker even when everything else about the binocular is to your liking? Let's face it: we tend to be much fussier about some binocular features than others. Some binocular features are always more important to us than others. In fact, the way we prioritize these features can change from one type of binocular to another. We may value and prize different features in our astronomy binoculars compared to birding binoculars.
The point of all this is be very suspicious when you see binocular reviews that assign a numerical rating or score for the various models reviewed. Even assuming a mythical total objectivity, how does the reviewer weight each binocular feature? How does the reviewer decide which binocular feature is the most important? Even if the reviewer assigns an equal footing to all binocular features, the review still needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt because most users do not treat value all binocular features, equally. Binocular reviews, even binocular reviews that do not use scores, should never be taken too literally. You still have to factor in your own personal preferences.
Bird watching weather
You can go birdwatching in just about any weather, assuming, of course, that you would want to go bird watching in blizzards, hurricanes and so on. Most birders, do not, obviously, but the option is there, all the same. To be sure, the potential of bird watching and birding as all weather and all season pursuits puts most other outdoor activities to shame.
It is a rare instance, then, when I have not been able to grab the birding binoculars or spotting scope and head out to woods and field and, yes, I’ve done some birding under pretty severe weather conditions in every month of the year. In fact, I sometimes look forward to rough weather because rough weather sometimes is a trigger for bird movement and birds on the move make for a good day with the binoculars.
I was a bit shocked, then, when I headed out in the woods with my binoculars for some late winter birding to discover that I could not physically go out in the woods without breaking my neck. A thaw last week followed by a quick plunge in temperatures turned our accumulated one foot of snow into eight inches of slush and then into eight inches of hard ice. I couldn’t walk on it and, since there was no snow on it and I couldn’t even use my snowshoes and certainly not my cross country skis. For the first time in many, many years, the weather shut me down. The good news is that we have received some snow, overnight and that may be just enough for the skis. We’ll see.
Observing with binoculars or telescopes
It’s sometimes the little things that make such a big difference, even when trying to decide whether to use astronomy binoculars or telescopes for your evening of astronomy. Which of these two instruments, specifically, is least affected by marginal observing conditions? The lower magnification offered by binoculars may limit an observer for doing some types of astronomy, no doubt, but that same lower magnification makes astronomy binoculars less affected by marginal conditions than telescopes.
Last night, was a good example. The moon was full and I opted to setup & use a telescope to just have some fun. As soon as I stepped outside to check on conditions, I knew the telescope was not going to cut it, not with a thirty mile an hour wind howling through the yard. Make no mistake, even a fair breeze can render a telescope useless, even one on a rock solid telescope mount and thirty mile an hour winds? Forget it.
On the other hand, my 10x70 Nikon Astroluxe provided me with a little lunar observing, though not the detail I had originally hoped to see. I was doing astronomy, though and any astronomy is better than no astronomy.
Bird watching Nuthatches at the bird feeder
I am both a bird watcher – someone who enjoys observing birds for a wide variety of reasons – and a birder – someone who focuses on spotting and identifying as many birds as possible. When looking at my bird feeders though binoculars or spotting scopes, I am both, of course, but since the number of bird species at the feeder on any given day is fairly constant, I am mostly a birdwatcher with regard to my feeders. That explains why I spend so much time with binoculars in hand as I watch activity at the feeders.
One of my favorite birdwatching activities at my feeders is observing all the various ways that different birds are adapted to access the food. Different birds have different feeding techniques and, in both the wild and my feeders, this reduces competition and squabbling. I enjoy watching Red-breasted Nuthatches, in particular, through my birding binoculars as the feed on suet and nuts I provide. The Red-breasted Nuthatch has a delightful to watch feeding style because this little bird seems right at home feeding upside down at my suet feeders, though it could probably get as much suet by feeding in a more upright position. It’s just one of their adaptations that makes Nuthatches such a joy to watch at the feeders. Believe it or not, my Nuthatches are also so tame they don't even leave the feeder while I am providing them with fresh suet. The one in the pic hovered only a few feet away as I refilled the feeder and seemed perfectly content to let me provide all the food it could eat.
Eyeglasses and eye relief in binoculars
My new prescription eyeglasses arrived, yesterday, and I am pleased. Nothing like seeing things a little sharper and even a little brighter, since I opted not to go with photochromic lenses. I’ve always believed that the photochromic coating robs me of a little image brightness when using my glasses with my astronomy binoculars and I’ve often wondered if it affected the color rendition in my birding binoculars. I'll find out soon enough.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that these new eyeglass lenses are just a shade thicker than my old lenses, so I have lost just a touch of eye relief with my binoculars. We are only talking a millimeter or so, but even that much difference in eye relief can affect how much of the field of view in a binocular is available to you if you wear eyeglasses when looking through binoculars. That’s why the general guideline of 15mm of eye relief as a minimum for a binocular to be used with glasses should not be taken as absolute gospel. Lens thickness, even frame design of your glasses, can affect how much eye relief you will need in a binocular to see the full field of view. With some of my older glasses with thick glass lenses, I needed a full 20mm of eye relief in a binocular. Now that I have polycarbonate lenses, I am back down to about about16mm. If you wear glasses when you use your birding binoculars, compact binoculars and so on, pay close attention to the various lens options next time you fill your prescription. Even a small difference in lens thickness can affect how things will look in your binoculars.
Buy binoculars now
I read in the Times that resource and labor prices around the world are rising sharply, and in some cases, at record levels, meaning, of course, that prices for everything, down the road, are potentially on the way up. How about binoculars and other optics, such as telescopes, microscopes, spotting scopes and so on? Are those expensive birding binoculars you’ve been wanting going to get even more expensive? Good chance, I would say, though it will take a more potent crystal ball than mine to say how much and when the prices will go up.
If this increase in the price of binoculars comes to pass because of rising costs of resources and labor, it wouldn’t be the first time, though many increases in binocular prices, in the past, have been a result of the weak buying power of the dollar, not just resources and labor. Still, if I was getting ready to buy binoculars, I might be tempted to make a move, now, rather than later, if this recent news holds any water. In fact, buy binoculars now is always a good policy given that a drop in binocular prices is about as rare an event as winning the lottery.
The binocular market
In the binocular market, the newer-faster-better strategy for selling binoculars is only marginally effective, compared to say, the digital cameras market or the computer market. In other words, it’s harder to convince binocular owners to upgrade to a newer-faster-better binocular. Why? Advances in binocular optics come slowly and result in only small improvements in binocular performance and most of these improvements are on paper only; they are not always that obvious in the field. As a result, these slight improvements only rarely prompt a customer about to abandon their old reliable birding binoculars, astronomy binoculars, sports binoculars and so on for a “new and improved” binocular model.
Personally, I like this state of binocular affairs. For one thing, it means that some binocular models stay on the market for years (and even decades in a few instances) rather than only months as in digital cameras and computers and so much of our digital world. Indeed, as markets go, these days, the binocular market is remarkably stable. You can buy binoculars today and be assured that technology will not make them obsolete in a matter of months. For another thing, this stability makes some older binocular models a real bargain, as manufacturers drop prices to move them out and make way for the newer, but only slightly improved binoculars. The binocular market is one of the few remaining markets where it sometimes pays to look at older models.
Moon binoculars
What do you do on a cold, clear winter’s night with the temperature at ten below and dropping? Okay, grabbing your astronomy binoculars and stepping out in the yard is probably not high on the list for most folks, but most folks aren’t hooked on astronomy with binoculars the way I am. Last night, the quarter moon was nicely positioned in the sky, so I turned the binoculars to brighter objects in the sky and left the faint stuff for a darker night when the moon is new. My main target, though, was actually the quarter moon, itself, and, believe me, in a Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe, the view is quite lovely. However, for observing the moon, any type of binoculars will do the job – birding binoculars, binoculars for hunting, sports binoculars and so on. Even small compact binoculars can provide a nice view, since the moon provides plenty of light even in these smaller binocular lenses . In other words, you do not need special binoculars to observe the moon. Keep in mind that binoculars will not get you the lunar detail you see in the higher magnifications of telescopes, but the view in binoculars is still different than what you see with the naked eyes. Binoculars provide their own unique perspective. The moon is worth stepping outside with any binocular to see, even on cold subzero nights.
Llaser rangefinder, image stabilized, night vision, thermal imaging binocular
Now and then, I have been asked why no one makes a laser rangefinder, image stabilized, night vision, thermal imaging binocular with all these technologies incorporated into one single binocular. After all, there are laser rangefinder binoculars, image stabilized binoculars, night vision binoculars and so on already on the market. Why not squeeze it all into one super binocular?
Squeeze is the problem. You can only squeeze so much technology into something designed to be held in the hands. Adding only one of the above technologies transforms an ordinary binocular into a bulkier, heavier and less user friendly box and, worse yet, optics are often scaled down to accommodate the extra technology with a resultant loss in optical performance. Don’t forget about the batteries, either! None of these technologies can operate without batteries and they also have to be squeezed into the binocular housing. All this extra technology and batteries adds weight and, as anyone can tell you that must carry binoculars around their neck all day, ordinary binoculars are already heavy enough. The day may come when micro technology allows us to carry all this technology in one single binocular, but for now, one single technology at a time in a binocular is plenty.
When was the last time you used your binoculars?
When was the last time you used your binoculars? Doesn’t matter if we are talking birding binoculars, astronomy binoculars, marine binoculars, sports binoculars, compact binoculars and so on. When was the last time you used any type of binoculars? How often do you use binoculars? It might say something about the types of activities you enjoy, at the very least.
I doubt there has ever been a poll to measure binocular use and I doubt there ever will be, but I, for one, am curious. Some binocular manufacturers do provide customers with questionnaires as part of a warranty registration process to better identify their customers, but I doubt the information gathered is fed into any kind of universal binocular data base. Nor do these warranty questionnaires seriously measure binocular use. The question of how often do people use their binoculars, then, is likely to remain unanswered in anything but a fuzzy way. For instance, I know some folks who have owned binoculars for decades and have never used them. At the other end of the spectrum are binoculars nuts like me where it is a rare day when we don’t use binoculars. However, I have no idea what the middle ground might be when it comes to binocular use. It might do the binocular industry a world of good to gather this information. Just a thought.
Observing through a window with astronomy binoculars
Call me a wimp, but there are nights when the temperature falls below zero and I just don’t have the strength needed to step outside in that subzero chill and do some astronomy with my astronomy binoculars. So, I cheat. It has to be our little secret, though, because it would ruin my professional reputation if I told anyone that I sometimes just grab my binoculars, stay inside in a nice warm house and observe through a window. Observing through a window has its own challenges, though, so if you are inclined to try it, here are few tips.
To begin, observing through a window with binoculars is possible for the same reason that it is possible to use birding binoculars to look through a window at birds at a feeder - low magnification. The low magnification of binoculars minimizes the distortion caused by the window glass and, for astronomy, it also makes it possible to observe through a window at an angle, as we often must for astronomy, since the objects we see are high in the sky. The greater the angle, though, the more the distortion, so observing through a window is best done for objects lower in the sky and those are typically all you can see through the average window, anyway. This magnification issue also explains why observing through window glass with telescopes is rarely effective. The magnification used in telescopes, of course, is much higher than binoculars and, therefore, telescopes are much more affected by distortion.
There is no substitute for being outside with your astronomy binoculars if you are really concerned with image quality, of course, but when the temperatures plunge into the subzero range, I have done some effective work through a window with my Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe on the moon and brighter open clusters. Splitting close double stars or any other job that calls for fine detail, though, is best done outside in that … brrrr! … cold air.
Winter day in the north country
You might think that everyone in Wisconsin stayed home, yesterday, glued all day long to the TV set, waiting for the Super Bowl to begin. Not so. Wisconsin, is, after all, an outdoors state and folks up here, in northern Wisconsin, like to get out on a warm winter day (temperatures in the 20s). We all got home in time to watch the game, anyway, but why waste an entire gorgeous winter day in front of the television?
Yesterday, though, I was prepared for some hard work on the skis, though I did bring my binoculars and one of our digital cameras, just in case I was inclined to get sidetracked by some birdwatching and winter photography. The day before, on Saturday, I discovered that all my previous ski trails had been blown shut by hard packed drifting snow, so most of that day was spent breaking new trail with the skis, instead of working with the birding binoculars or digital cameras. If you’ve never broken trial through hard, crusty snow with cross country skis, let me tell you that it not for the faint of heart. The only good thing about it is knowing that things will be easier on the way back. Naturally, then, I expected more of the same, yesterday.
I was wrong. As I skied out on to the lake, Sunday morning, I could hear a snowmobile, so my spirits lifted a bit. Snowmobile trails make for good cross country ski trails, so that meant much less work for me. NO more trails to break. Besides, my snowmobiling neighbors have good manners out on the trail, so we get along just fine. I have no problem sharing the lake with snowmobiles. I also found some young people out on the lake enjoying some ice fishing and, from their shouts of excitement, I knew they were having some luck. By the time I skied to the other end of the lake, I also encountered a neighbor couple with three of their kids in tow, out enjoying a long hike in the snow.
That’s what I love about north country folks. Why let a beautiful winter day go to waste? As for the game, I thought it was a fine football game, regardless of who won, but, hey, go Packers.
Deer in the yard and the digital cameras
A well-placed and well-stocked bird feeder attracts a great variety of birds and, typically, no shortage of squirrels, so if you have your binoculars and digital cameras, handy, or maybe even a spotting scope, mounted on a tripod by a window, you’ll stay busy. Deer, though, are not typical bird feeder visitors. Now that we are living in the north woods, though, the neighborhood deer make themselves right at home, cleaning up the seed that falls to the ground under the feeders. Our dogs are not thrilled about these large visitors, but the deer seem to understand that the dogs behind the fence are no serious threat and the deer have even less fear of the gal who fills the feeder and scatters corn on the ground to help them get through the winter. More than once, I have seen “our” deer just step back into the woods a few yards and just stare at me as I restock the feeders and leave some corn scattered on the ground.
Yes, I know deer have the potential of becoming nuisance animals and there are dangers with Lymes disease, so we will have to take some precautions, but deer are interesting animals to watch with or without binoculars, all the same. They are part of the natural landscape, here in northern Wisconsin and it just wouldn’t seem like the north woods without them.
Birding binoculars
There is no hard and fast rule that separates birding binoculars from other binoculars other than the ability of birding binoculars to focus down to close distances. Why? A great deal of birdwatching is done at close range in brushy and weedy areas, often at distances as close as ten feet or even less. Not all birding is such a close range proposition, of course, but if you want a single birding binocular that can do it all, you need that close focus capability, especially when you consider that in an average day of birding, you will find yourself in a great many different types of habitat and some habitat demands a binocular with that close focus capability. Binocular manufacturers are aware of this, of course, so the average close focus distance of binoculars, in general, has improved in recent years. As a result, there is more selection than ever when it comes time to buy binoculars with enough close focus capability to be good choices as universal birding binoculars.
Still, I have used a great many atypical and downright odd binoculars for birding, sometimes out of curiosity and sometimes out of necessity. These include giant astronomy binoculars, marine binoculars with individual focus, dainty compact binoculars and even monoculars, but sooner or later, their inappropriate features cost me some excellent birding opportunities. If you are serious about birding, you really need to consider a binocular that has all the features needed to do the job, not just some.
Rangefinder binoculars
There is a difference between binoculars advertised as binoculars with a range finder and laser rangefinder binoculars. In fact, there is a huge difference, so anyone looking for a range finder option in a binocular should be aware of it before it comes to buy binoculars.
Marine binoculars and tactical & military binoculars are typically the source of the confusion, but it is really very simple. All marine and military binoculars, unless specifically listed as a laser rangefinder binoculars, use an optical grid rangefinder, NOT a laser rangefinder. Is a grid style rangefinder right for you?
An optical grid rangefinder found on many marine and military binoculars uses a reticule or grid which is always visible when you look through the binocular, as seen in the excellent Steiner 7x30 Navigator Pro Marine binocular. You can’t turn it off. Some people find this annoying, so be aware. The great shortcoming of grid/reticule rangefinders in binoculars is that they require you to know the height of the object in question and then do mathematical calculations. This is an old technology that survives in marine binoculars as much out tradition than usefulness. In the military, for instance, you assume the height of a man is 6 feet or you consult charts to learn the height of the ship in question and so forth. To be honest, it is impractical for field work where the size of the target is unknown or variable.
On a grid style rangefinder in binoculars, you calculate range according to the following equation. It does not matter what units you use (feet, yards, meters, kilometers) as long as you use the same unit for all variables throughout the calculations. Distance to the target equals actual height (must be known in advance) of the target divided by the reticule height (number of lines the target occupies on the grid).
Many people are attracted to this old style rangefinder because binoculars with a grid style rangefinder are relatively inexpensive compared to binoculars with an actual laser rangefinder. However, for the vast majority of field work, a laser rangefinder is faster and easier to use and much more accurate. Be sure to know what you are purchasing when trying to choose the right binocular for your needs.
Bushnell Elite Custom Compact 7x26
I own nearly all of the premium grade compact binoculars on the market, today, including the Zeiss Victory 8x20, the Swarovski Pocket 8x20 (Crystal series), a Nikon Premier LX 10x25 and a Leica Ultravid 10x25 BL. All are excellent, all have their own individual character and all are expensive, some almost insanely so. Yes, I am a compact binocular nut, no doubt about it, so you might think all I own are expensive compact binoculars. Not so. . I also own another compact binocular which I like very much, although it cost only a fraction of even the cheapest binocular, above. It is the original Bausch &Lomb Custom Compact 7x26 and even though it is some twenty years old and missing some of the technical advances found on compact binoculars, today, I would not hesitate to use it in the field in lieu of any of my more expensive compact binoculars. The Custom Compact 7x26 is proof that it doesn’t always cost big bucks to own good binoculars. It really was that good.
Unfortunately, that original B&L Custom Compact 7x26 is now history. The good news, however, is that the Custom Compact survives, quite nicely, as the Bushnell Elite 7x26 Custom Compact and this current version adds some improvements such as better lens coating, armoring, internal focusing and twist up eye cups. True to it’s heritage, the Bushnell Elite 7x26 Custom Compact offers the same wonderful feel and terrific optics of the original - I know because I have dome side-by-side comparisons of the original and this current Custom Compact 7x26. Best of all, the current Bushnell Custom Compact 7x26 still costs only half of what my least expensive premium roof prism compact binocular costs. The Bushnell Elite Custom Compact 7x26 is definitely one compact binocular that any compact binocular nut would love to own.
About the pic: the original B&L Custom Compact 7x26, still in mint condition, ori