Binoculars of Choice

Of course the bird watching that goes on needs the correct tools and none more so than the CORRECT type of binoculars!

You do not need something that can see the snotty nose of a little green man in a far away star system?! These would be large and too much to carry around for too long, plus difficult to keep still while you were holding them and trying to keep up with something fast moving like a bird.

I had planned and still do to an extent, to get a nice pair of Bushnell binoculars of the roof prism design.

Now a great deal of people will state that the PRISM designs, mostly of the BAK4 variety, will have a better image quality but in the binoculars, or BINS, that I ended up buying I have found the roof prisms to be more than fine?! The advantage of roof prisms is that they are smaller and less bulky with the body itself sleek and straight. I was trying to avoid a magnification of 8x, i.e. 8x42, a I thought this would not be powerful enough to identify many things too far away. Now the other things to be stated as vitally important in what you use in quality of both the build, plus prisms, and the ruggedness as WELL as the optics themselves.

Now I cannot stress enough that the better the optics the much sharper the view and this is so true. But this largely involves the coatings on the lenses but check thoroughly. It MAY sound like it has multiple coatings but this does not mean that every lens has coatings and even so may only be on ONE side.

The prisms inside are just glass, not mirrors, and use a special coating and positioning of the prisms to reflect the image that eventually reaches your eyes. These positions have to be absolutely perfect and if either of the prisms or out of this position by the tiniest fraction, boom!

Also take into account that if you are reading this then you are outdoors and chasing wildlife and there is a good chance it will rain at some point, are your binoculars waterproof?!

Nitrogen filled binoculars are also good as you do not experiencing any fogging of the lenses when going from places of large temperature differences.

Now one last thing on binoculars and despite the fact that these tiny ones, like 8x25 for examples, look cute and small and yo can put them in your handbag of jacket pocket I would not really by these unless I wanted something I could keep on me when I was NOT going out actively doing some wildlife expeditions!

The number after the 'x' is the Objective lens diameter and this is the lens at the front of the binoculars that lets the light in. The larger the size, gets a bit complicated with eye relief and other things, then the more light it will let in. This results in a sharper and brighter image on one hand and the fact that you will be able to identify things when the light levels drop for longer.

As a quick example I will explain that binoculars used for astronomy require an exit pupil of 5 or more. Now an exit pupil is not as it sounds and if yo hold the eyepieces way from you its the size of the little holes you can then view in the eyepieces. This is vitally important for low light levels but gives a example of the improvement in image quality due to the amount of light that gets through, as IS cut down a little with each PLANE of glass it enters or exits, hence coatings which cut this down too.

An exit pupil of you binoculars is easily attained by dividing the objective lens diameter, like 50, by the magnification, like 10 so 10x50 will be 5.0. Now 5 and above is not necessary for wildlife but this along with the coatings applied will both contribute to the image quality.

While looking at the binoculars I wanted I found a pair of Barr & Stroud on Amazon and they were vastly reduced in price and the original price was along the lines of what I wanted to pay which was around £100.

The model in question are the Barr & Stroud Skyline 8x42 and imagine my shock when these were around £40 and even came with a free book?! Multiple Coatings, Nitrogen Filled, Waterproof and then some and these have been the best binoculars I have owned and then some and for the money I paid it was a steal and one of the best purchases I ever made! The fact that I said that about binoculars and not a computer, or a film, or a Mountain Bike or any of the other things I am interested in is saying something.

Only a built in and high quality digital imaging device would make these the perfect device?!

Of the other manufacturers I would look at and likely buy at some point would be..

OPTICRON
BRESSER
BUSHNELL