Or: More Than You Wanted To Know About Something You Didn’t Need To Think About In The First Place.

I pity any person with so little going on in their life that they actually read all of this...

Soon to be xmas…what to do with the lucite toiled seat with animal scat impregnated in it, or the t-shirt with a picture of an angler and the caption “Get Out Of My Basshole”, or the roll of toilet paper with FAA regulation printed on it? Well you keep them of course! But there’s some other garbage you can probably return on the 26th, so why not get yourself something useful.

Few things enhance my enjoyment of being in the wilderness as much as my binoculars. About 22 years ago I spent 1/8th of my yearly income on a pair of superb binoculars…Swarovski 10x42 SLC’s. Might be the best money I ever spent in my life. Most people have no idea what you can see if you sit still and spend an hour looking through good glass. One month in Glacier NP I glassed 18 grizzly bears, seven of them in one day. A week later I glassed a wolverine crossing a avalanche field about 300 meters away. When I reported seeing a wolverine to the Park they were hesitant to believe me…the biologist I spoke with had been working there over fifteen years and had never seen one.

Lay on your back in the Owyhee Desert at two AM and look up into the milky way with Swarovski 10x42’s and you’ll just gasp. It’s unbelievable the stars and constellations you cannot see with the naked eye.

My father loves grizzly bears and goes looking for them on a regular basis. One year my siblings and I bought him a pair of Swarovski 10x52 SLC’s to help him find bears. Fantastic beyond words…the extra light coming in through the larger lenses really made a difference in what you could pick out at the very edges of what was discernible.

When I met my wife we spent a lot of time in grizzly country. You can travel safely (unarmed) in grizzly country if you use your head, and part of using your head is knowing what’s around you. I bought her the Swarovski 8x30 SLC’s, and I was amazed at how close they were in image quality to my 10x42’s, but about half the weight.

The only reason I can fathom that more people don’t cary binoculars is they’ve never looked through a truly excellent pair to see what’s possible.

At the time I bought my first pair of Swarovski’s you really had to pay that much if you wanted decent glass. Cheaper models weren’t even close. In fact, they were crap. But things have changed a lot since then. I’ve recently looked through $350 sets of binoculars that were probably 80% as clear as my Swarovski’s (at least in good light), which are nine times the price. This is not normal…the optical shop I saw them at had singled them out as being exceptional image quality for the money.

There’s more to it than just that of course. Swarovski’s are waterproof to 18 feet and have a lifetime warranty that is simply unbelievable. I once sent in my 10x42’s to have the focusing wheel tighten up and they replaced both the front and rear lenses, the outer case, and the entire focusing mechanism. Bear in mind that nothing harsher than a surgically clean microfiber cloth had ever touched any of the lenses, and then only rarely. When I asked them why they replaced the lenses they said they had developed a new and better lens coating and wanted all Swarovski owners to benefit from it.

Recently I was in a store that carried all the top binoculars…Swarovski, Zeiss, Leica. Out of curiosity I asked to look through the Swarovski 8x25 pocket binoculars. Phuck…most pocket binoculars are a huge disappointment, but those were really, really impressive. I compared them to the similar Leica and Zeiss binoculars, but the Swarovski’s just fit my eyes better. After looking through all of the compact sets about 40 times over the course of three days, I bought the Swarovski’s. It was a good lesson to try before you buy…all three brands are superb, but the Swarovski’s just worked better for my ocular anatomy. Also a pretty good argument for not looking through high-end binoculars out of curiosity.

Now I love glass the way a drug addict loves a dirty meth pipe, so the best-of-the-best is money well spent for me. Because high end binoculars will last a lifetime I think they’re a good investment for anyone, but I understand that some people simply don’t have a few thousand dollars to spend on glass. And honestly, with the very highest end glass you’re paying a pretty good chunk of money for that last 5% of excellence. The difference between a $400 pair and a $800 pair is strikingly obvious, but It takes a pretty discriminating eye to see the difference between a $1800 set of binoculars and a $2800 set. It’s there for sure, but there’s a somewhat diminishing return on your money when you step up to the top shelf. Like with everything else…

I’m really impressed with how good SOME of the lower-end glass has gotten. Where it falls apart is in poor light and in durability. Once moisture gets into the tube or one tube gets slightly out of alignment with the other they’re useless. Also, binoculars don’t only bring objects you identified with your naked eye into close focus, they also dramatically extend the range at which you can “just barely” see something. With binoculars you can make out things that are invisible to the naked eye, much like seeing something at the very limit of what you can make out without binoculars. It’s at these distances that high end glass really shines.

While the construction and technical aspects of binoculars gets pretty complicated, here are some general guidelines that will help steer you through the multitude of glass available today. I’m not going to get into different construction techniques, but just touch on some of the most common considerations.

Binoculars are referred to by their magnification and objective (front) lens diameter. 8x32 means 8x magnification (things appear to be 8 times closer to you) and a 32mm objective (front) lens. Typical magnification levels are from 6 to 15, though 7~10 are the most common. Common objective lenses can be as small as 20mm and as large as 56mm. You can have any combination of magnification and objective lens. The same company might make a 10x20 and a 10x56 model. While the level of magnification will be the same, the 10x56 will show you much more…more detail, larger field of view; things will actually appear more magnified because you will see them better. This is because of the larger objective lens. Most people get the magnification right off, but don’t understand the importance of the objective lens.

The objective lens, the 8x25 or 32 or 56 or whatever number, directly affects both the amount of light the binocular transmits to your eye, and the field of view. These are very important considerations as they directly affect what you see, usually more so than the amount of magnification. Magnification absorbs light, so the higher the magnification, the less light will be transmitted. A 8x32 binocular will be brighter than a 10x32 binocular. Despite the lower magnification, the 8x32’s might show a clearer, more detailed image and allow the user to discern things they could not see with the 10 power model. This might not be super noticeable in broad daylight but will be apparent in twilight conditions.

Field of view is important because it allows you to take in a larger area at one time. Glassing large areas of terrain is made much easier by being able to see a larger chunk of it at one time. A large field of view also helps orient the user. Binoculars with a narrow field of view can make the user feel somewhat lost while glassing large areas.

So why doesn’t everyone choose the largest objective lens available? Size, weight, and cost. Large objective lenses mean large, heavy binoculars. There’s not only a limit to what a person will cary, but there’s a limit to what a person can comfortably hold. Some binoculars get so large that the only reasonable way to use them is on a tripod…not exactly easy access when your hiking. 8x56 binoculars are going to cost more than 8x25’s from the same maker, just like a fast camera lens costs more than a slower camera lens of the same magnification.

Ultra-compact binoculars fit in your shirt pocket but provide poor ergonomics and a very narrow field of view. Large binoculars provide the best view and brightness, but they’re worthless if you left them behind because you didn’t want to cary them.

In my experience the Swarovski 8x30 binoculars are about the perfect balance of size and performance. They’re not as “good” as the 10x42’s, but they’re really close, and they’re half the weight. The 10x56 Swarovski’s are in another league entirely, but they are large enough to make them unrealistic for daily cary. The reason I include the brand name here is because it’s expensive to make a pair of relatively small binoculars with excellent performance. Swarovski 8x30’s are small and incredibly bright, but to get close to the same performance in a less expensive brand you might have to go up to 8x56…a much larger, heavier binocular.

Other considerations are how close they will focus. I get great enjoyment looking at things that are very close to me. That hummingbird at the feeder 8 feet away looks completely different through binoculars…so much so that you realize you actually had no idea what it looked like before. I’m fascinated by snakes but don’t want to get bit in the face any more than the next person. Binoculars allow me to closely study snakes without getting uncomfortably near.

Do you wear eyeglasses? Most people take their eyeglasses off when using binoculars, but if that doesn’t work for you then you need a pair with a long eye relief…the distance the eye can be from the lens and still see the whole picture. This varies dramatically from set to set.

Most binoculars have center focusing…a single wheel focuses both lenses. But some models have to be independently focused by twisting the eye pieces. Pain-in-the-ass doesn’t even come close to describing it. There's $500 wasted if you find you won't use them because they're too difficult to focus.

All decent binoculars have a focus compensation on one barrel, since many people see differently out of each eye. The compensator allows you to focus each barrel to match your vision. You set it once and then it’s done. So is that compensator a free-floating twist adjustment which is going to constantly change when it’s bumped and jostled, or does it lock in place? Does it provide enough adjustment, or adjust in fine enough increments?

BRANDS
While there are some standouts and some duds in the lower and middle price ranges, you really do get what you pay for. There are a lot more crap binoculars out there than there are good sets. A budget or mid-priced set of glass purchased on the basis of price and justified as “good enough” or “being better than nothing” is often just money wasted. Poor quality binoculars are difficult to use and provide a marginal, unrewarding image. You’ve got to cary them in order to use them, and nobody caries something they don’t enjoy using.

Most manufactures make low, medium, and sometimes high end glass. Brand name really isn’t as important as the construction of the binocular…the quality of the glass and glass coatings, housing, focusing system, etc.. Nikon vs Pentax vs Leopold really isn’t relevant. Three exceptions to this are Leica, Swarovski and to a lesser extent, Zeiss. They make nothing but high end glass. There’s a price range of a few thousand dollars between their various models, but the quality of any model will always be superb.

There are simply no good $150 binoculars out there. There is also no such thing as a good set of zoom binoculars…stay away from them. Same goes for commercially available image-stabilized binoculars…they are garbage compared to the contemporary glass you could get for the same price. Figure paying in the neighborhood of $400 for a shot at a decent set, and $1000 for a really good set of mid-sized binoculars. $3000 is not out of the question for large, high-end glass.

There's a reason for the price.

A binocular housing billeted out of a solid block of magnesium is going to be infinitely more durable and robust than a housing made out of molded plastic. You might not be able to tell the difference in the store, but after one good bump or a couple temperature extremes you probably will. By the same token, all glass is not created equal. High-end optical glass is expensive to make, as are high-end glass coatings.

It’s much easier to manufacture a reasonable pair of large 7x50 binoculars than it is to make a good pair of compact 7x25’s. As binoculars get smaller, the quality of the glass and coatings has to go up into order to provide a decent image. Shirt-pocket binoculars are usually a huge disappointment unless you go for the top brands.

BUYING
There’s a really simple way to buy binoculars: First decide on a physical size…just how big a set will you actually cary. Once that’s decided, make sure there’s at least $3000 in your checking account and go to a store and test the appropriate sized binoculars from Zeiss, Leica and Swarovski, and buy the pair that you like the best. You now own the best pair of binoculars for you and needn’t think about it any more.

Otherwise…

Unless you know exactly what you want, don’t buy binoculars online. You need to use them first…hold them up to your eyes and compare them to other sets. Even in the very top brands one set will fit you better than the other. It’s really a very personal connection. Also, don’t assume you can get them cheaper online…often you cannot.

Go to a store that has a full spectrum of binoculars…make sure they cary the top brands, too. You might not be in the market for a $3000 set of binoculars, but you need to look through them to know what’s possible. That will give you a benchmark to start comparing the other sets. The walmart-in-camo stores usually have a good selection, though whether the man behind the counter can find his own ass with both hands and a flashlight is anybody’s guess. Don’t assume they know what they’re talking about…they often don’t.

If you have access to a store that specializes in bird watching, they are more likely to know what’s what. Whatever you do, don’t believe anyone that says “this is the best set”, because it might not be the best set for you. The sales person at the last place I bought binoculars was very knowledgable and had been dealing in high-end glass for twenty years. She opined in no uncertain terms that in the size I was looking at the Leica’s were better than the Swarovski’s…better construction technique. And she’s probably right, but when I tried them side by side the Swarovski’s simply fit my eyes better and gave me a better image. No matter what their benefits, the Leica’s would have been a poor choice for me. I wouldn't have known that if I didn't try them side by side.

Plan on spending about an hour looking through different sets before you start getting an idea of what’s what. Most stores have a binocular test poster up on the wall to look at. If they’ve shined a bright light on it, find something else to look at. Lots of binoculars give a good image under ideal conditions, but fall apart in poor conditions. You can tell a lot more about the quality of the image by finding a dark corner of the store and trying to make out detail invisible to your naked eye. In addition to looking for clarity, look for edge-to-edge sharpness. Point them towards a bright light source and see how much glare they make and whether light bounces around inside the lens barrels, causing distortion. How do they fit your face? How easy are they to focus? A good pair should come up to your eyes and instantly give a full field of view and rapid focusing…it should be natural, not something you have to think about. Putting your binoculars up to your eyes and focusing on something should be as natural as shading your eyes with your hand…something you can do without conscious though. The image should make you think “wow!”. If it doesn’t, save your money.

If the store isn’t large enough to give you something distant and dim to look at then look out a window. If the window is dirty or doesn’t give you a view of anything worth testing the glass on, offer them your ID and credit card and take two sets at a time outside to test. If they won’t allow that, go somewhere else. If you narrow it down to a couple sets, sit in a comfortable chair and look at a distant scene for ten straight minutes and see how you feel. If you come away feeling a little woozy or with a bit of a headache, that’s not right. Probably there is a flaw in the image which is forcing your brain to compensate…you don’t notice it with short glances, but it shows up with extended use.

Don’t scrimp on something that you’ll use (or regret buying) for the rest of your life. If you find the set that’s right for you but it’s out of your price range, don’t buy anything…save your money until you can get the right pair.

Even the high end glass goes on sale. Since Swarovski sold me my first set of binoculars they’ve changed the design a half dozen times, and each time the current generation went on sale…sometimes a little, and sometimes a lot. Now here’s the thing…the current generation of Swarovski 10x42’s are a little lighter, a little more ergonomic, and have better designed lens caps and a nifty quick-release neck strap, but they are NO sharper. I’ve compared them side by side each time a new generation came out, and there’s no difference. Binoculars are not something that is being rapidly changed by technology: buy quality today and they’ll still be quality in 20 years.

USING THEM
Learn to use binoculars well and you’ll know more about your environment in a few hours than you’d otherwise know in many weeks. I recently talked to a caretaker at Moose Creek. He’d been there for four summers and never seen a bear. I’d seen four that day, two the day before, the three the next day. Ya, some of that is luck, but most of it is that I use my binoculars to actively look for bears. Many of the bears were visible with the naked eye, but I would have seen them without the glass…they never would have differentiated themselves from the background without the view my binoculars give me.

There’s a knack to using binoculars successfully. The first principle is they have to be instantly available all the time. If you have to dig them out of a case or pack, they’re not going to get used nearly enough to justify carrying them. That's another reason to buy high-end glass...inexpensive binoculars cannot withstand the use and abuse of high-end glass and have to be pampered. That pampering keeps them from being used at all.

I cary my 8x30’s around my neck and secured to my belly with a cheap fabric cover called a bino-sock that protects them from dirt and keeps them from flopping around. I removed the front lens caps and replaced them with flip-up rifle scope covers, and I don’t use rear lens caps.

My 10x42’s are heavy enough that I prefer a chest pack specifically made for binoculars. It has a magnetic opening so with a quick tug the pack opens and I can pull the binoculars out. With this rig I don’t use any lens caps or neck strap.

My 8x25 shirt-pocket binoculars usually get carried in a pocket or camera bag without lens caps or a neck strap, but in a protective cover. These binoculars are really for when I don’t anticipate needing binoculars…a trip to the city or while hiking a trail next to home that I’ve hiked a hundred times without seeing anything interesting. Whatever your system, make sure they are instantly accessible or don’t bother bringing them.

The biggest problem people have with binoculars is holding them steady. Lots of that has to do with just how steady a person's body is to begin with...some people just shake more than others. One cure for that is to stick with lower magnification models…8x instead of 10x or 12x. Less magnification means less shake. I only use my binoculars while standing if I’m doing a quick scan of something…not expecting to see anything, but just verifying that the valley I’m about to descend into doesn’t have a big brown lump I didn’t notice with my naked eyes. Other than that, I sit down to glass.

I’m a pretty flexible guy so I just squat down and rest my elbows on my knees. It’s very steady and comfortable for about three minutes. A walking stick that’s a little taller than your eye level also works well. You just rest your binoculars on top of it and tilt it to the right height. For serious glassing you need a comfortable seat. The assorted folding chairs available work well, with the thermarest chair converter being my favorite.

SPOTTING SCOPES:
No bones about it, I covet several different spotting scopes, and I don’t own a single one. If this seems strange coming from a guy who owns three sets of top end binoculars and is actively scheming to get a fourth set when his father dies, there’s actually a good reason. Spotting scopes provide a much higher level of magnification…60X is easily available, but they suffer from a huge drawback in that you only get information coming into one of your eyes. Look at something with a 10x telescope and a pair of 10x binoculars and you won’t believe they’re the same magnification. The reason is that the binoculars are providing twice the information to your brain. Spotting scopes excel at looking for bullet holes in targets or looking for the largest ram in a herd, but they are surprisingly unrewarding to use as a general way of increasing your understanding of your surroundings. I'll use 10x binoculars over a 40x spotting scope any day of the week.

TLDR. But then I'm not in the market for binocular advice. x2 Swarovision 10x42 EL's; tools of my trade. I carry mine in a KUIU harness for the past year.

Quick version- Magnification power to objective lens diameter (mm), the ideal ratio is 1:5 for general outdoor use. You've got to gather enough light for the amount you're trying to boost it, without the image being dim and grainy. That's why classically the best-performing binoculars have been manufactured in configurations like 7x35, 8x42 and 10x50. And why typical 10x25 "stadium" binoculars usually suck. Swaro EL's are so good that 10x42s break the rule and get away with it. Nitrogen purging, fluoride lenses, etc. With any binocular (except perhaps some of the image-stabilizing models), 10x will accentuate shaking hands more than 8x, so try both. No matter what, try out several models in person. Personal impressions, and individual proportions like eye relief differ from person to person. Likewise some will prioritize weight and size over optimal image quality.

And no matter how good your glass is, it doesn't matter if you don't learn how to keep them clean, and follow through regularly.

Cheers,

-DP

My father is a boat guy, and has always had Zeiss binoculars around the house. Growing up I always assumed that those were normal. The first time I shopped for a set of my own to carry at work, I was amazed at how poor the optics were on any affordable-to-me lenses. I also found that I had to try several of the same model to find the one with the best optics. Often, the two lenses were ever so slightly out of alignment, and that's not fixable no matter how much you twist and turn the focus knobs.

I finally found a set that were decent in the daylight, but the first time I used them at night to go stargazing, they were almost unusable because of the slightest alignment issue. When looking at stars, ANY issues with the binoculars are quite obvious. Pretty annoying when you're looking at Jupiter and its moons, only to realize the image is fuzzy because the two images are so close, but not quite perfectly aligned.

I've been spoiled by good glass, but I'm not quite ready to buy a set of my own. Too many items competing for my dollars.

I agree completely that great binoculars are worth the price. What you can see, especially in low light, is unreal.

'Twas the night before Christmas and... Well it's technically Christmas and I'm feeding my daughter with one hand and typing this with the other. Great write up, Hammer.

You really got me thinking about that FAR printed toilet paper and what a great idea it is. All I could find was a version with some light philosophy and Twitter gems (Shitter-- get it?) printed on it:



About those binoculars: I agree that the best pair are the ones you'll carry. I have a super cheap pair of Simmons that are small enough to ride in the pocket of my PFD I use for paddling around our lake. I love peeping the other boaters but of course I immediately wish I had greater magnification.

As a distance shooter I think having a ranging reticle would be slick, which some of the Vortex models do. Vortex are Chinese made optics that are actually gaining pretty good reputation in the riflescope world. Their binoculars seem a good bargain.

X2 on Vortex, I have 10x50 Viper HD binos and they work very well for my uses and cost about $750.

Very informative thread. I have an old pair of Steiner commanders which I like, but they are badly in need of a service. Great on a boat with the internal compass.

I always advise friends never to look through a pair of binoculars that they cannot afford; once you have looked through quality glass there is no going back.

Hammer said:

Do you wear eyeglasses? Most people take their eyeglasses off when using binoculars, but if that doesn’t work for you then you need a pair with a long eye relief…the distance the eye can be from the lens and still see the whole picture. This varies dramatically from set to set.

Can you expand on looking through binoculars with glasses on? I have never been able to see anything through them without taking my glasses off. I know right where to adjust the right eye piece so that I can use the main focus wheel to adjust for final clear viewing. I would love to be able to see through the binochs without taking my glasses off.

I have a pair of Cannon IS (image stabilizing) 12 X 36 that stays by the back window. While reading this thread at 0710 AM at 47 degrees N latitude this mornning Dec 25 ( translated, it's still pretty dark out, offical sunrise is at 0747 behind a 3300 foot ridge) I looked out the window at the snow covered hill side 3/4 of a mile away. I can see a lots of specs but cant tell if they are all bitterbrush or animals. With the binocks I see about 60 of those specs are elk. One with a nice rack.

Excellent thread. I suspect good glass is to me what a good knife is to you
I have owned pretty much all the binos in your post, but currently spend most of my time behind 10x42,EL's on the run and a 20 Y/O set of15x60 Docs on the tripod. Although the Swaro 15x56s are a full pound lighter, I feel that a set of Docters that have been optimized have the low light edge. My mini set for handiness are Zeiss, but the Swaros you speak of are amazing.
In the SW we have Coues deer, and they are my addiction. Being 3' at the shoulders, solitary creatures, and the color of a dry creosote, you simply won't harvest a true trophy Coues buck until you master the art of glassing.
A couple things I might add, if you believe a more economical pair of glasses is comparable to those Hammer speaks of, you are either not comparing them an hour before / after shooting light, or you are not using a tripod. I have watched guides that hand hold binos drop their jaws in awe after looking through a good set of binos on a tripod pointed at game.

Set up like this the only use for a spotting scope would be something like a good inspection of a desert bighorn.

Having just built a light weight mountain rifle in 7-08, I eagerly await your 'everything you want to know about scopes article' I know what I want, but always like to read what others are doing




My daughter gettin it done behind a set of SLCs

I use Pentax 8X43s, in what they now call the "Z" series. they are <$1000 and when new they were about 90% as good as the best in class brands. I abuse them mercilessly and they are just about worn out after 15 years. (this year the split rings on the sling wore through the attachment points on the body)

I use 3M magic tape to clean dust off of the glass. It works great and leaves no residue or scratches. Use the 3M brand only.

I've had the heavy European glass. Can't beat them as long as you've got a truck or boat to carry them around with. Now have the more "man portable" Leica BCA's. I prefer the 8X over the 10X. I find them with me much more often, so I use them and see more stuff. No doubt the performance isn't nearly that of the big guys, but I don't look through them all day either as many professionals do. A little south of $400 at Cameraland NY on their demo list. Good company, I have yet to receive a dud from them.

Very informative Hammer. Thank you.

Neat write-up, Hammer. I've never wanted to spend all that much for binoculars, but I do have a couple of pretty good pairs that work really well, a Nikon pocket set (I'd have to go out to the car where they reside in the glove box to see what the size is, but it's too darned cold outside right now!) and a higher end Bushnell waterproof 8x50 for the boat. Both are pretty good quality, have good lenses, and have lasted a long time in spite of a lot of use. Undoubtedly nothing like the Swarovskis, but good enough for me. Years ago Wife 1 bought me a really low end pair of 8x35 Bushnells, and even with the same brand, the difference in quality and usability is dramatic. I'm not even sure I know where those are, they're such junk.

I have used the "boat 'nocs" now for about 35 years, they work well, but I'm convinced that anything stronger than 8x is impossible to use on a boat, unless it's image stabilized. A couple of years ago we were on Marilyn's brother's boat for a week, and he has a pair of high end IS binocs (don't recall the brand) which were much higher powered, I think 20x or so. They were pretty marvelous.

I got the pocket Nikons for back packing about 18 years ago. They've been nice, because I always have them handy--like someone else said, the best ones are the ones you have with. They're in the glovebox of the car normally, but they get moved to the camping stuff whenever I head out, whether by airplane or truck.

Cary

tcj wrote:Hammer said:

Do you wear eyeglasses? Most people take their eyeglasses off when using binoculars, but if that doesn’t work for you then you need a pair with a long eye relief…the distance the eye can be from the lens and still see the whole picture. This varies dramatically from set to set.

Can you expand on looking through binoculars with glasses on? I have never been able to see anything through them without taking my glasses off. I know right where to adjust the right eye piece so that I can use the main focus wheel to adjust for final clear viewing. I would love to be able to see through the binochs without taking my glasses off.

Different binoculars come with different eye relief...the distance your eye has to be from the rear lens to see the full picture. You need a very long eye relief to use binoculars with glasses. Telescoping eyecups hold the binoculars the correct distance from your eyes when not wearing glasses. Eye relief is one of those things you get with higher end glass. A 8~10mm eye relief is common on cheap binoculars, while the Swarovski 8x25 shirtpocket binoculars offer 17mm, and the larger models offer even longer eye reliefs.

Aside from reading the literature, an easy way to determine the eye relief is to have one eyecup extended and the other retracted...the bigger the difference in eyecup height the longer the eye relief.

I can get 100% field of view while wearing glasses with my Swarovski's, but with many binoculars you simply cannot. How your glasses fit to your face is also important...if you have very deep eye sockets or glasses that sit particularly far from your eye, you might be out of luck with any binocular. Only way to find out is go try some out.

Now even with 100% field of view, you're not going to see as well using binoculars with eye glasses as you are without them, because your eye glasses allow light to leak into your eye that's not coming through the binoculars. Without eye glasses the binocular eyecups seal around your eye, preventing extraneous light from entering your brain. Virtually all the light that's going into your eye comes through the binoculars, and that gives a better image.

The difference is more pronounced the brighter your ambient environment. It'll make little difference if you're inside a cave looking out into bright sunlight, but a huge difference if you're in a bright atmosphere like white sand or snow, looking towards a darker area.

I've had some experience with binoculars. 30 years ago I spent $600 on a pair of Zeiss 10x40s. I also use my dad's B&L Zepher 9x35s from the '50s. Both are great for land based observation and astronomy. My brother had some cheap Minolta binocs. They sucked at night, but worked okay in daylight. While the Expensive binoculars are very nice, they represent the adage of the 80/20 rule. You get 20% improvement with 80% more effort. In this case cost.

Having "the best" is fine if you can afford it, but lots of us can't. It turns out good enough is pretty decent. Go to the birding or astronomy forums for advice on binoculars. They will rate the most expensive as best, but the difference gets to be vanishingly small as you go up in price.

In the end, the best advice was mentioned in the original post: look through them yourself and see what is important to you.

By the way, there are some very good vintage binoculars that can sometimes be had for a great price. Again, check out the birding and astronomy forums.

tom

Hammer will you hurry up and research LED Light bars so I can go buy one for my Razor.

Well done-

SixTwoLeemer wrote:Hammer will you hurry up and research LED Light bars so I can go buy one for my Razor.

Well done-

You really want to spend that much money...?

Rob wrote:Excellent thread. I suspect good glass is to me what a good knife is to you
I have owned pretty much all the binos in your post, but currently spend most of my time behind 10x42,EL's on the run and a 20 Y/O set of15x60 Docs on the tripod. Although the Swaro 15x56s are a full pound lighter, I feel that a set of Docters that have been optimized have the low light edge. My mini set for handiness are Zeiss, but the Swaros you speak of are amazing.
In the SW we have Coues deer, and they are my addiction. Being 3' at the shoulders, solitary creatures, and the color of a dry creosote, you simply won't harvest a true trophy Coues buck until you master the art of glassing.
A couple things I might add, if you believe a more economical pair of glasses is comparable to those Hammer speaks of, you are either not comparing them an hour before / after shooting light, or you are not using a tripod. I have watched guides that hand hold binos drop their jaws in awe after looking through a good set of binos on a tripod pointed at game.

Set up like this the only use for a spotting scope would be something like a good inspection of a desert bighorn.

Having just built a light weight mountain rifle in 7-08, I eagerly await your 'everything you want to know about scopes article' I know what I want, but always like to read what others are doing




My daughter gettin it done behind a set of SLCs

Man I'm envious of the 15x56's...I've never used the Docter Binos but I bought the Docter red dot pistol sight fifteen years ago and am still impressed with the quality of that little device.

Using a tripod is truly the signature of a pro, be it photography or observation. I didn't include tripods in my diatribe because it's pretty far out of what most people will even consider. Just getting people to buy, cary and use decent glass is enough of a calling for me.

Regarding rifle scopes...I don't even know where to begin. Frankly I'm out of my league with rifle scopes. When I was an avid hunter I didn't have any money, so I went with a high-end Bushnell model in a fixed 4x focal length with a top-end mount. Not bad glass by any means...damn nice in fact, but no inherent bragging rights.

Frankly, for hunting I'm not nearly as rabid about rifle scopes as I am about binoculars. So long as they hold zero and are weatherproof and provide a distortion-free image, the rest of it does't strike me as super-critical. Heresy I know...but I'm really not much of a hunter anymore, and when I was an avid hunter it was only for meat and I had an exaggerated sense of fair chase. Snipers need top-end optics because they shoot in all light conditions and spend hours at a time looking through the scope...hunters don't, or at least shouldn't. In my world the rifle scope doesn't come into play until the game has been found and the hunter is within 50~180 meters, and it's legal shooting daylight hours. I always zeroed by big game rifles for 100 meters and used Kentucky windage for any compensation. I know folks who can drop game at 350~450 meters, but to me that's game assassination, not hunting.

When I no longer needed my M-4 to be used as an entry weapon I pulled off the EOTech and put on a Zeiss Duralyte 1.25~6x scope. I tried a couple other scopes, including a well regarded Vortex, but was super-unhappy with them. The Zeiss Duralyte isn't up there with the best of the best, but it's the cheapest zoom scope I found I could use without wanting to vomit. Even though it's not an entry weapon, I still wanted as close to 1x as I could get on the bottom end.

Of course if you want my advice on a scope it's pretty much identical to my advice on binoculars: Swarovski. Price be damned!

I really like my Leica binos. I would love to try a Leica rifle scope on my .338 lapua, but am having a hard time justifying one. I do like my Zeiss scopes a lot, just want to try something different I guess.
Great write up hammer.

Hammer wrote:

tcj wrote:Hammer said:

Do you wear eyeglasses? Most people take their eyeglasses off when using binoculars, but if that doesn’t work for you then you need a pair with a long eye relief…the distance the eye can be from the lens and still see the whole picture. This varies dramatically from set to set.

Can you expand on looking through binoculars with glasses on? I have never been able to see anything through them without taking my glasses off. I know right where to adjust the right eye piece so that I can use the main focus wheel to adjust for final clear viewing. I would love to be able to see through the binochs without taking my glasses off.

Different binoculars come with different eye relief...the distance your eye has to be from the rear lens to see the full picture. You need a very long eye relief to use binoculars with glasses. Telescoping eyecups hold the binoculars the correct distance from your eyes when not wearing glasses. Eye relief is one of those things you get with higher end glass. A 8~10mm eye relief is common on cheap binoculars, while the Swarovski 8x25 shirtpocket binoculars offer 17mm, and the larger models offer even longer eye reliefs.

Aside from reading the literature, an easy way to determine the eye relief is to have one eyecup extended and the other retracted...the bigger the difference in eyecup height the longer the eye relief.

I can get 100% field of view while wearing glasses with my Swarovski's, but with many binoculars you simply cannot. How your glasses fit to your face is also important...if you have very deep eye sockets or glasses that sit particularly far from your eye, you might be out of luck with any binocular. Only way to find out is go try some out.

Now even with 100% field of view, you're not going to see as well using binoculars with eye glasses as you are without them, because your eye glasses allow light to leak into your eye that's not coming through the binoculars. Without eye glasses the binocular eyecups seal around your eye, preventing extraneous light from entering your brain. Virtually all the light that's going into your eye comes through the binoculars, and that gives a better image.

The difference is more pronounced the brighter your ambient environment. It'll make little difference if you're inside a cave looking out into bright sunlight, but a huge difference if you're in a bright atmosphere like white sand or snow, looking towards a darker area.

That helped a lot Hammer. It prompted me to look in the literature for my binoculars to find the eye relief. Mine have 14.5 mm. I also had no idea about retracting the eye cups when wearing glasses before reading your reply. It looks to me like I get almost 100% field of view with glasses on and eye cups retracted. It will be a lot handier to pack them now as I won't have to take off my glasses and hold them in one hand to look through the binochs. Thank You!

TOO good of a writeup Hammer, as soon as it gets above 7 degrees, I'll go out to the hangar and throw the cheap binocs I've kept in the plane for the last 20 years away. How about using your extensive knowledge and enthusiasm on the subject to address the use of glass from a aircraft? I have long used mine to scope out the best route into town, cheapest mo- gas, fences, reading a contractors name on the work trailer when scouting crane jobs from the air, not to mention when off airport looking for rocks etc. I never fly anywhere without glass. Cheap glass to date, enlighten us on aerial use.Thanks.

courierguy wrote:TOO good of a writeup Hammer, as soon as it gets above 7 degrees, I'll go out to the hangar and throw the cheap binocs I've kept in the plane for the last 20 years away. How about using your extensive knowledge and enthusiasm on the subject to address the use of glass from a aircraft? I have long used mine to scope out the best route into town, cheapest mo- gas, fences, reading a contractors name on the work trailer when scouting crane jobs from the air, not to mention when off airport looking for rocks etc. I never fly anywhere without glass. Cheap glass to date, enlighten us on aerial use.Thanks.

I bet its warmer than seven degrees in the Poky Sportsmans Whorehouse...and doesn't I.F. have a cabellas?

I'd start by looking at Swarovski 8x30's. For a thousand dollars I don't think there's a better binocular made. The image quality and light gathering is exceptional for such a small set of glasses. Or for more than twice the price, check out the 8x32 EL's...

As far as using binoculars in an airplane...I'm not much help since I almost never do. I think a lot of that is because in my plane I have to look through plexiglass, and for reasons I don't fully understand plexiglass (and glass windshields) have an exaggerated negative effect on image quality. I didn't spend that much money on binoculars to look at a fuzzy image.

And really, if you can fly an airplane while picking out rocks and fence wire with binoculars, you're a hell of a lot better stick than I am. Granted, that doesn't take much, but still...I'm impressed. Just the fact you can do that without throwing up is remarkable.

I guess if I were to suggest a general type of binocular specifically for flying it would be a low power porro prism set with the largest objective lens possible. Something like 6x50 or 7x52 if anyone makes such a thing...no more magnification than that.

Porro prism binoculars (the ones that look old-timey, with the eye pieces out of alignment with the objective lenses, not streamlined like roof prism binoculars where the eye piece is in alignment with the objective lenses) provide a little better depth perception and usually a wider field of view.

It's (really) unlikely you'll ever find a set of porro prism binoculars that will equal the image quality of the Swarovski roof prism glass, so whether the theoretical advantages of that design would work better for flying I really cannot say.

I'm sure image stabilized binoculars have their place, but I'm not a fan. For starters, they are usually at least 10 power, often more. For another, they're expensive and you're paying for electronics, not high-end optical glass. For the same price as the image stabilized binoculars you can get a set of Swarovisk's, Leica's, or high end Zeiss binoculars. Look through the two side by side and you'll see why I'm not a fan of image stabilization.

Now I've never used the high-end image stabilized glass, but that's fine since $6,800 is pretty far outside my budget limit. One would hope for that sort of money the image quality is on par with other high-end binoculars...

In theory any set of binoculars with a tripod thread could have a electronic gyro stabilizer attached to it. They are somewhat common in the filming industry, though historically they've been pretty expensive. A couple decades ago I was looking at one to use on my cameras, as I did a lot of photography from helicopters. I believe they were around three grand back then. I doubt the small stabilizers made for gopro's and the like would work. Gopro's have little mass and use a wide angle lens which needs very little stabilization, so it's hard to believe what they use to stabilize a gopro would have much effect on binoculars.

I've always been curious what would happen if you just took a electronic turn and bank and strapped it to the bottom of a pair of binoculars...