first light, day on the beach with 15x70 bins

[mark22c]

first day out of the house with the new helios apollo 15x70 binoculars. spent an hour at porthpean beach in cornwall looking out over the bay. the weather was very good today just a little chilly though so we (my girlfriend and i) decided to pop out for a bit and test my bins out.
i did manage to snap a few pics through them with my mobile phone camera see pics below.
first thing worth commenting on is the centre field, it is very sharp and colour is spot on with excellent contrast. independent focus isnt so bad and only needed slight adjustment to get a good focus between 75m and infinity, CA is present when viewing the cliff tops against the sky but not bad at 15x, i didnt really notice it any other time.
laura spotted a couple of oystercatchers on the rocks to our right about 150m distant and i managed to snap a few quick pics but the cold made it difficult to hold the camera steady and there a little fuzzy.
it would have been nice to have had a higher vantage point and been able to see the large boats further out to see, as it was you could make out a few masts only.
no sign of any seals today but they have been spotted basking on the rocks. caught sighting of a couple of kestrals on the cliffs and trees around the cove and a flock of cormorants way off in the distance basking.
anyway heres a few pics.

[mark22c]

just a few more pics of my partner laura, views and the bins

[OwenM]

That's beautiful. I'm jealous of that scenery:t:
Guess I'm jealous of a phone that takes pics(especially through the binos) that good, too!

[mark22c]

its only a 2mp phone one but its not a bad little camera. last pic is through the bins looking in the direction you can see in the pic above (1st post last pic) looking over the bins.
just offering a little "binocular variety" as you dont find many posts referring to larger bins here.

[FIDDLER]

its only a 2mp phone one but its not a bad little camera. last pic is through the bins looking in the direction you can see in the pic above (1st post last pic) looking over the bins.
just offering a little "binocular variety" as you dont find many posts referring to larger bins here.

sat in my spot too!!! Did you not see any G N D, there was four there on thursday afternoon.
friddler.

[Tero]

Cool, oystercatchers. And still anonymous Laura.

[mark22c]

sorry to pinch your spot fiddler and tero she'd kill me if she new the pic was posted on a forum.
what are G N D fiddler???

[Tero]

Great Northern Diver? Loons here.

[mark22c]

cheers Tero,... still a green horn, but learning slowly

no not seen any today

[Sancho]

You still loving those big bins, Mark? I´ve been threatening for years to buy observation bins for seawatching, can´t bring myself to do it until I get a look through. Never seen anyone use them here...not even visiting UK birders. My main concerns are neck-strain (unangled bins) and eye-relief. Do you find these are issues? Not sure how high I might go in magnification, either....but there are 30x available out there. I suppose 25x is plenty.

Edit....we cross-posted about these bins on another thread, sorry Mark!

[mark22c]

hi sancho, yep still loving them. neck strain isnt a problem for me unless trying to view way past 45 degree's above the horizon which ive never done long range nature watching. also a good mount should bring them comfortably to eye level. i wouldnt be tempted to go too high with the magnification though as you just dont need it, 15x is plenty i find and keeps CA minimal without ED glass. you will find that using both eyes and two optical tubes gives the brain twice as much imformation to process and definatly enhances what you can see over a scope meaning you just dont need as much magnification. try looking at stuff with one eye closed... does it feel further away, not quite as sharp?
if i didnt know id swear my 15x70's were a higher mag compared with my 70mm spotting scope with a fixed power 25x ep.
15x70's work fine with me i dont feel im loosing power to the scope as the image is so clear bright and contrasty i can see almost as much detail as the scope at 25x. also the higher the mag the shallower the depth of field which means more focusing.
the £260 15x70's weigh in at 2.6kgs the £400 22x85's are 4.5kgs, i would suggest something like a 501hdv head on a good tripod to mount them but new its going to cost you about £200, cheap option is a horizon 8115 heavy tripod for around £85 but this wont feel anywhere near as nice to use and will be harder to use smoothly.

the indipendent focus is a little stiff with these due to a military grade grease being used the up side of that is it doesnt get so stiff you cant move them when cold and become too loose when hot.
i found with the 15x70 depth of focus isnt to bad and if focused to infinity you get good focus from about 75m out to infinity, its not hard to focus closer just a little slower and only needs a slight movement to improve focus down to 50m or less which isnt hard when mounted, close focus is around 15m. your getting a much better image with binoculars compared to the dimmer split light path of a bino viewer

if your going to buy big bins go for the helios apollo series either the 15x70 or the 22x85

[Sancho]

Thanks a mill, Mark....I checked out the specs of the Helios 22x85, they look great. Insane, but great;). Now I have to go away and decide between them and Canon IS 18x50. I still don´t understand why sea-watchers favour scopes over big binos, I´m sick to death of doing the Patrick Moore eye-thing. Have a great weekend!

[mark22c]

i have both scope and big bins but prefer the big bins, each to his own i supose.
dont forget those 22x85's weigh in at 4.5kgs your going to need a good mount, my set up cost about £200 plus £260 for the 15x70 bins £460 total, the tripod and head i have would handle the bigger 22x85's
sherwoods was the cheapest place i could find the bins and i got great service with them.