What makes us, binocular geeks, tick?

[Renze de Vries]

It’s the birds, isn’t it?
No, it ain’t.
In the few years I’ve been enjoying this forum, I learned that for a considerable part of the subscribers the relevance of optics goes way beyond the object. Birds may have aroused our curiosity initially – and on occasion they still do - but something happened in the process: our optical instruments took on a relevance of their own. Instead of a simple means to an end, they became our objects of fascination, if not obsession.
Many times I’ve found myself surrounded by two, three, four binoculars (for fear of impairing my carefully constructed reputation I won’t go any further) with the only intention to have a look through them again, and again, and again. If the flowerpot on my neighbour’s balcony could talk…
Frankly spoken, I am fascinated by this strange behaviour. But the problem is, I’m unable to explain it properly. The psychology of optics, what’s it all about? What makes us, binocular geeks, tick?
Is it the magnification of reality we enjoy?
Or is it the opposite, the temporary isolation (only 8 deg. FOV!) from it? The escape from the inconveniences, obligations and cruelties of everyday life?

I found this last suggestion in Birders - Tales of a tribe, by the British writer Mark Cocker, who is unfortunately one of the very few writers I could find with a more than fleeting attention to the subject. But maybe there are more? Inside or outside the birding world?
Maybe you want your thoughts to share with me yourself? Your idea’s, feelings, suggestions, experiences, stories? Then tell me (us!). It’s much appreciated.

Renze de Vries,

[ThoLa]

It’s the birds, isn’t it?
No, it ain’t.
In the few years I’ve been enjoying this forum, I learned that for a considerable part of the subscribers the relevance of optics goes way beyond the object. Birds may have aroused our curiosity initially – and on occasion they still do - but something happened in the process: our optical instruments took on a relevance of their own. Instead of a simple means to an end, they became our objects of fascination, if not obsession.
Many times I’ve found myself surrounded by two, three, four binoculars (for fear of impairing my carefully constructed reputation I won’t go any further) with the only intention to have a look through them again, and again, and again. If the flowerpot on my neighbour’s balcony could talk…
Frankly spoken, I am fascinated by this strange behaviour. But the problem is, I’m unable to explain it properly. The psychology of optics, what’s it all about? What makes us, binocular geeks, tick?
Is it the magnification of reality we enjoy?
Or is it the opposite, the temporary isolation (only 8 deg. FOV!) from it? The escape from the inconveniences, obligations and cruelties of everyday life?

I found this last suggestion in Birders - Tales of a tribe, by the British writer Mark Cocker, who is unfortunately one of the very few writers I could find with a more than fleeting attention to the subject. But maybe there are more? Inside or outside the birding world?
Maybe you want your thoughts to share with me yourself? Your idea’s, feelings, suggestions, experiences, stories? Then tell me (us!). It’s much appreciated.

Renze de Vries,


- obsessive behaviour
- fetishism
- compensation (compensatory behaviour)
- compulsive behaviour
- wish to gain status (status symbol) / be accepted in a community of ....
....

-

[NWBirder]

- obsessive behaviour
- fetishism
- compensation (compensatory behaviour)
- compulsive behaviour
- wish to gain status (status symbol) / be accepted in a community of ....
....

-

lol. hahah

[Renze de Vries]

Hey Tom,

I see you were in a hurry: a list of human deficiencies. I'm not convinced.

Renze

[CHenry]

- obsessive behaviour
- fetishism
- compensation (compensatory behaviour)
- compulsive behaviour
- wish to gain status (status symbol) / be accepted in a community of ....
....

-

Boy, that's true.

[FIDDLER]

I have been hooked since 1972.When I get the latest birding mag I always turn to the optics reviews first,then the adverts to see if there is anything new.Sad I know,but, I know I am not alone.!!!
fiddler.

[ThoLa]

- obsessive behaviour
- fetishism
- compensation (compensatory behaviour)
- compulsive behaviour
- status symbol
- the wish to be accepted by the community
- addiction
- prevention of withdrawal symptoms
- a severe surplus of money
- a deprived childhood
- shopping (= hunting) trophies
- unoccupied space in the glass cabinet

[Sancho]

I have been hooked since 1972.When I get the latest birding mag I always turn to the optics reviews first,then the adverts to see if there is anything new.Sad I know,but, I know I am not alone.!!!
fiddler.

Phew! I thought it was just me! "Binocular Porn", I call those alluring photos of bins and scopes in the Bird Mags. I notice that most (all?) of the contributors to the optics threads are male. I wonder if it´s an in-built male "hunter" obsession with tools and technology, if we were Neolithic hunters we´d be sitting around comparing bits of flint and arguing about which one was best. Same obsessesion that´s created this whole Human Technology mess we´re now in. I also sometimes wonder, Renze, once we´ve developed the optics obsession, if it becomes too much. Supposing all birds suddenly became very confiding, and allowed us to approach 8 times, or 10 times closer than formerly, thereby making bins unnecessary. Would birding be half as much fun? Great thread, Renze, thanks!

[ThoLa]

Supposing all birds suddenly became very confiding, and allowed us to approach 8 times, or 10 times closer than formerly, thereby making bins unnecessary. Would birding be half as much fun?

Magnifying glasses.
We'd be talking magnifying glasses.

Or stereo microscopes.

[elkcub]

- obsessive behaviour
- fetishism
- compensation (compensatory behaviour)
- compulsive behaviour
- status symbol
- the wish to be accepted by the community
- addiction
- prevention of withdrawal symptoms
- a severe surplus of money
- a deprived childhood
- shopping (= hunting) trophies
- unoccupied space in the glass cabinet

- illogical curiosity
- fascination complex
- avoidance of responsibility
- sublimated sexuality (be careful here)
- latent voyeurism
- need for self-reproach (inadequate guilt objects)
- parental backlash/retaliation
...

[iveljay]

Pentax have that base covered with Papilio - can't get away from binoculars, however hard you try.

J

[ThoLa]

- obsessive behaviour
- fetishism
- compensation (compensatory behaviour)
- compulsive behaviour
- status symbol
- the wish to be accepted by the community
- addiction
- prevention of withdrawal symptoms
- a severe surplus of money
- a deprived childhood
- shopping (= hunting) trophies
- unoccupied space in the glass cabinet

- illogical curiosity
- fascination complex
- avoidance of responsibility
- latent voyeurism
- need for self-reproach (inadequate guilt objects)
- parental backlash/retaliation
- sublimated sexuality (be careful here)

- allergy to Viagra (get Dialyt 8x56; cf. "compensation")
- unable to hold Dialyt 8x56 steady (get Viagra)
- living in a rural environment without access to psychiatric care
- ugly, rotten neighbour who's got a bigger, more expensive one than me

[marcus]

What Fiddler confessed, that whenever he gets birding magazines,the first thing he'll look is binocular advertisements, I'll admit is pretty true about me too.

[KorHaan]

Good thread!

Never thought anything of it, but fact is, I find myself sitting on the couch with my first cup of coffee in the morning and looking through my FL's; just looking outside, at the sky, at the trees, at the neighbours house. It's a habit I'm not even aware of. Most of the time my scope is in front of me as well and I enjoy gazing at distant Swifts or brick walls.
It has become as addictive as smoking, and with coffee, a cigarette and my optics I feel I can face the new day. When I'm not working ( I do my artwork at home ) I'll stand in my back yard for hours looking up. I even do my daily shopping with my FL's around my neck, this isn't normal is it?
I could buy a compact bin and put it in my pocket, but I don't.
I must admit I have a strictly monogamous relationship concerning binoculars, and I find it hard to believe sometimes that other birders collect a harem of optics, but I seem to be having the same crazy degree of dedication, just to the one I own.

Of all the thoughts offered so far on this thread, the one that speaks most to me is the suggestion of being part of a community; I'm a bit embarrassed to say this, but when out in the field I see only two kinds of people: with and without bins. I readily talk to the bin people and ignore the other kind ( not very friendly but symptomatic to the addiction, I guess ).

With few birds around I keep using my bins to look at a bug on a leaf or the texture on treetrunks. So it must be an addiction to optics with birding being the perfect alibi; birds give us an excuse to wallow in pleasure with our little optical darlings.

I haven't got a clue what brings on this addiction, but I thought I'd share my own observations with my fellow tribesmen.

Greetings, Ronald

[Tero]

Yes, it's the birds, the binoculars alone does not do it for me.

[Alexis Powell]

I like to look at the world (I like to listen to things as well, but that's another story), and I like tools (binos, scopes, loupes, microscopes, cameras....) that let me do that beyond my body's physical capacities. For me, heaven would be an eternity spent as a disembodied spirit on this earth (and beyond), able to drift about to see the grand vistas, but mostly to cozy up to delicate plants, small insects, fish, salamanders, and yes, birds and butterflies, for hours, days, weeks or years at a time to witness the unfolding of their lives.
--AP

[JDonley]

I have to agree with Sancho. Binoculars are mostly a guy thing. Many years ago, when I was a hunter, I bought an 8x20 Zeiss (individual focus) and the purpose was to give me an advantage hunting whitetail deer in the brush along the Missouri river. The binoculars put me on an even keel with the deer.
I can imagine early hunters (before firearms) thinking how great it would be to have the vision of a hawk or an eagle. It would be just one more tool to put food on the table.
I'm a birder now, but binoculars are not all about birding, they just make it a more enjoyable passion. They are still a tool to help me put food on the table as an agricultural producer. But I still get alot of enjoyment just looking at the animals, birds and predators. The Zeiss binos are still in use today.....in my wife's car....I would hate to miss the chance to identify an ivory bill woodpecker for lack of binoculars.

Don

[Renze de Vries]

I even do my daily shopping with my FL's around my neck, this isn't normal is it?

It's just a start Ronald. Mark Cocker in Tales of a Tribe (fitting title, isn't it?): "Birders sometimes keep them on when they go to conferences or society meetings, or any function where the main focus is birds. Occasionaly they actually use them. At slide talks it feels much more like the real thing to line up at the back of the hall, watching the bird images on screen through a pair of 8x40s".

Renze

[Renze de Vries]

I'm a bit embarrassed to say this, but when out in the field I see only two kinds of people: with and without bins.

I've progressed to the next level of embarrasment: seeing only people with right and wrong bins.

[Sout Fork]

"What makes us, binocular geeks, tick? "

I think it's much the same psychology as those that are obsessed by team
sports - football, baseball, soccer etc.

A small defined world where the rules are known, where there is winners
and losers, and where one does not have to deal with the wider world
with all it's complex interrelationships, and the need to consider
subjective criteria like morals, values and ethics.

It seems to me that the underlying question behind most of the questions on
the optics forums is:

"What is the "BEST"........ fill in the blank with camera, lens, bins,
telescope etc.

And, of course, the assumption is that the "best" can be determined
purely objectively without needing to consider those messy subjective
values that so often make the real world so difficult to understand.

The last thing the poster wants to hear is that sometimes there is no
answer only choices. Choices you will have to make up your own mind
about.

As Gertrude Stein said sometimes in the real world...

There ain't no answer.
There ain't gonna be any answer.
There never has been an answer.
That's the answer.

SF

[KorHaan]

I've progressed to the next level of embarrasment: seeing only people with right and wrong bins.

Renze,

You're in a serious stage of bin disease :-). Even people with wrong bins may be quite keen birders and know what they're talking about ( though most keen birders DO have the right binoculars ).
I admit that I used to do the same, thinking that a birder's knowledge is guaranteed by the $ 1000+ price bins hanging around his neck, but on more than one occasion I was proven wrong.
So now I talk to anyone with bins, though scope people surely are the right kind you need when in search of a rarity.

Greetings, Ronald

[Pinewood]

Binoculars are not just tools, like hammers and saws. Rather they become extensions of one's vision and of one's body, revealing that which may be hidden, uncovering the details in our world. Some who use this forum obsess over a relaxed view, ergonomics, effortless focussing, when they are really seeking is a magical device: the binocular that is part of their own being. Needless to write, this ideal binocular does not exist but they keep on with the quest.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood