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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Unofficial "Alphas" (3 Viewers)

To own an alpha, or near alpha, and to only use it to ''look at birds'' is just a waste of money...

Eeek! :eek!: Nonsense! Observing birds perching, flying and interacting, with my Swift 804ED is enormously more enjoyable than with lesser quality bins. In fact, my increased appreciation for the beauty of even common starlings and crows improved so much that I revisited my life list again starting around 2005. With the best binoculars no bird is insignificant.

Ed
 
This one is too easy, especially nowadays......

Kowa Genesis
Zen ED3
Leupold GR HD
Steiner Preregrine XP
Pentax ED
Cabelas Euro/Meopta
 
Not all alpha-branded bins are alpha birding bins, but some of the basic requirements are fast precise focus that doesn't stiffen in the cold, ease of eye placement, good hang and ergonomics so they maintain a reliable position on one's person while tromping about and can be ready and quickly grabbed and set to eyes without need to remove anti-sway harnesses etc, excellent optics (especially critical is stray light control to allow best possible view with strong backlighting), optics that are so easy on the eyes they can be used for many hours each day without any strain, and these days hydro and lipophobic coatings to help keep lenses clean without ocular guards and such that get in the way.

The requirement that the focus not stiffen in the cold eliminates 99% of non-alphas in my experience, which is a sad situation because multiviscosity grease shouldn't be much of a design/manufacturing hurdle.

--AP

In this regard, one should not overlook the Swift Eaglet series binoculars. One turn fast focus, very smooth, very precise, no backlash, and they don't stiffen up very much in cold. Optics are pretty good too.
 
In this regard, one should not overlook the Swift Eaglet series binoculars. One turn fast focus, very smooth, very precise, no backlash, and they don't stiffen up very much in cold. Optics are pretty good too.

I have heard good things about those, primarily the 7x36 one.
I have a few roofs and porros. Neither my teutonic roofs nor my non-teutonics slow in the cold. Amongst my porros, 2 slow in the cold, the others do not.
 
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Eeek! :eek!: Nonsense! Observing birds perching, flying and interacting, with my Swift 804ED is enormously more enjoyable than with lesser quality bins. In fact, my increased appreciation for the beauty of even common starlings and crows improved so much that I revisited my life list again starting around 2005. With the best binoculars no bird is insignificant.

Ed

My point was, to only look at birds at your feeder with expensive bins, as opposed to going to the lake, ocean, woods, desert etc., was a waste of money.

And I agree completely about good bins enhancing the birding experience.
 
My point was, to only look at birds at your feeder with expensive bins, as opposed to going to the lake, ocean, woods, desert etc., was a waste of money....

Always puzzles me why folks assume everyone else shares their monetary values. I know many folks who spend more than US$3k on booze EVERY month!

Anyway, alpha binoculars have shown not to be a bad investment, especially in these low interest rate, high commodity price times. If you catch one on a good sale, chances are good you can get "free" use of it should you decide to sell in the future as "new" alphas tend get more expensive year-on-year as long as the model stays the flagship.
 
Always puzzles me why folks assume everyone else shares their monetary values. I know many folks who spend more than US$3k on booze EVERY month!

Anyway, alpha binoculars have shown not to be a bad investment, especially in these low interest rate, high commodity price times. If you catch one on a good sale, chances are good you can get "free" use of it should you decide to sell in the future as "new" alphas tend get more expensive year-on-year as long as the model stays the flagship.

Not hard to spend 3k in Tokyo in a week, what with table and set charges, and that was in the 80's.;)

Prices of used alpha bins have come down considerably in the past year, probably due to price pressure from all those terrible Chinese bins flooding the market, and will probably drop even further in the coming year as more quality bins come to market.
 
Just a note on the bird thing and how people use their optics, and how good the binocular need be for this, and that. My wife and I are about intermediate birders I'd say, and go on outings as often as we can manage. But the two of us are so different in a way.

She uses a Swarovision, but will not lift it to her eye for other than the holy avifauna. Not for a kamikaze Zero fighter headed right at us, nor for Superman, speeding to take him out before we are killed. Nope, those would be, not birds.

If I have a great binocular with me, or heck even a crappy one, I will gladly try to identify trash in a ditch, or inspect a rocky outcropping for scattered light and color fringing, until a bird comes along. Who knows, sometimes I find birds that way.

Sorry for the interruption!
Ron
 
The ideal birding bin is the one that allows you to get your eyes on a raptor that is momentarily visible through a rear passenger side window, and which delivers that view even though you are looking sideways through the oculars (slight exaggeration :), holding the bin one handed, and are contorted into an almost up-side-down position in order to get the needed viewing angle, all the while speeding down a county highway from one spot to another in the course of a big day effort.

I guess the last part rules me out as a serious birder as the only things I chase around are skirts, golf balls, bluefish blitzes, and elk/antelope/mule deer. But I do all the rest.;)
 
How do you get that close to a "murder" of crows?

I assume that they recognize you. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/introduction/5838/

Bob

Yes, and actually, if they could not recognize your face, i probably could not get very close. It is a process of being around a lot.

Eventually, they take an obvious interest in you. I stay still, and make a soft garbled cooing sound, trying to imitate one of their short range sounds used within a family/co-op breeding group. i am not saying this "works", the sound, i do not know, but it is what i do. Usually, after that, they tolerate me, even to the bottom of the nesting tree.
When they nest in a place where there is a lot of human foot traffic, (like a wayside), it is very easy to habituate.
 
3rd vote for Steiner Peregrine XP/Discovery, both 8x44 and 10x44.
Yes I've used em both for birding and bought two pairs of the 10x.
 
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