I'm curious what companies mean when they market binoculars labelled "birding binoculars". Examples are Nikon's 8x32 SE or Swarovski EL 8x32. How are these different from Canon 10x42 (one I use for astronomy) or a Fujinon 7x50? I am guessing birding binoculars have a wide field coverage and have better color rendition.
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what are "birding" binoculars like? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter rtx
- Start date
There is a good deal of selling involved when retailers describe their binoculars and most binoculars could be used to observe birds. However some designs find wider use for birding than others.
Birding binoculars are typically designed to be used during the day when most birds are active and carried for extended periods to view rapidly moving birds. So as a general rule they use smaller objectives (30mm to 32mm) to minimize weight, have a broad field of view and magnify the image 8x. Of course glasses with larger objectives and magnification sizes are successfully used too, especially in dim light. The 8x30 and 8x32 wide field binoculars are thought of as providing an excellent intersection of weight and performance.
They gotta be really liteweight. Not too many rugby types out there spotting peeps and warblers....or nose guards with lifelists and binos out scanning the wires for flycatchers. Now, there might be some, but they're the exception. From the comments here over the last few yrs, any glass over about 30oz in unbearable.
henry link
Well-known member
Besides weight, the other thing that eliminates the Fujinon 7x50 as a birding binocular is individual focus. Unlike astronomy, birding requires very quick changes in focus and that demands a center focuser.
OK, I hear you, Ron, who is the one person here who sometimes uses the Fujinon 7x50 for birding and even invented a "quick focus" belt modification for the purpose.
OK, I hear you, Ron, who is the one person here who sometimes uses the Fujinon 7x50 for birding and even invented a "quick focus" belt modification for the purpose.
Yes indeedy, a band of flexible metal secured over the tops of individual focus eyepieces, so that turning one pulls the other along too ("HarperHyperDrive"), pushes the mighty Fujinon a step towards warbler worthiness. What's more, refined type birds, accustomed to the likes of Zeiss etc., will fly right up close, and marvel at the device.
Kevin Purcell
Well-known member
Control of both on-axis and off-axis stray light important consideration for terrestrial bins is. Stray light is not a huge issue at night (apart from the moon and possibly local light sources) but during the day light is everywhere. I have a pair of inexpensive 10x50 porros that make for rather nice astro bins with a narrow field and short ER but they're useless during the day as they can't control off-axis light.
Correction of "rolling globe" distortion through the adding of pincushion. Astro folks don't see (so much) rolling ball but an uncorrected bin during the day is rather annoying to use. Search the forum for many threads discussing this.
Smaller exit pupils. At night you have large entrance pupils to the eye and you match those to the exit pupil of the bin (hence 7x50 and other 7mm exit pupil bins). During the day the eye is stopped down and never exceeds 4mm (even at twilight). During the day 7mm exit pupil bins are not brighter than 4mm exit pupil bins. So you can make more compact bins (that save weight as others have pointed out).
Waterproofing. Birders do bird in the rain. Astronomers don't see stars in the rain.
As you mentioned: color accuracy and control of chromatic aberration are critical for birders. We can see color during the day with quite good detail. Controlling CA improves perceived low-contrast sharpness (as opposed to high contrast resolution which is more important at night). And the birds aren't all at infinity so we require a responsive (but not too fast) center focus to follow them.
The other thing behind this is marketing. Nothing like knowing and partitioning your market.
Correction of "rolling globe" distortion through the adding of pincushion. Astro folks don't see (so much) rolling ball but an uncorrected bin during the day is rather annoying to use. Search the forum for many threads discussing this.
Smaller exit pupils. At night you have large entrance pupils to the eye and you match those to the exit pupil of the bin (hence 7x50 and other 7mm exit pupil bins). During the day the eye is stopped down and never exceeds 4mm (even at twilight). During the day 7mm exit pupil bins are not brighter than 4mm exit pupil bins. So you can make more compact bins (that save weight as others have pointed out).
Waterproofing. Birders do bird in the rain. Astronomers don't see stars in the rain.
As you mentioned: color accuracy and control of chromatic aberration are critical for birders. We can see color during the day with quite good detail. Controlling CA improves perceived low-contrast sharpness (as opposed to high contrast resolution which is more important at night). And the birds aren't all at infinity so we require a responsive (but not too fast) center focus to follow them.
The other thing behind this is marketing. Nothing like knowing and partitioning your market.
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Thanks everyone
Your replies made a lot of things clear, and there were some questions about my binoculars that I couldn't put a finger on earlier but I now understand. Yep, I think for birding I need lightweight bins....all my experience so far is with bins for astronomy and I often use a tripod, but birding is different. Fujinon, I didn't realize, are difficult for birding because of the individual focus -- for astronomy you just need to set them once and they're good. Kevin, your post was an eye opener....its true I never thought that birding and rain can go hand in hand.
The canon seems too bright during the day with the Indian sun blazing at 35-42 degrees. I wish I had thought more before buying.
Your replies made a lot of things clear, and there were some questions about my binoculars that I couldn't put a finger on earlier but I now understand. Yep, I think for birding I need lightweight bins....all my experience so far is with bins for astronomy and I often use a tripod, but birding is different. Fujinon, I didn't realize, are difficult for birding because of the individual focus -- for astronomy you just need to set them once and they're good. Kevin, your post was an eye opener....its true I never thought that birding and rain can go hand in hand.
The canon seems too bright during the day with the Indian sun blazing at 35-42 degrees. I wish I had thought more before buying.
I wish I had a 10x, but can't hold one steady enough. The Canon would be interesting for birding.
Good binoculars will all be uncomfortable in very bright conditions--high light transmission comes with the territory. If it's that bright, you should be wearing sunglasses anyway, although the view is better without them. When my wife starts hollering at me about developing cataracts, out come the shades, down go the eyecups.
Ron
Good binoculars will all be uncomfortable in very bright conditions--high light transmission comes with the territory. If it's that bright, you should be wearing sunglasses anyway, although the view is better without them. When my wife starts hollering at me about developing cataracts, out come the shades, down go the eyecups.
Ron
Kevin Purcell
Well-known member
I didn't notice your location before.
My view is a "temperate latitude" view as it does rain a lot on and off across the year (but not much in summer) and if we didn't bird in the rain we wouldn't bird much!
But, even in North India, Lucknow has a hot humid subtropical climate so you could bird from June to September in the monsoon so waterproof bins would be desirable. Plus even when it's not wet its very very humid there during monsoon.
So sealed (roof) bins would be a good idea, I think, to prevent internal fogging and fungus growth.
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Hi Rtx,
You raise a good point about your Canon 10x42s being almost too bright in the Indian sun.
The military have long recognized this problem and have provided filters to cut down on the light gathered by binoculars.
The German 10x80 Flak glass for instance had both yellow filters, for contrast, as well as gray filters for muting excess brightness.built in.
More currently, you can still get the excellent Russian BPO 7x30 military glass, which includes both yellow as well as grey ocular filters. This glass has huge eye relief, over 20mm, so the filters can be easily fitted over the oculars without impairment to the user's ability to see the entire field,
Alternatively, you could easily mount an appropriate neutral density filter on the objectives, as they are screw threaded.
Of course, this was a failure for me because moisture condensed between filter and objective in the cold fall rain. That should be less of a problem in 35 C weather.
You raise a good point about your Canon 10x42s being almost too bright in the Indian sun.
The military have long recognized this problem and have provided filters to cut down on the light gathered by binoculars.
The German 10x80 Flak glass for instance had both yellow filters, for contrast, as well as gray filters for muting excess brightness.built in.
More currently, you can still get the excellent Russian BPO 7x30 military glass, which includes both yellow as well as grey ocular filters. This glass has huge eye relief, over 20mm, so the filters can be easily fitted over the oculars without impairment to the user's ability to see the entire field,
Alternatively, you could easily mount an appropriate neutral density filter on the objectives, as they are screw threaded.
Of course, this was a failure for me because moisture condensed between filter and objective in the cold fall rain. That should be less of a problem in 35 C weather.
