Following recently getting more into birding I dug out my Dad's old Minolta 10x25 binoculars and soon realised how poor they are so invested in some new ones. I did a lot of research on the technical aspects such as magnification, lens diameter field of view, exit pupil size, eye relief etc etc and chose the Barr and Stroud Sahara 8 x 32's as I wanted something still quite compact as they are to accompany me on my photography treks. However, no matter how much I adjusted them I still struggled to get a clear view.
What I mean by this is not that things were out of focus as I made sure the focus and diopter were adjusted correctly, and I wasn't getting blackouts due to too little eye relief but no matter how much I adjusted the width of the bins, eye relief I felt as though the rim of the bins was somehow impeding my view, as though I can see the bins out of the corner of my eye. I didn't get full cresents but something kind of similar, but I don't know how to describe it. I also found that my R eye got really bad strain very quickly.
So I've sent them back and got the Opticron Oregon 8x 32's and found the same issue. In fact I have the same issue with the old Minolta's too. I know when I have glasses fitted I often have a lot of problems and they often need to be adjusted several times until I'm happy with them so think I have rather 'sensitive' eyes (well right one) or maybe it's due to my astigmatism. Also I am very much left eye dominant. I'm starting to wonder if there's anything else I can try adjustment wise, whether it's something you get used to, or whether I'm just not suitable for bins and need to look at a monocular instead. I've tried pressing the bins right up to my eyes, resting them on my eyebrow ridge, changing the width, checking and double checking focus and still have the same issue.
Any help appreciated. I don't want to go to 42's or 50's tbh. Whilst I know they're more forgiving I don't want the bulk.
Cheers, Toby
What I mean by this is not that things were out of focus as I made sure the focus and diopter were adjusted correctly, and I wasn't getting blackouts due to too little eye relief but no matter how much I adjusted the width of the bins, eye relief I felt as though the rim of the bins was somehow impeding my view, as though I can see the bins out of the corner of my eye. I didn't get full cresents but something kind of similar, but I don't know how to describe it. I also found that my R eye got really bad strain very quickly.
So I've sent them back and got the Opticron Oregon 8x 32's and found the same issue. In fact I have the same issue with the old Minolta's too. I know when I have glasses fitted I often have a lot of problems and they often need to be adjusted several times until I'm happy with them so think I have rather 'sensitive' eyes (well right one) or maybe it's due to my astigmatism. Also I am very much left eye dominant. I'm starting to wonder if there's anything else I can try adjustment wise, whether it's something you get used to, or whether I'm just not suitable for bins and need to look at a monocular instead. I've tried pressing the bins right up to my eyes, resting them on my eyebrow ridge, changing the width, checking and double checking focus and still have the same issue.
Any help appreciated. I don't want to go to 42's or 50's tbh. Whilst I know they're more forgiving I don't want the bulk.
Cheers, Toby
