Thoughts on a rainy day in California
With respect to the prior discussion, I'm increasingly curious why Stephen Ingraham's more recent writings (see quote below, or his full article on
Color Fringing at
http://www.birdforum.net/article.php?a=2 ) has not led to more extensive discussions about the subjective pleasures of color "vividness," and the "differentiation of finer shades," to use his words. Does anyone have a thought about that? In essence, this is really what my wild-eyed reaction to the 804ED is all about, —color perceptions.
At the risk of sounding critical, which is not intended, I think it is a truism that most of us evaluate binoculars by considering physically measurable properties, such as resolution, DOF, FOV, CA, etc., even though the measurement often requires a skilled human observer. No exception to this is what I refer to as "aided visual acuity," since even this is easily confused with optical resolution. Arguably, Ingraham's innovative NEED Score, using a US dollar bill as a target, also helped to solidify an externalization of what is really an important and relevant
internal human performance measure. The point is that what we naturally tend to consider are properties of the external device, probably because that’s what we buy, and not the internal human reactions (e.g., performance improvements, perceptions, feelings, etc.) that it produces. I guess that's fair enough. After all, how many grease monkeys wax eloquent about the sculptural feel of a Snap-On wrench, or electricians the joy of a Klein tool? But, they do have these internal perceptions and will pay a lot more to get them.
Not that he needs more, but here we must pay homage to Mr. Ingraham, once again, as the quintessential binoculars writer. Did you ever wonder just what it is about his BVD reviews that set them apart? Well, here’s one of his tricks as I see it. He actually describes his own visual
perceptions, which, more often than not, conform with what the population experiences. There’s no getting around it, folks, as we move into the rarified atmosphere of ED, Fluoride and Fluorite lens technology, more and more the distinctions which define a “Better View” will be perceptual and not easily measured. Unfortunately, it’s the “touchy-feely” stuff a poet is needed to describe.
So where does that leave us? Perceptual ratings of transparency, vividness, and color-shading, among others, can be added with thought to the lexicon of binocular reviews. Informed opinions in this domain are no less valid or trustworthy than any other so-called “objective” opinion, and, of course, they are also subject to the maxim that consensus rules the day. Once manufacturers come to realize that such factors are being looked at by a discerning audience, there would no doubt be greater effort to develop and market a “better view.” Not to worry, based on an economy of scale and competition, today’s high prices would moderate.
... The extra vividness increases your pleasure in the image, makes possible the differentiation of finer shades of colors (especially, for some reason, the blues), and, we are discovering, even at the lower powers common in binoculars, increases color perception in low light situations, enhancing the twilight performance of the optics.
... S. Ingraham, 2004