KorHaan
Well-known member
Hello all,
I bought a pair of Canon IS 18x50's last saturday, and I would like to
give you some impressions of them.
As you may know, I've longed for these for over a year. After I bought
the 10x30 IS's in april my main goal was to find the biggest magnification
there is in IS to complement the 10x30's. The same store where I bought
the 10x's had the 18x's in stock again, so I phoned them and asked
not to sell them before I had the chance to try them out. Good thing I did,
since Canon binoculars seem to sell so well lately there's hardly any model
in stock very long.
I had brought my 10x30's to compare and to see if the 18x50's would be
worth having. I'm quite satisfied with the 10x's, but once I had picked up
the big, heavy 18x50's and raised them to my eyes, I knew I was going
to take them home. They were surprisingly bright ( though it was a sunny
day - but still ), and the field of view was large enough to get a nice,
wide image. The 10x's have a bigger FOV, but in the 18x50's there is
certainly no tunneling. I wear specs, I forgot to say, so I had folded the
big, rubber eyecups down. I like it when eyecups are big against my
glasses, I must say, there's less straylight coming in.
For this reason, I have cut away the rubber fold-down eyecups of my
10x30 IS's and have put the rubber eyecups of my Minox 8x32's on the
10x30's oculars. They fit perfectly, and I can move them up or down to
get an intermediate setting between all the way up, or folded down, like
in the original 10x30's eyecups. With a good setting there are no black-
outs anymore, and the eyecups are larger in diameter which is more
convenient against my glasses. DIY ergonomics that work!
But back to the 18x50's: even with the IS off they gave a nice, sharp
image when I was viewing trees and lantern poles. With the IS button
engaged, the image became beautifully steady. I think I can hold them
steadier than the 10x30's, it's somewhat more of an effort, yes, but I
think the extra weight of the bulky 18x's is very effective for the IS to
work well.
The magnification is really something else; if you've got used to 10x
stabilized bins, then the 18x50's are yielding that much more detail, that
it's definitely a big step up. My intention to use the 18x's as an
occasional booster next to my 10x30's may have to be reconsidered;
the 18x50's may well become the only pair of binoculars I will use in
open terrain. I am using bins for 40 years so I'm quick in aiming them.
The 18x50's are a handful, but I liked the way they fit my hands and
with a great AFOV and beautiful flat image I had no problems in finding
and tracking flying Herring Gulls and Lesser Blackbacked Gulls in the sky
when I stood outside the store.
The IS button works in two ways: you can press it and hold, like in the
smaller Canon IS models ( where it is the only way to use the IS ), then
switch it off by letting go; and you can press the button quickly, the IS
is then engaged and stays on for 5 minutes and you don't have to press
the button but can grip the bino in the most comfortable way. After 5 minutes the IS switches off automatically.
This is a nice feature; I can feel a little strain when I have to press the button
of my 10x30's with my middle finger, with the 18x's in my hands I can cup them on the palms of my hands and concentrate on the focus wheel.
The focus wheel is twice as big as on my 10x's, and very smooth with a
570* turn from near to far. The close focus is about 5.5 meters, not bad
in my opinion.
The body of the binocular is covered entirely in smooth black rubber and gives a fine grip. The objectives' coatings are reflecting a deep purple, so
it seems that, like in the newer 15x50 models, the deep blue coating in older
models is changed to deep purple in the newer.
The price for the 18x50's was 969.- euro's; they don't come any cheaper
here. I packed them in the totally useless bag - a flimsy black sack without
a strap but with a drawcord to kind of close it - and took them home.
In my backyard I did some more comparing between my two IS bins; the 10x's
are sharper, but the 18x's are giving much better detail. For instance,
the Carrion Crows that are still on their nest in a tall pinetree about 80 yards
away, showed fine plumage detail with the 10x30's. But the feathering on the
upper bill I was only able to see in good detail through the 18x50's. From the base of the bill to less than half the length, as opposed to Common Raven
which has feathering reaching 3/4 of the upper bill length. Not that I could compare these two corvids at that particular moment, Ravens are much rarer
here and certainly not visiting my backyard, but I wanted to give an impression of the kind of detail I got with the 18x Canons. And this is Bird
Forum, after all.
After sunset I sat on the couch and looked outside through the kitchen window, comparing my 10x30's and 18x50's. The houses opposite showed
barely any detail through the 10x30's after dark, I could barely recognise
the gutters on the roofs. With the 18x50's I was able to see the gutters,
the roof tills, the tree leaves and in reasonably decent colour, too.
It seems unbelievable that a 2.8 mm exit pupil gives this kind of detail in the
deep twilight. Something I can't comprehend but still greatly appreciate.
So far my impressions of the 18x50 IS's were very good.
This morning I mounted them on my CF tripod. There's a 1/4'' thread underneath on the body, it's easy and quick. I will use them in this mode
for any serious seawatching, without the need for IS switched on.
I did switch on the IS system, just once, to see how the Canons would
perform. The moment you start scanning the IS seems to go bonkers, the image gets all woozy and nauseating! I guess my tripod is too steady for
the IS system, it looks like the sensor and microprocessor can't cope with
the stable position of the bins on the tripod. I think that on a lightweight cheap tripod the bins perform better with IS switched on, especially in windy conditions.
I am planning to take both 10x and 18x out for birding this week and do some more comparing. I am very pleased I bought the 18x50 IS's instead of the 15x50 IS's; these latter maybe next year.
Best regards,
Ronald
PS : a funny thing happened that I must mention. When sitting behind my
tripod with 18x50's mounted, and looking through my 10x30's
I accidentally looked through the 18x50's with my 10x30's, and was
surprised to see treetops in the very dim image. These trees were at
least 200 yards away but I saw oak leaves very clearly, though very
very dim and not very sharp.
If you look with a 10x bin through a 18x mounted bin, is it sound to
say you've got 180x magnification? It sure looked like it.
I bought a pair of Canon IS 18x50's last saturday, and I would like to
give you some impressions of them.
As you may know, I've longed for these for over a year. After I bought
the 10x30 IS's in april my main goal was to find the biggest magnification
there is in IS to complement the 10x30's. The same store where I bought
the 10x's had the 18x's in stock again, so I phoned them and asked
not to sell them before I had the chance to try them out. Good thing I did,
since Canon binoculars seem to sell so well lately there's hardly any model
in stock very long.
I had brought my 10x30's to compare and to see if the 18x50's would be
worth having. I'm quite satisfied with the 10x's, but once I had picked up
the big, heavy 18x50's and raised them to my eyes, I knew I was going
to take them home. They were surprisingly bright ( though it was a sunny
day - but still ), and the field of view was large enough to get a nice,
wide image. The 10x's have a bigger FOV, but in the 18x50's there is
certainly no tunneling. I wear specs, I forgot to say, so I had folded the
big, rubber eyecups down. I like it when eyecups are big against my
glasses, I must say, there's less straylight coming in.
For this reason, I have cut away the rubber fold-down eyecups of my
10x30 IS's and have put the rubber eyecups of my Minox 8x32's on the
10x30's oculars. They fit perfectly, and I can move them up or down to
get an intermediate setting between all the way up, or folded down, like
in the original 10x30's eyecups. With a good setting there are no black-
outs anymore, and the eyecups are larger in diameter which is more
convenient against my glasses. DIY ergonomics that work!
But back to the 18x50's: even with the IS off they gave a nice, sharp
image when I was viewing trees and lantern poles. With the IS button
engaged, the image became beautifully steady. I think I can hold them
steadier than the 10x30's, it's somewhat more of an effort, yes, but I
think the extra weight of the bulky 18x's is very effective for the IS to
work well.
The magnification is really something else; if you've got used to 10x
stabilized bins, then the 18x50's are yielding that much more detail, that
it's definitely a big step up. My intention to use the 18x's as an
occasional booster next to my 10x30's may have to be reconsidered;
the 18x50's may well become the only pair of binoculars I will use in
open terrain. I am using bins for 40 years so I'm quick in aiming them.
The 18x50's are a handful, but I liked the way they fit my hands and
with a great AFOV and beautiful flat image I had no problems in finding
and tracking flying Herring Gulls and Lesser Blackbacked Gulls in the sky
when I stood outside the store.
The IS button works in two ways: you can press it and hold, like in the
smaller Canon IS models ( where it is the only way to use the IS ), then
switch it off by letting go; and you can press the button quickly, the IS
is then engaged and stays on for 5 minutes and you don't have to press
the button but can grip the bino in the most comfortable way. After 5 minutes the IS switches off automatically.
This is a nice feature; I can feel a little strain when I have to press the button
of my 10x30's with my middle finger, with the 18x's in my hands I can cup them on the palms of my hands and concentrate on the focus wheel.
The focus wheel is twice as big as on my 10x's, and very smooth with a
570* turn from near to far. The close focus is about 5.5 meters, not bad
in my opinion.
The body of the binocular is covered entirely in smooth black rubber and gives a fine grip. The objectives' coatings are reflecting a deep purple, so
it seems that, like in the newer 15x50 models, the deep blue coating in older
models is changed to deep purple in the newer.
The price for the 18x50's was 969.- euro's; they don't come any cheaper
here. I packed them in the totally useless bag - a flimsy black sack without
a strap but with a drawcord to kind of close it - and took them home.
In my backyard I did some more comparing between my two IS bins; the 10x's
are sharper, but the 18x's are giving much better detail. For instance,
the Carrion Crows that are still on their nest in a tall pinetree about 80 yards
away, showed fine plumage detail with the 10x30's. But the feathering on the
upper bill I was only able to see in good detail through the 18x50's. From the base of the bill to less than half the length, as opposed to Common Raven
which has feathering reaching 3/4 of the upper bill length. Not that I could compare these two corvids at that particular moment, Ravens are much rarer
here and certainly not visiting my backyard, but I wanted to give an impression of the kind of detail I got with the 18x Canons. And this is Bird
Forum, after all.
After sunset I sat on the couch and looked outside through the kitchen window, comparing my 10x30's and 18x50's. The houses opposite showed
barely any detail through the 10x30's after dark, I could barely recognise
the gutters on the roofs. With the 18x50's I was able to see the gutters,
the roof tills, the tree leaves and in reasonably decent colour, too.
It seems unbelievable that a 2.8 mm exit pupil gives this kind of detail in the
deep twilight. Something I can't comprehend but still greatly appreciate.
So far my impressions of the 18x50 IS's were very good.
This morning I mounted them on my CF tripod. There's a 1/4'' thread underneath on the body, it's easy and quick. I will use them in this mode
for any serious seawatching, without the need for IS switched on.
I did switch on the IS system, just once, to see how the Canons would
perform. The moment you start scanning the IS seems to go bonkers, the image gets all woozy and nauseating! I guess my tripod is too steady for
the IS system, it looks like the sensor and microprocessor can't cope with
the stable position of the bins on the tripod. I think that on a lightweight cheap tripod the bins perform better with IS switched on, especially in windy conditions.
I am planning to take both 10x and 18x out for birding this week and do some more comparing. I am very pleased I bought the 18x50 IS's instead of the 15x50 IS's; these latter maybe next year.
Best regards,
Ronald
PS : a funny thing happened that I must mention. When sitting behind my
tripod with 18x50's mounted, and looking through my 10x30's
I accidentally looked through the 18x50's with my 10x30's, and was
surprised to see treetops in the very dim image. These trees were at
least 200 yards away but I saw oak leaves very clearly, though very
very dim and not very sharp.
If you look with a 10x bin through a 18x mounted bin, is it sound to
say you've got 180x magnification? It sure looked like it.