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

Bird or Bino? (1 Viewer)

Agreed and also lets not forget using our ears.

Lee

Good point ;). I just got some hearing aids. You sort of have to relearn some bird sounds. I find myself going..."what's that?"..quite a bit. Kind of amazing what getting that sense back does to your outlook.
 
Re posts 28 and 37.

At least some of the 70 inch mirrors were I think made by Kodak. I think a price was mentioned.

I had read about the two larger ones gifted for astronomy.

Also someone got hold of a faulty large mirror and made his own observatory for it. I think the world's largest amateur scope.

Hubble was faulty from the start because of an elementary error that a good amateur would have spotted. If the launch had failed nobody would have known.

I have also seen a 14inch f/0.75 lens weighing about 350 lbs.

The Leica (Leitz) cross channel lens has been well described, but I forget where. Maybe 3,400mm focal length. The weather probably meant it wasn't that effective.

New telescopes up to 30 metre aperture cost up to billions.

There are other lenses not made public.

Million dollar lenses are fairly common.
 
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Binastro, the point in my post #28 was the use of expensive or advanced gear by individual users of binoculars, mainly for bird watching, and in the PS to that post, individual users of cameras. But your information (posts #32 and 42) is interesting of course!
 
Hi adhoc,
Thanks.
I realise that.
Just pointed out that military and commercial users use lens up to 100 times more expensive.
I have seem several $1m lenses close up and to me they are works of art and quite amazing.

I actually think that top production lenses such as the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1 maybe, and 600mm f/4s are remarkably cheap compared to military stuff. I don't know how they make them for the price.

Personally, I use a secondhand Samyang 85mm f/1.4 at £180. Again remarkably cheap.

Top binoculars are again not expensive if one considers what thought goes into them.

How Nikon make Aculons at the price I don't know.
In real terms binoculars have got cheaper over the years, at least consumer models.
 
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I admit, I am primarily into binocular astronomy and birding is simply an excuse to use my binoculars during the daytime :-O

Ok, its more then that... We have several White Stork nests in the town I live in and also a bird preserve not to far away, so I am actually starting to get into more and more.

I would say it is both the birds and bino's. The one helps me enjoy the other... in both directions. :t:|:d|
 
I admit, I am primarily into binocular astronomy and birding is simply an excuse to use my binoculars during the daytime :-O

Ok, its more then that... We have several White Stork nests in the town I live in and also a bird preserve not to far away, so I am actually starting to get into more and more.

I would say it is both the birds and bino's. The one helps me enjoy the other... in both directions. :t:|:d|

I started out that way as an excuse to use my binoculars more, and I have always respected birders' obsessive reviews of binoculars. But now birding has opened up an interesting world. I don't have to travel to fight light pollution, or schedule around the Moon and weather, and I have met a new large community of people. So I say, thanks birds!

Alan
 
Anthon, interesting question I have always asked myself.

Sometimes I got infected by reports and reviews but I think that I am cured now. I am now reducing my already humble collection to concentrate on what I really need.

There are two older binos left. They are porros. One is a 8x30 CZJ from 1963, the other one a 8x30 Hensoldt from the German Army. The newer one I own is a Nikon Monarch 7 8x30. The Zeiss 7x42 BGATP and the Meopta 10x42 HD are for sale. The Monarch 7 is my EDC/every day carry. I have plans to buy a larger 8x pair of binos for the more serious work being more comfortable to use.

Since joining this forum a few years ago I have bought more feeding equipment and nest boxes and seeds than I ever did before. I am not an expert and I just like to watch the birds whatever they do.
 
The binocular is a tool and not a jewel. A jewel is an end unto itself, a tool is a means to something else. The bird.
 
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Some tools become jewels though. Look at any high end watch, how many Rolex owners actually dive deep or drive sports cars around a track? A great tool will have appeal beyond its originally intended use.
 
A difference between a traditionally "alpha" binocular and a similar watch is that such a binocular does what it is supposed to do as a device as best as possible at present, show the best image among current binoculars, but such a watch does not, keep the best time among current watches.

"Alpha" binoculars are purely a reflection of useful advances in science and technology, and are developed from the needs of nature observers and astronomers, while such watches are luxury goods.

A Rolex made today runs at +2 to -2 seconds a day, and can thus be 1 minute off in 1 month, 6 minutes off in 6 months. It is much less accurate than an electronic watch which sells at $100 and is more comfortable and more rugged. The user corrects the performance of the "alpha" device by checking it and adjusting it regularly!
 
While a great tool will appeal to some for the looks and other factors, it matters not to me. A tool is a tool, through and through. You will typically pay more for (assumed) higher quality tools, but they are still just that. I've got an assortment of tools, including binoculars, chainsaws, hand and power tools, tractors, tractor implements, heavy equipment, trailers, computer programs, GPS units, etc. that all serve a purpose for my job, but in the end that is all they are: a means to an end. Binoculars allow me to observe birds and other fauna/flora more easily; if I could get eye implants that did the same thing for the same price, I'd have those instead of a fancy looking tool.
 
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Birds are just one subject to look at with binoculars. Like the OP, I'm as into the optics as anything else. Most of my glass is good to crazy good quality so whatever I'm looking at is enhanced by having great optics.
 
Binos are a tool can help us to see some interesting subjects clearly and happily.
I recall when I was young I enjoyed using my poor telescope to watch cement workers exploding the mountain.
I can see them but they don't see me:)
 
Birds came first as most were identifiable without bins, learning good fieldcraft from an early age was drummed in as bins were a bit of a luxury straight after WW2.

Perversely my first bins were not used for birds as I pretty well had them covered (well enough for me). The numbers of ancient aircraft chugging around the skies at that time were far more difficult to identify.

In the late 50's I used bins a lot around Harris and Lewis as everything was very different from the South and East of England, including the whales and sharks as well as birds. It was at this stage I discovered that one pair was not enough when trying to watch a soaring golden eagle above a mountain top with my 8x30s.

It was much later that I fully realised that for such scenes it was often better to sit back and enjoy the scene from afar after finding my first scope wasn't much better that range and brought in the frustrations of atmospheric haze!

As there is less wildlife around these days (even in darkest Witshire) I don't even routinely carry an 8x30 unless specifically going out to see whats still out there and just drag along some Victory 8x20 or something similar in a pocket. Most of the time they are more than adequate.

My bins are my luxuries, my cameras have always been tools -
photography = effort (especially when everything was manual and you had to process every shot in a darkroom! or use a slow reversal film),
watching birds = pleasure and always will be with or without bins.
 
My bins are my luxuries,
my cameras have always been tools - photography = effort (especially when everything was manual

For me and Troubadoris binos and photo gear have always been both luxuries (what we spent most money on) and tools (used intensively especially on holiday and they all got wet and mucky) all at the same time. Photo gear got babied during downpours but if there was something we wanted a photo of during drizzle or light rain, out came the cameras although we did our best to shelter them from the worst.

Having more than one pair of binos is a luxury too but for sure some binos suit different habitats better than others so there are sound reasons for having more than one.

Lee
 
Binoculars can be a great tool if used correctly, but poorly designed binoculars can be the source of terrible frustration.

This afternoon I experienced woeful close focus issues, this time with Zeiss (the last such occasion was with a Habicht).
Once again, it completely ruined what could have been a wonderful viewing experience.
 

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...then, after spending an age wrestling with the binoculars to obtain a decent view of the bird (Australian King Parrot), things got worse.

The bird obviously detected my rising frustration levels, and then, In what can only be described as an act of 'avian insolence' of the highest order, the creature proceeded to turn its back on my efforts.
 

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