• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

It's all just for fun, I think. (1 Viewer)

bh46118

Well-known member
It is becoming more and more apparent to me that one persons observation about a binocular is practically meaningless to anyone but themselves. I make this statement based on my real world viewing experience with a few different models. I wonder what is really going on in the eye-brain interface that would cause several people to look at the same binoculars and see such differing views. I love a good high end stereo, but my family and friends don't hear much difference, or maybe they hear it but don't care, between a table radio or a hi rez system. Does human eyesight really vary that much, or is it all a physiological, perception, importance, percieved value based situation ? No matter, I still enjoy it all.|:$|

Bruce
 
Bruce, in the past, I have spent hours and with a few customer days finding a binocular of their liking, usual it turns out to be the first pair I showed them. LOL!!!!
 
I think all of the above. I can see small differences in high end binoculars compared to mid level if I have both in front of me at the same time and can do an instant and direct comparo. If I look the next day at a different mid level pair for the most part forget it, I wont see the difference. For me the obvious advantage to high end glass is the ease of use and the solid reliability backed by an excellent warranty. If I'm sitting in the backyard I get just as much enjoyment from my 6X Yosmite as I do the Zen Prime or Conquest.

My wife and I can be driving down the highway and I may comment, thats a nice looking red car. She will reply thats orange. I will say, no it's red. She will point to a different car and say thats red. They look the exact same color to me. Our perceptions of things are different.

The stereo comparo is probably a good one, I think it depends on what you use it for. If you are listening to AM talk radio all the time, then high fidelity may not be of much concern. You could spend $10,000 on a high end system, but will it do much better than a Sangean WR-2?

My slam on some peoples buying high end anything is when they swear they (or we all) need them.
 
Bruce

A lot of truth in what you say.

Perceptions are everything and objective truths are almost impossible when using the eyeball/brain system.

Like Perterra, me and Troubadoris have different colour perceptions that mainly revolve around blue - green.

Also, when we are in the car, I regularly remark about birds and animals that I see but Troubadoris rarely notices them. Conversely her brain is full of an encyclopaedia of recognition profiles of flowers. I mean by that she can recognise hundreds of flowers by their overall appearance and character, just like you can spot a friend or family member in a crowd but you can't explain just what it was that made you recognise them.

Some folks can't tolerate Rolling Ball (or Brock :)) others don't notice it, same with CA.

Vision isn't just one of the 5 senses its an amazing system that might be similar in all mankind if 'averaged out' but on an individual basis it seems most are unique.

Lee
 
Last edited:
It is becoming more and more apparent to me that one persons observation about a binocular is practically meaningless to anyone but themselves. I make this statement based on my real world viewing experience with a few different models. I wonder what is really going on in the eye-brain interface that would cause several people to look at the same binoculars and see such differing views. I love a good high end stereo, but my family and friends don't hear much difference, or maybe they hear it but don't care, between a table radio or a hi rez system. Does human eyesight really vary that much, or is it all a physiological, perception, importance, percieved value based situation ? No matter, I still enjoy it all.|:$|

Bruce
I don't know. I can tell the difference between high end binoculars and high end stereo's. Once I went into Sound Track and I must have LOOKED like I had money or something but the salesman started showing me these $20k to $40K stereo's with speakers costing upwards of $15K apiece. They absolutely blew me away! It sounded like the artist was standing in front of me playing the guitar. The difference was in the detail in the music I could hear that I couldn't on a cheaper speaker set. Same way with high end binoculars. You can SEE more detail.
 
Gentlemen:
Research has shown that females have a slightly lower threshold of firing for cones and can see a bit more color then males. So you better not argue about colors with your wife or girlfriend, since she is always right.
Gijs
 
It is becoming more and more apparent to me that one persons observation about a binocular is practically meaningless to anyone but themselves. ...

Hmm. I haven't found that to be the case for me. I find a lot to agree with in reviews by experienced binocular users. One characteristic of such reviews is that strengths and weaknesses are well dissected, and that they are judged as such in comparison to the competition (even if the review is not a side by side comparison).

--AP
 
Bruce, in the past, I have spent hours and with a few customer days finding a binocular of their liking, usual it turns out to be the first pair I showed them. LOL!!!!

Another of my battles has been to get people to know that HAVING DONE SOME MEANINGFUL RESEARCH, they can select a bino out of a field off 200 in 10 minutes . . . 20 if they're lazy! :t: Now if I could just get people to understand they can't SEE the difference between multi-coating technologies and what they're seeing relates to several other factors the advertisers or freelancers didn't know to talk about. Nah, a battle for another day. And just like the GR thread, some people are dyed-in-the-wool on the opinion they can.

Bill
 
Last edited:
I think all of the above. I can see small differences in high end binoculars compared to mid level if I have both in front of me at the same time and can do an instant and direct comparo. If I look the next day at a different mid level pair for the most part forget it, I wont see the difference. For me the obvious advantage to high end glass is the ease of use and the solid reliability backed by an excellent warranty. If I'm sitting in the backyard I get just as much enjoyment from my 6X Yosmite as I do the Zen Prime or Conquest.

My wife and I can be driving down the highway and I may comment, thats a nice looking red car. She will reply thats orange. I will say, no it's red. She will point to a different car and say thats red. They look the exact same color to me. Our perceptions of things are different.

The stereo comparo is probably a good one, I think it depends on what you use it for. If you are listening to AM talk radio all the time, then high fidelity may not be of much concern. You could spend $10,000 on a high end system, but will it do much better than a Sangean WR-2?

My slam on some peoples buying high end anything is when they swear they (or we all) need them.

With that last sentence, is your Freudian slip showing? 8-P

Bill
 
I think there is significant differences in eyesight. I'm a recent convert to resolution testing, thanks to Typo. I'm not at all an expert but doing simple tests to get an idea of visual acuity, a friend and I got very different results.

This does manifest itself in the real world too. He can't see as much of a difference between binoculars as I can. I've also learned that what a lot of people call "sharpness" isn't really sharpness at all. I include myself in that. I looked at the whole image I saw, brightness, contrast etc and if I liked the view I declared a binocular "sharp". From doing resolution tests, I am beginning to get a sense of what "sharpness" is and how it can be measured. As I said, I've not reached the promise land of understanding resolution, but I'm on the road.

However, if you aren't interested in tests and simply want a view you can enjoy...go for it!
 
I agree with that. I bring the SV up to my eyes and POW!, it's all there and I can walk right in. In my mind anyway. :-O

No one should ever by anything they don't want. Most of my stuff is S%#T. :king:

For me the obvious advantage to high end glass is the ease of use .



My slam on some peoples buying high end anything is when they swear they (or we all) need them.
 
I agree with that. I bring the SV up to my eyes and POW!, it's all there and I can walk right in. In my mind anyway. :-O

No one should ever by anything they don't want. Most of my stuff is S%#T. :king:

As long as you are happy with it, thats all that matters. :t:
 
Gentlemen:
Research has shown that females have a slightly lower threshold of firing for cones and can see a bit more color then males. So you better not argue about colors with your wife or girlfriend, since she is always right.
Gijs

She's always right about everything, even when she's wrong. This is the Secret to a long and happy relationship, younger BF males. And the same argument about perception over specs holds true about everything. I have a shed-load of 'high-end' bicycles, which my wife says I don't need (and she's Right, even if she's wrong), and damned if I can figure out which ones my bum and my legs prefer.
 
She's always right about everything, even when she's wrong. This is the Secret to a long and happy relationship, younger BF males. And the same argument about perception over specs holds true about everything. I have a shed-load of 'high-end' bicycles, which my wife says I don't need (and she's Right, even if she's wrong), and damned if I can figure out which ones my bum and my legs prefer.
Listen to the man and live a long and stress free lifeo:D
 
A bit more civility sprinkled with mutual respect would be good to read more frequently, acceptance that one person can or cannot see a particular trait without resort to the toys coming out of the pram equally pleasant.

Whether we collectively like it or not, in the world of current roof prisms the best offerings from China have narrowed the gap significantly and soon it`ll be all but gone, just look how Korean cars have caught European models in the last decade.

We`ve really never had it so good...........(unless you`re hoping for a new alpha Porro !)
 
Most humans would agree that the 5303 Angstrom Iron line is green, but there is absolutely no way on earth to compare what that looks like to to you, with what it looks like any other human.
 
Hmm. I haven't found that to be the case for me. I find a lot to agree with in reviews by experienced binocular users. One characteristic of such reviews is that strengths and weaknesses are well dissected, and that they are judged as such in comparison to the competition (even if the review is not a side by side comparison).

--AP
Me too. I especially agree with Allbinos reviews in general.
 
I agree with that. I bring the SV up to my eyes and POW!, it's all there and I can walk right in. In my mind anyway. :-O

No one should ever by anything they don't want. Most of my stuff is S%#T. :king:
"I agree with that. I bring the SV up to my eyes and POW!, it's all there and I can walk right in. In my mind anyway."

It is not just your mind BH. It's mine too. It has to be the SV's.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top