It's a word I learned from an old Hovis or Warburton's advert and I rather like it. "do we have to go through this rigmarole everytime? just throw it to the ducks": Classic. Anyway...
I think it was Warburtons ...
I'm beginning to realise that smaller magnification can = better binoculars. its a strange concept to get you head round but if you get a smaller magnification and a bigger fov you have a better chance of finding the fast flying bird (This is really important for blackcaps and other warblers which never sit still for five seconds). I just think it's ironic that such a good binocular for birdwatching is made by a company that specialises in hunting animals, a task which probably doesn't require the close focus large fov etc.
Peter Dunne has written about similar ideas e.g. Binoculars for birding. Pete Dunne NJA 11(3):10-11 fall 1985 which you can find here
https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0004&L=IBN-L&D=1&P=14839
The tendency is to believe that bigger is better--that the more "power"
a binocular has, the better it will perform. This is not necessarily so
and there are several reasons for this.
First, although higher magnification will increase the size of a distant
bird and enhances the details that will be seen, increased magnification
also magnifies the effects of hand shake and heart beat. The image may
well be bigger but details, as measured by image perception, will remain
essentially the same.
Greater magnification also results in a smaller field of view, a darker
image, and a shallower depth of field--all of which directly affect
binocular performance.
Almost all active birders use binoculars that offer between 7x and 10x.
What magnification you choose hinges on a number of considerations. In
general, lower magnification is to your advantiage if: (1) you are a
beginning birder, unpracticed at locating birds with binoculars; (2) you
are a birder having difficulty holding higher magnifications steady; (3)
much of your birding is conducted at close quarters in woodlands or rain
forests or from the deck of a moving boat; (4) you are a highly skilled
birder more interested in speed than in seeing "field marks" of birds
you recognize by their JIZ (general impression and shape).
Ten power binoculars get the nod if: (1) your hands are steady; (2) most
of your birding is conducted over great distance and open spaces; (3)
you do not commonly include a spotting scope in your optical arsenal.
If you are still undecided between 7x or 10x binoculars, consider a
compromise--like an 8x but NEVER BUY A ZOOM BINOCULAR!
Its interesting that a low magnification bin is recommened to both beginners and highly skilled "JIZ" birders.
And today he'll even recommend 6x for backyard, urban and close woodland birding. Heck, he started with a 6x24 Zeiss (ex WW2) but as he's written as a kid he many, many creative warbler IDs for canopy warblers because you just can't see the field marks.
I think the birding style changes (or should change) with magnification (and the correlates with habitat too). If it doesn't then it can be miserable!
For low magnification GISS/jizz birding behaviour becomes more important: what's it doing; where is it; how does it fly and that with the field marks you see give you the ID.
For high magnification the emphasis tends to be more on field marks. You can get little field marks for sure that you would get with low magnifications at the same distance. I think this is one of the reasons a lot of birder/twitchers went to 10x (and are still there). To get that few second glimpse where you go through the field ID checklist in your head (asymmetric eye ring, wing bars, undertail coverts ... got it).
Ignoring shake (e.g. if you use IS bins at 10x in the extreme case or work out at the gym and use a good grip) and compare them to 7x then you can really see the trade off is "distance at which you can see the field marks and ID them unambiguously even with a fleeting glimpse" versus wider FOV to search and track rapid flitters or ones in flight. It really is the Fundamental Compromise of Optics.
I think most people solve this problem by choosing 8x (and today you can get very wide field 8x and not so many wide field 7x) and compromising a bit on both. Not too bad a choice.
But I'm really starting to like carrying two bins and picking the right one for the habitat and the task especially when you move through multiple habitats on a single walk which I often seem to do (10 feet from a bunch of birds in cover with a 10x with 6 degrees field is not fun ... even when it has IS).
One reason I'm looking forward to the Zen Ray 7x36: there are no compact wide field 7x bins out there. And none of the "top bin" makers offer 7x in a compact (which is a shame).
That tends to make me think that she might well be better suited to less magnification of the 6x, since image shake will be considerably reduced. That of course depends on how old she may be and if she is at all frail, which I have no way of knowing.
