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10x30 / 12x36 IS in low light? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter eetundra
- Start date
Just briefly: in practice, stabilization improves your ability to see detail in low light rather dramatically. This is especially evident when there is so little light that seeing any colors is no longer possible. I have often experienced that only after switching the stabilization on I see that an image I had tried to focus to the best of my ability was in fact still far out of focus. I think that in low light our ability to "pick out detail" not only becomes less as far as the size of the detail visible, but also "slower" as far as the time needed to register it, and it is in the latter department that IS helps tremendously.
Kimmo
Kimmo
Otto McDiesel
Well-known member
kabsetz said:
Tell that to the hunters who think that they need 12x binoculars and don't belive that a 7x or 8x30 will do the job.
Otto McDiesel
Well-known member
7x42 seems quite popular with Central Europe hunters. In North America, far less.
Luca said:
Not really. The hunters around here are almost all very traditional type of guys. Almost every hunter here uses an 8x56 no matter of his age or eye capability. The 8x56 Zeiss ClassiC (the former Dialyt) is still the most widespreaded binocular among the hunting croud. I guess this bin must be the most selling one of all times.
Steve
Eetundra,
That would depend on what you are viewing. I have used the 10x30, only briefly and never in low light, so I cannot comment on that model specifically. However, I have used the 15x50 IS and the 10x42 IS, both of which I have compared to several top-end 10x42 models. The adavantage of both IS binoculars over non-IS models in low light was far from subtle, and if I were to extrapolate from these experiences, I would predict that the 10x30 IS would be better than a 10x42 non-IS in low light for most low-light viewing, except perhaps for cases where trying to distinguish colors at light levels where colors are barely perceptible, since there the extra light gathering and better light transmission of the very best conventional binoculars would matter the mots.
Kimmo
That would depend on what you are viewing. I have used the 10x30, only briefly and never in low light, so I cannot comment on that model specifically. However, I have used the 15x50 IS and the 10x42 IS, both of which I have compared to several top-end 10x42 models. The adavantage of both IS binoculars over non-IS models in low light was far from subtle, and if I were to extrapolate from these experiences, I would predict that the 10x30 IS would be better than a 10x42 non-IS in low light for most low-light viewing, except perhaps for cases where trying to distinguish colors at light levels where colors are barely perceptible, since there the extra light gathering and better light transmission of the very best conventional binoculars would matter the mots.
Kimmo
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