[BarryH]

I'm a photographer who's only recently into birding, I now realise I also need a decent set of binoculars as well as all my camera gear.

When I look at binoculars there are so many terms and references I find hard to understand. Roof prisms, porro, eye relief etc. Can anyone point me to a site that may help or can anyone advise what I need to look out for?

The more I read the more I get confused.

[dalat]

Here 2 links that may help:
http://www.birdwatching.com/optics/binocglossary.html
http://www.holgermerlitz.de/wisdoms.html

Good luck!

[John M Robinson]

I think you found the right place right here. I was in the same boat as you a couple of years ago, then I found this site and the 24hourcampfire site.

Over on 24 hrcampfire, there are a few good articles on the home page by John Barnsness and Rick Bin that do a good job of teaching binos 101 to get you started. After you have a few basics down, you can do what I did and spend hours going through thread after thread here on birdforum. I looked at every Swift thread I could, plus all of the Nikon, Swaro, Leica and Zeiss. Then there are excellent more technical subjects that are sometimes over my head, but add to your knowledge of how optics work, and point out the fact that even at the very highest level, optics design is a balance of compromises.


Good luck with your search for bino knowledge.

John

[BarryH]

Thanks for the help guys.

[J. Moore]

Originally Posted by dalat

Here 2 links that may help:
http://www.birdwatching.com/optics/binocglossary.html
http://www.holgermerlitz.de/wisdoms.html

Good luck!

Some good links there. Barry--I'll also note that if you click on "optics" on the left hand side of the first link, you'll get a page with links to a number of very good and more in depth articles/reviews explaining binocular concepts, etc. in easy to understand language.

Cheers,
Jim

[BarryH]

Thanks for that Jim, I had missed it.