Recommendations please! (1 Viewer)

[matt green]

What`s up with this IPD? How does it work?

The IPD is the measurement between the centre of each occular lense, for those people (me included!!) with close set eyes it can sometimes be a problem finding a binocular that adjusts to their eyes, if the barrels of the binocular can't be closed close enough to suit the user the image will be viewed as two circles rather than one!

Matt

 

[kristoffer]

The IPD is the measurement between the centre of each occular lense, for those people (me included!!) with close set eyes it can sometimes be a problem finding a binocular that adjusts to their eyes, if the barrels of the binocular can't be closed close enough to suit the user the image will be viewed as two circles rather than one!

Matt

Ok! I remember reading something on bf about interpupillary distance but wasn´t sure if it was the same. Thanks.

 

[MacGee]

How did you get on at the Birdfair, Kitty?

Michael

 

[Allan Hobbs]

Thanks. Allan I'm going end of October to Botswana.

Have a great time. We haven't made it there yet, but it's definitely on the short list.

Did you buy any bins at birdfair?

I ended up with the Vortex Vipers - and my wife liked them as well so we bought 2 pairs :t:
Next year a scope - more research and contradictory views :-O

Allan

 

[Therapist]

Hi
My wife has a pair of Viking GR's (10x45) and she says that they are the best bins she has used. We have various other makes of binoculars around the house (family of birders), and she prefers the Vikings over them all. I have to say that I find them comfortable, and the optics are very impressive for the price tag (£269).

Opticrons would be my other choice in this price range.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Hi everyone, I spent as much time as I could trying out bins in the £200-250 ish price range, but helping to man a stand at the same time meant I was a bit limited with time. It came down to the Minox 8 x 32 BLs, the Nikon Monarchs of a similar spec but I eventually settled on the opticron Veranos 8 x 32s. Of the ones I tried they seemed to suit my eyes the best. I tried a few others with narrower IPD (e.g. opticron travellers, vortex fury) but didn't get on with those, at close focusing these are still not great in that respect but I suppose no worse than the ones they are replacing. The RRP at the bird fair was £269, but In Focus did their best to price match some websites and got down to £239. I didn't mind paying a little over the odds since they contribute a share of their profits to the bird fair's conservation projects. So in conclusion, I'm hoping I've made the right decision but have some nagging doubts... :cat:

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

I am sure you'll love them - good choice.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks. I got tree sparrows, a spoonbill and med gull through them already! Not lifers, but nice to see. :t:

 

[Steve C]

Glad to see you got something. I will offer you a personal insight. I'd forget about nagging doubts. Just use your new binocular and enjoy it. It is far too easy to worry yourself into a frazzle wondering about things like whether or not you made the right choice. Also, don't get to worried about the close focus issue. Many eyes get into an arguement when the close focus gets into 10' or less. The dominant eye will start to take over and you will begin to see double. Just because a binocular will close focus to 3 or 4 feet, that does not mean both of your eyes can. When that happens just close your weak eye.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks for the words of wisdom Steve. I also think that, if a bird is that close to me I'll either be able to see it unaided or will be most likely lining up the shot in my FZ18's viewfinder most of the time anyway!

 

[MacGee]

...at close focusing these are still not great in that respect but I suppose no worse than the ones they are replacing...

Kitty, If your Veranos focus down to 1.8m as they should, that's not bad. Better than the top 8x32s of Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski and Nikon. I was trying out the RSPB BG PC 8x32s today (same as the Veranos) and I thought the CF was pretty good. But CF is one of those things that seem to be subject to quite sizeable individual variation. I have a pair of 8x25 reverse porros that are suposed to have a 2.5m CF—but mine go down to 1.5m. I also have a 6x30 porro which has a specified CF of 5m. Some people claim that theirs go down to 3m but, if anything, mine are longer than 5m.

Michael

 

[Kevin Purcell]

MacGee: is that close focus measurement with fully corrected vision?

If you are a myope (short-sighted) without correction both the close focus and the infinity focus will be "further out". So the close focus can change from person to person depending of their vision even with the same bin.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Hi Michael- the problem is my IPD, not the focusing of the bins, I.e. at close focus I get the overlapping circles effect. This was present with all the bins I tried, even ones with smaller minimum IPD. But as I say, it is no worse than my old bins. As Steve mentioned I'll just have to close one eye if I need to.

 

[MacGee]

MacGee: is that close focus measurement with fully corrected vision?

Fully corrected, Kevin. However I've just remeasured and come up with different numbers. The Olympus is about the same, at 1.55m. But the Leupold, which I previously measured at 5m or more, this time came in at 3.6m. Whether this is due to variation in my vision, even though corrected, or due to incompetence on my part when I did the original measurement, I can't say for sure, but I tend to lean in the direction of incompetence.

The light wasn't good the first time around and this may have affected my perception of the Leupold's sharpness. Its 6x magnification, measured against 8x bins may have made me conclude that its image was out of focus when it was only dim and small. This may have been exacerbated by the porro size illusion, which is more pronounced at closer distances. (It's well-known that porros, with their widely spaced objectives, mislead the brain into seeing the image as smaller than it is. So a porro's image will appear smaller than a roof's, which will appear smaller than a reverse porro's. This is one of those ideas that I find hard to assimilate. The image isn't smaller; it doesn't look smaller; your brain just thinks it looks smaller.)

Michael

 

[MacGee]

Hi Michael- the problem is my IPD, not the focusing of the bins, I.e. at close focus I get the overlapping circles effect.

That's not your IPD, Kitty; it happens to everyone. As you look at nearer objects your pupils move closer together, effectively narrowing your IPD. You can move the eyepieces closer to compensate, but most people just leave them alone and accept some overlap. If you concentrate on what you're looking at, you can still see it perfectly well and the overlap stops being an issue.

Michael

 

[Kevin Purcell]

Fully corrected, Kevin. However I've just remeasured and come up with different numbers. The Olympus is about the same, at 1.55m. But the Leupold, which I previously measured at 5m or more, this time came in at 3.6m. Whether this is due to variation in my vision, even though corrected, or due to incompetence on my part when I did the original measurement, I can't say for sure, but I tend to lean in the direction of incompetence.l

Did you measure it when the Yosemites were new?

I found a similar effect. I wound the focus to close in until the resistance on the wheel was significant. Then measuring a target I could move towards or away I moved for best focusthen checked the distance. The first number I came up with was long compared to the spec. About 5m.

So I tried again and noticed each time I could move the focus closer in without feeling "too much" resistance.

I think the new bin had more resistance than I expected at close focus (squishing up grease in the focus mechanism or just spreading it around?).

After a couple of trys I got to the spec value (and below). About 3m.