black crow
Well-known member
I had an idea while hiking today for an ongoing thread. I'm going to throw it out on the waters here and see if it floats.
My idea is sort of like journaling about the use of our binoculars. I thought this would include basically two parts but there could be more.
Part one is, what interesting, cool, unusual things did you see in your binoculars this outing, whether birding, hiking, boating, off your deck, at your bird feeder, stargazing, whale watching, etc. Part two is how did whatever pair you used work for you on this day. Any thoughts from power to ease of use, objective size, ergonomic issues, comparisons with other binoculars, likes, dislikes etc.
For me this nicely covers the things I am interested in about binoculars. What you see and how they work. This can be long or short. A sentence or half a page. I'm going to start this off with my day. I may keep it going even if I'm the only one because I like to combine both aspects of binoculars, the tech side and the artistic side ...and I like to talk and I likely have too much time on my hands. 8-P Outside of myself though I think this is a good way to learn about how binos work in daily or weekly field testing and over time a binocular you really think you like in April, you may think differently about in September. I'm interested in these things.
Thursday March 29
Today I hiked 7 miles on the Hitt Road Trail and the Fell On Knee Trail at about 5000 ft. I really didn't see much today in the way of wildlife. I saw several groups of Turkey Vultures circling, groups of about 12-15 birds. The other interesting thing I saw was at the top of a snag of about 200 ft a Flicker was sitting. I was almost at his level as I was walking along very steep trail that dropped right off sharply down the mountain. As I put the binoculars on him he just dropped/fell down off that snag, tucked his wings tight to his sides, pointed his head and beak straight down and out stretched and free fell just like an arrow straight down for about 100 ft before pulling out. I followed him in the binoculars most of the way. I've never seen one do that before.
Also I met a man on the trail that was setting out flag markers to create a new trail off of Fell On Knee which will be called the Wonder Trail. It should take about a year to complete and connect up with Rd. 2060.
Today I had out for testing a brand new pair of Celestron 8x32 Trailseekers. In my mind I was comparing them to the Sightron Blue Sky 8x32. Here's how that went.
The Trailseeker goes for $185 and the Sightron about $178. The Celestron and Sightron dead center are totally equal to my eye and I may like the Celestron a tad better at center. They are very nice but too close to tell at least out in the field. Both soften gradually out to the edge with the Sightron just a tad less soft at the edge. Both seem to have the same sized sweet spot. The Sightrons have an 11 ft fov advantage. The Sightrons are about 1/2 inch longer and almost 3 oz. (19.8oz.) heavier. I really like the smaller size and weight ( 16oz.) of the Celestron's. Both can be used easily with one hand which is very nice with the Sightron only slightly easier to hold that way.
A weakness in the Celestron that I saw was that at the very edge of the view there was a slight ring of reflected light. Nothing as bad as my Zen 7x36 but still there and a tad distrating. Other than that I really like the Celestron's optically and I love the size and weight but I'm going to have to send them back because I get very slight but almost constant partial blackouts from those eye cups. Which is strange to me because I have the same pair in 10x32 with no blackout problem at all. Go figure. So back they go but they are a nice little binocular.
Time for a nap. :t:
My idea is sort of like journaling about the use of our binoculars. I thought this would include basically two parts but there could be more.
Part one is, what interesting, cool, unusual things did you see in your binoculars this outing, whether birding, hiking, boating, off your deck, at your bird feeder, stargazing, whale watching, etc. Part two is how did whatever pair you used work for you on this day. Any thoughts from power to ease of use, objective size, ergonomic issues, comparisons with other binoculars, likes, dislikes etc.
For me this nicely covers the things I am interested in about binoculars. What you see and how they work. This can be long or short. A sentence or half a page. I'm going to start this off with my day. I may keep it going even if I'm the only one because I like to combine both aspects of binoculars, the tech side and the artistic side ...and I like to talk and I likely have too much time on my hands. 8-P Outside of myself though I think this is a good way to learn about how binos work in daily or weekly field testing and over time a binocular you really think you like in April, you may think differently about in September. I'm interested in these things.
Thursday March 29
Today I hiked 7 miles on the Hitt Road Trail and the Fell On Knee Trail at about 5000 ft. I really didn't see much today in the way of wildlife. I saw several groups of Turkey Vultures circling, groups of about 12-15 birds. The other interesting thing I saw was at the top of a snag of about 200 ft a Flicker was sitting. I was almost at his level as I was walking along very steep trail that dropped right off sharply down the mountain. As I put the binoculars on him he just dropped/fell down off that snag, tucked his wings tight to his sides, pointed his head and beak straight down and out stretched and free fell just like an arrow straight down for about 100 ft before pulling out. I followed him in the binoculars most of the way. I've never seen one do that before.
Also I met a man on the trail that was setting out flag markers to create a new trail off of Fell On Knee which will be called the Wonder Trail. It should take about a year to complete and connect up with Rd. 2060.
Today I had out for testing a brand new pair of Celestron 8x32 Trailseekers. In my mind I was comparing them to the Sightron Blue Sky 8x32. Here's how that went.
The Trailseeker goes for $185 and the Sightron about $178. The Celestron and Sightron dead center are totally equal to my eye and I may like the Celestron a tad better at center. They are very nice but too close to tell at least out in the field. Both soften gradually out to the edge with the Sightron just a tad less soft at the edge. Both seem to have the same sized sweet spot. The Sightrons have an 11 ft fov advantage. The Sightrons are about 1/2 inch longer and almost 3 oz. (19.8oz.) heavier. I really like the smaller size and weight ( 16oz.) of the Celestron's. Both can be used easily with one hand which is very nice with the Sightron only slightly easier to hold that way.
A weakness in the Celestron that I saw was that at the very edge of the view there was a slight ring of reflected light. Nothing as bad as my Zen 7x36 but still there and a tad distrating. Other than that I really like the Celestron's optically and I love the size and weight but I'm going to have to send them back because I get very slight but almost constant partial blackouts from those eye cups. Which is strange to me because I have the same pair in 10x32 with no blackout problem at all. Go figure. So back they go but they are a nice little binocular.
Time for a nap. :t:
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