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Binocular Magnifications (1 Viewer)

B

Binastro

Well-known member
The following are binocular magnifications that I know of, at least as marked for genuine types.

Opera glasses.
2x, 2.5x, 3.0x.

'Prismatic'
3.5x, 4x, 4.5 x 25 mirrors 14 degree field, 5x, 5.5 x 25 mirrors 12 degree field, 6x, 6.5x, 7x, 7.5x, 8x, 8.5x, 9x, 10x, 11x, 12x, 12.5x, 13x, 14x, 15x, 16x, 18x, 20x, 22x, 25x, 26x, 30x, 32x, 35x.


Are there any 3x prismatic binoculars?
Are there any 9.5x, 17x or 19x ?
Are there any other magnifications you can think of especially strange ones?

I am not including zoom types and generally magnifications are listed at 'infinity'
 
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Thanks for that Norm.
There may have been a tiny 3x porro as there were early 3.5x porros.
But I don't know of any particular 3x.

Do you know any other magnifications not on my list however old?

I usually prefer used but optically good binoculars as they are cheaper and have lost their initial high depreciation, and one can usually get back what one pays for them.

There are high powered binocular telescopes, some with turret eyepieces such as the Italian 90mm Galileo and Zeiss ones but I am trying to stick to portable binoculars.
 
Yes, the Zeiss Teleater 3 x 13 fits the bill.
Thank you.
I thought I had seen a 3x but could not recall where.
I did actually know the 10.5 x 70 in various clones but forgot it for my initial list.
The only ones I did not know were the 9.5x.
Minox specialises in odd magnifications to fit into niche markets and have something different.

There are many different opera glass magnifications like 1.8x 2.3x 2.7x etc. etc.

I wanted to write a piece on how glasses substantially affect magnification.
If I want to increase say a 8x to a 9x or 9.5x all I need to do is wear my glasses varying from reading to distance.
I presume short sighted person's glasses reduce magnification but I am not sure.

And if I want to see limiting detail on the ornate window 400 feet from me without a binocular I just move my distance glasses about 8 inches in front of my face and the magnification is 1.5x or 1.6x and I can easily see the details.

So I would list my single element glasses as a 1.5x 'binocular'.
 
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How do we know that they are the claimed magnification??? Can a manufacturer round to the nearest convenient number???? Is a 8x really an 8x or is it a 7.7x... I think you get the picture.

Albinos measures some of the 8x actually smaller than 8x... like the EL and SE. he, he...

CG
 
cycleguy said:
How do we know that they are the claimed magnification??? Can a manufacturer round to the nearest convenient number???? Is a 8x really an 8x or is it a 7.7x... I think you get the picture.

Albinos measures some of the 8x actually smaller than 8x... like the EL and SE. he, he...

CG
Click to expand...

CG

You see up there in the Austrian mountains the atmosphere is thinner, less dense, so the lenses expand a tiny bit and hey presto, they thought they had made an 8x but at sea-level and more normal altitudes it turned out an 8.5!

Lee
 
Same with Colorado, and the air spaces have thinner air inside them and our eyeballs expand and the air/ eyeball interface has a different value.
And what difference does 100% nitrogen make?

Of course the magnifications are not exactly as marked.

I just wondered how many binoculars one needs to collect to have all the available magnifications as written on them.

Any binocular with a difference exceeding 10% I consider a non starter and I don't include the 500 x 50 $10 specials seen on the internet, which may be 8 x 21.
 
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