absolut_beethoven
Well-known member
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this post - mods feel free to move it if you feel it belongs elsewhere.
I have only been following this forum for a few months, but one thing that struck me as odd concerning the many posts that I've read about using binos at night, or in low light conditions.
Almost everybody comments about the maximum aperture available for the various models - which is usually limited by both the magnification and the diameter of the objective, but can also be limited by the prism if it's too small. And also how much of that picture is usable to each individual user according to the maximum size their pupil can achieve, which unfortunately decreases with age.
But nobody seems to have discussed one important aspect of low light viewing, and that is how good, or bad, one's night vision is.
For instance, my wife never wore sunglasses in her youth, and rarely wears them even now, so her night vision is is really shot. On the other hand, as far as I can recall, I started wearing sunglasses in my early teens. Not to protect my eyeballs from sunburn, but because I thought that they made me look really cool. Silly I know, but you know how young teens are
As a result my night vision is a lot better than most. The downside to this is that my eyes are extremely sensitive to glare and intense bright lights. So much so, that I need to wear sunglasses outside otherwise my eyes start watering and I can't open them fully.
Going to Century City in Los Angeles on a bright sunny day is actually painful for me without sunglasses due to all those bright white and mirrored buildings.
The bottom line is, don't give your retina a sunburn as that will destroy your night vision in short order, regardless of how large your pupils dilate.
Your comments and thoughts on this are welcome.
I have only been following this forum for a few months, but one thing that struck me as odd concerning the many posts that I've read about using binos at night, or in low light conditions.
Almost everybody comments about the maximum aperture available for the various models - which is usually limited by both the magnification and the diameter of the objective, but can also be limited by the prism if it's too small. And also how much of that picture is usable to each individual user according to the maximum size their pupil can achieve, which unfortunately decreases with age.
But nobody seems to have discussed one important aspect of low light viewing, and that is how good, or bad, one's night vision is.
For instance, my wife never wore sunglasses in her youth, and rarely wears them even now, so her night vision is is really shot. On the other hand, as far as I can recall, I started wearing sunglasses in my early teens. Not to protect my eyeballs from sunburn, but because I thought that they made me look really cool. Silly I know, but you know how young teens are
As a result my night vision is a lot better than most. The downside to this is that my eyes are extremely sensitive to glare and intense bright lights. So much so, that I need to wear sunglasses outside otherwise my eyes start watering and I can't open them fully.
Going to Century City in Los Angeles on a bright sunny day is actually painful for me without sunglasses due to all those bright white and mirrored buildings.
The bottom line is, don't give your retina a sunburn as that will destroy your night vision in short order, regardless of how large your pupils dilate.
Your comments and thoughts on this are welcome.
