justabirdwatcher
Well-known member
I did a fun experiment this morning with my wife and daughter at home.
I happen to have five pairs of binoculars at the moment, ranging in price from $150 to $1800 retail.
My wife and daughter are not experienced binocular users, but my wife does occasionally go birding with me and has had her own pair of binoculars for quite a while now.
I thought it was time my wife had better binoculars now that we are empty-nesters and plan to do a little more birding together. So I did somewhat of a "blind test" with her and the daughter this morning just to see what they would choose. I was real curious to see if they would rank them according to price.
Here's the lineup in order of purchase price from least to most expensive:
1) Bushnell Legend M 8x42
2) Leupold BX-2 Acadia 8x42
3) Sightron Blue Sky 8x32
4) Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42
5) Swarovski SLC HD 10x42
She honestly had no idea how much any of the binoculars cost, so she was about as objective a user as they come. I should point out that she does wear glasses.
Her first comment was just "how light" the Swarovski SLC's were, which of course made me chuckle because they are the heaviest of the lot. She swore they were the lightest, aside from the Blue Sky's of course. Just goes to show you how important balance and ergonomics are.
After handling them all while focusing back and forth between our backyard feeders and squirrels in the neighbor's trees, she took about 30 minutes to carefully make her selections.
I had her line them up in order of favorite to least favorite. Here were her pics:
1) Bushnell Legend M
2) Swarovski SLC
3) Leupold Acadia
4) Zeiss Conquest
5) Sightron Blue sky.
She really didn't care for the Zeiss and said she would rate them equally with the Sightrons as the last two she would pick for a day of birding. Her comments on why she picked the Bushnells as her favorite were the image sharpness and brightness. She said they just had the most pleasing image to her eyes. When I told her what they all cost, she and I had a pretty good laugh.
Next, our college-age daughter (who wasn't in the room when my wife was looking) had her chance. She does not wear glasses, and I suspect has the same "eyes" as her dad. After about 15 minutes, she ranked them much as I would have:
1) Zeiss Conquest HD
2) Swarovski SLC
3) Bushnell Legend M
4) Sightron Blue Sky
5) Leupold Acadia
I asked why she chose the Ziess as the top model and she said she could see the fine detail on the moss on the tree branches better with those than any of the rest, but that the Swarovski and Bushnells were "about the same and really close" to the Zeiss. I suspect, like me, the touch of increased contrast the Zeiss offer allowed her to see slightly more detail.
When I told her what they all cost, her response was "you know I still need a car, right?" LOL Ah, parenthood.
Anyway, I found it to be a fun and not that surprising experiment between two users with similar levels of inexperience, but very different vision.
It just goes to show how important it is that we try several different pairs of binoculars before we decide which ones work best for our eyes. It can be very different from one person to another!
I happen to have five pairs of binoculars at the moment, ranging in price from $150 to $1800 retail.
My wife and daughter are not experienced binocular users, but my wife does occasionally go birding with me and has had her own pair of binoculars for quite a while now.
I thought it was time my wife had better binoculars now that we are empty-nesters and plan to do a little more birding together. So I did somewhat of a "blind test" with her and the daughter this morning just to see what they would choose. I was real curious to see if they would rank them according to price.
Here's the lineup in order of purchase price from least to most expensive:
1) Bushnell Legend M 8x42
2) Leupold BX-2 Acadia 8x42
3) Sightron Blue Sky 8x32
4) Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42
5) Swarovski SLC HD 10x42
She honestly had no idea how much any of the binoculars cost, so she was about as objective a user as they come. I should point out that she does wear glasses.
Her first comment was just "how light" the Swarovski SLC's were, which of course made me chuckle because they are the heaviest of the lot. She swore they were the lightest, aside from the Blue Sky's of course. Just goes to show you how important balance and ergonomics are.
After handling them all while focusing back and forth between our backyard feeders and squirrels in the neighbor's trees, she took about 30 minutes to carefully make her selections.
I had her line them up in order of favorite to least favorite. Here were her pics:
1) Bushnell Legend M
2) Swarovski SLC
3) Leupold Acadia
4) Zeiss Conquest
5) Sightron Blue sky.
She really didn't care for the Zeiss and said she would rate them equally with the Sightrons as the last two she would pick for a day of birding. Her comments on why she picked the Bushnells as her favorite were the image sharpness and brightness. She said they just had the most pleasing image to her eyes. When I told her what they all cost, she and I had a pretty good laugh.
Next, our college-age daughter (who wasn't in the room when my wife was looking) had her chance. She does not wear glasses, and I suspect has the same "eyes" as her dad. After about 15 minutes, she ranked them much as I would have:
1) Zeiss Conquest HD
2) Swarovski SLC
3) Bushnell Legend M
4) Sightron Blue Sky
5) Leupold Acadia
I asked why she chose the Ziess as the top model and she said she could see the fine detail on the moss on the tree branches better with those than any of the rest, but that the Swarovski and Bushnells were "about the same and really close" to the Zeiss. I suspect, like me, the touch of increased contrast the Zeiss offer allowed her to see slightly more detail.
When I told her what they all cost, her response was "you know I still need a car, right?" LOL Ah, parenthood.
Anyway, I found it to be a fun and not that surprising experiment between two users with similar levels of inexperience, but very different vision.
It just goes to show how important it is that we try several different pairs of binoculars before we decide which ones work best for our eyes. It can be very different from one person to another!
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