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do looking through bins hinder your eyesight? (1 Viewer)

matt green

matt green

Norfolkman gone walkabout
greetings all,ever since i started birding five odd years ago i have always been affected by an undesireble after effect when looking through my bins.the problem is thus,i have no problem focusing my eyes on far away objects but when i come to focus on a close object my eyes just seem to ''buckle''up.if i cover either one of my eyes i can focus easy enough with the uncovered eye but i cant seem to close focus both my eyes together when i have been looking through the bins.after an hour of not using binoculars the problem fades.i'm quite sure my bins are not at fault,i have owned six different pairs and the problem has always been consistant with all of them.wonder if any forum members suffer the same thing.matt
 
Henry B said:
Matt ,what kind of bins are you useing ?
Click to expand...
at present i am using opticron imagic tga 7+42 porro prisms,other bins i have used as follows leica 8+42 trinovid bn
leica 7+42 trinovid ba
leica 8+32 trinovid ba
opticron pcagn 8+42
bushnell natureview plus 8+42 [not in order]
as you can see i like to ''play the field''.all of the above bins produced about the same effect.talking notes,looking at birdguides trying to id birds[i do that a lot!] are quite difficult after looking through binoculars.no idea what causes this but as i said earlier it does wear off after about an hour.matt
 
Matt, what you describe sounds like the problem I get after looking through a telescope for too long. Do you make sure each eyepiece is set up correctly? I may be stating the obvious, but one eyepiece is always adjustable, and no pair of eyes is exactly equal strength, so you need to make sure you go through the procedure of focussing the non-adjustable eyepiece on a fairly close object, using the normal focussing mechanism, then the adjustable eyepiece on the other eye.

Hope this makes sense!
 
MSA said:
Matt, what you describe sounds like the problem I get after looking through a telescope for too long. Do you make sure each eyepiece is set up correctly? I may be stating the obvious, but one eyepiece is always adjustable, and no pair of eyes is exactly equal strength, so you need to make sure you go through the procedure of focussing the non-adjustable eyepiece on a fairly close object, using the normal focussing mechanism, then the adjustable eyepiece on the other eye.

Hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...
evening msa,i'm always carefull to set up the dioptic adjustment correctly,though this can be fiddly with unfamiliar or new bins.i suspect it is some kind of tempory eyestrain related to the focusing part of the eye itself.i once heard that the eyes can automaticly adjust to a slightly miscolumnated pair of bins but maybe at a cost to tempory vision? matt
 
Maybe your eyes have a previously undiagnosed problem which the use of binoculars has just highlighted? If you've never had an eye test, it might be time to do so. These are cheap/free at high street chains, and can also pick up problems like diabetes, so well worth the time spent. If nothing else, it will tell whether the problem is hardware or "software"!
 
MSA said:
Maybe your eyes have a previously undiagnosed problem which the use of binoculars has just highlighted? If you've never had an eye test, it might be time to do so. These are cheap/free at high street chains, and can also pick up problems like diabetes, so well worth the time spent. If nothing else, it will tell whether the problem is hardware or "software"!
Click to expand...

I have to agree with this comment. I have suffered terrible eyestrain from poorly made or incorrectly aligned binoculars, but I have been using "high end" bins (Leica, Nikon SE) for five years now. I can use them for many hours nonstop without them affecting my eyes at all, and with no other ill effects.
 
^^^ agreed.

I literally get headaches from looking through mediocre optics and at one time assumed that I couldn't use binoculars for long periods because the optics put too much strain to my eyes. Many binoculars give me headaches in as little as a minute or two, and until I purchased my 10x40 Classics, I never knew the enjoyment of viewing as long as I wanted to, as opposed to viewing as long as I could suffer through it.
 
Hi Matt,
It's possible you're becoming long-sighted which is no problem for looking through binoculars because you unknowingly compensate by adjusting the focus. Your eyes will be relaxed whilst viewing and when you take the binoculars from your eyes it'll take longer to get your short range sight back to normal as the long-sighted-ness progresses (because your eyes will be working hard to achieve this). You should definitely get an eye test as already suggested.

On another subject I see you've used a lot of high-end binos (me too) and now are using lower cost porros (me too !). I'm thinking about the Opticron imagic tga 7x42 myself and I'd be interested in your thoughts about how they compare with 'the best'.

Cheers
John
 
solentbirder said:
Hi Matt,
It's possible you're becoming long-sighted which is no problem for looking through binoculars because you unknowingly compensate by adjusting the focus. Your eyes will be relaxed whilst viewing and when you take the binoculars from your eyes it'll take longer to get your short range sight back to normal as the long-sighted-ness progresses (because your eyes will be working hard to achieve this). You should definitely get an eye test as already suggested.

On another subject I see you've used a lot of high-end binos (me too) and now are using lower cost porros (me too !). I'm thinking about the Opticron imagic tga 7x42 myself and I'd be interested in your thoughts about how they compare with 'the best'.

Cheers
John
Click to expand...
hi john, actually the opticrons are a very fine pair of bins, very good colours bright and sharp.they do suffer from a poor field of view but have good depth of focus.the only drawback with these is they have a ''wobbly bridge''i think they call it the see saw effect?.as soon as i can i'm going to try out the new opticron HR WP porro prisms.i suspect they are every thing i like about my imagics plus having the benefits of internal focusing.if i had £150 to spend on bins i would possibly still buy the imagics even with the bridge problem,maybe when i have a back up pair i'll send them in for inspection.i have no idea why other brands dont pursue the hybred porro prism-internal focus format.the only other bin of this type are those old swarovski sl's.i wonder what the el's or trinovid/ultravid lines would be like if they were configured to the porro prism design but with the same optics?
 
matt green said:
hi john, actually the opticrons are a very fine pair of bins, very good colours bright and sharp.they do suffer from a poor field of view but have good depth of focus.the only drawback with these is they have a ''wobbly bridge''i think they call it the see saw effect?.as soon as i can i'm going to try out the new opticron HR WP porro prisms.i suspect they are every thing i like about my imagics plus having the benefits of internal focusing.if i had £150 to spend on bins i would possibly still buy the imagics even with the bridge problem,maybe when i have a back up pair i'll send them in for inspection.i have no idea why other brands dont pursue the hybred porro prism-internal focus format.the only other bin of this type are those old swarovski sl's.i wonder what the el's or trinovid/ultravid lines would be like if they were configured to the porro prism design but with the same optics?
Click to expand...

Thanks Matt. Perhaps you could post your impressions if/when you get your hands on the new HR WP's ?
Cheers !
 
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