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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

12x50 options (1 Viewer)

One tip I picked up years ago when using a tripod on a ship is to wrap the feet in generous bits of foam rubber. This will dampen out the vibrations of the ships engines etc.
 
If a tripod is needed, may as well put a scope on it and benefit from even more magnification. Personally I use 7x or 8x and occasionally 10x bins.

For small waders on mudflats I wholeheartedly agree with you. In most other situations viewing with two eyes is so much more comfortable. Besides, for high magnifications on a scope a large and heavy tripod is needed. For my 15X bins I use a light (1 kg) tripod that fits in a small backpack. But, to each his/her own :)
 
This is only a guess FWIW. Now after a quick test with available material I would think that a good 12x binocular mounted will convey detail close to that of a good 18x mono scope mounted. I found that 10x gets up to somewhat less than 16x, reckoned this as what I will see with 14-15x, and extrapolated. As 12x is less steady the % gain when mounted versus handheld will be a little more than with 10x.
 
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This is only a guess FWIW. Now after a quick test with available material I would think that a good 12x binocular mounted will convey detail close to that of a good 18x mono scope mounted. I found that 10x gets up to somewhat less than 16x, reckoned this as what I will see with 14-15x, and extrapolated. As 12x is less steady the % gain when mounted versus handheld will be a little more than with 10x.

Purely anecdotal, but I got as much detail with my 12x50BGA Docter binoculars as with my Steiner 24x80 telescope.
The Docters were admittedly exceptionally sharp, but I sold the Steiner after that experience.
 
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