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

Binocular Sightings (1 Viewer)

Best 10x view you can get….. though in this case the more you pay the heavier you get…. Lots to like, lots not to like. But optically you get what you pay for.

Peter
 
My personal experience here aligns pretty closely with Phil R. Mostly pay attention when there are a larger number of birders assembled during migration, or upon seeing something classic/unusual. Also, a large and increasing number near me only use a big-lens DSLR camera.

Sat down and thought about it for a while and scripted everything I remember catching my attention since early May (all from memory):

Premium Classic
  • a good # of Zeiss Dialyts, incl several 7x42s with one standout in nearly mint condition - owner said it was a gift from her uncle - swell uncle!!!
  • 2-3 Swift Audubon
  • 1x Hawke Classic
  • 1x older Opticron but didn’t get a good look at the model
  • Various configurations of Trinovids (BA/BN) and one old Leitz
  • 1x each Nikon EDG, HG-L, and one beautiful SE Poro
  • 1x Bausch and Lomb Elite

Contemporary Premium and Mid-Grade seen:
  • Growing # of Vortex - Razor, Viper and the lower end Diamondback
  • Several Zeiss Conquests
  • Nikons of all grades/config = 30/42mm MHGs, M7s, M5s
  • 2 Zeiss Victory SF 42mm and several FLs 32 & 42
  • 1 Noctivid and 2 Ultravids
  • 1 Maven B1
  • GPO - only the ones I sometimes carry
  • Swarovski - 1x shiny and new NL 42, several ELs 32 & 42, and only the SLC I sometimes carry
  • 1x Minox
  • 1x Meopta B1
Don’t pay close attention to the lower end stuff, but will now.

This month I’ve spent much more time at the coast where spotting scopes are more popular. Scopes I’ve recently seen:
  • 1x each Swarovski ATX 85mm, ATS 80, ATS 65, STS 80
  • 2x Meopta MeoStar S2, and pretty certain 1x MeoPro
  • Kowa = several 883s/773s
  • 1x Nikon 82?
  • 3-4x Vortex 85 (don’t know if they were Razor or Viper)
  • 1x Zeiss Harpia 85
  • 1x older Tasso
  • Interestingly, several Kowa 554s, smaller Nikons and Vortex on vehicle window mounts
 
As a newbie potential birder I have just bought a pair of Asahi Pentax 8 x 40 wide field 566 for £39 from Oxfam..but not had chance to go out with them yet...not sure whether they'll be ok, but think they are a good buy anyway, with case and caps ???
 
As a newbie potential birder I have just bought a pair of Asahi Pentax 8 x 40 wide field 566 for £39 from Oxfam..but not had chance to go out with them yet...not sure whether they'll be ok, but think they are a good buy anyway, with case and caps ???
If some kind soul offers you a look through their $2000 to $3000 binocular, it would be in your best interest to decline as politely as possible.
 
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If some kind soul offers you a look through their $2000 to $3000 binocular, it would be in your best interest to decline as politely as possible.
Hi Maljunulo, thanks for your amusing reply....I think you're saying stick with my bargain Pentax, rather than I would be totally jealous, am I right ??
 
Hi Maljunulo, thanks for your amusing reply....I think you're saying stick with my bargain Pentax, rather than I would be totally jealous, am I right ??
I would not choose the word "jealous", but I might suggest "dissatisfaction".

Enjoy what you have, and all the unseen and unseeable things it will reveal, which will be a source of unending delight.

Just don't compare.

(see line two of my signature)
 
I don't busy myself too much by staring at people's apparatus (pun intended) but I do notice the vast majority (experienced and amateurs) here carry Swarovski.
 
I don't busy myself too much by staring at people's apparatus (pun intended) but I do notice the vast majority (experienced and amateurs) here carry Swarovski.
Except for those of us who now carry Zeiss because they decided the SF 8X32 was a better choice than the 8X32 EL SV when they decided to get a lighter binocular than their EL SV 10X42.
 
In the area where I usually make observations, I saw very few people with binoculars. But I remember some
and I will attach some short stories with the context:
  1. A long and voluminos pair of Nikon Prostaff 7 42mm used by a naturalist.
  2. A very devastated but still working Meade Wilderness 8x42. The binoculars had a scratched lens and cracked and glued armor.
  3. Zeiss porro 8x30 (maybe Deltrintem?) I couldn't figure out what it was. He was a father with his son watching a swan with this binoculars.
  4. and an orthodox monk with a little Olympus RC II WP 8X21 :)
 
Yesterday I went to a bird sanctuary and I came across 2 Vortex (Razor and Diamondback), one Nikon Monarch 5 and one Minox BV BR, all in x42, not sure about the magnification. The Vortex came in as a surprise, I think it's the first time I see one on the field around here on the field.
 
A few sightings in-the-wild yesterday

Several lower-end 8x & 10x 32mm Tasco, Bushnell, Nikon

A very well-traveled SLC

C2F426F0-E694-4477-AD6A-F3567B1FA949.jpeg

An EL with many views

76AEB9F7-8032-48A9-9704-74F7E8F6B256.jpeg

A classic Kowa TSN-4

97EDDE30-2A9F-4512-92B2-CEE68CAFFECA.jpeg

A Celestron

EAD4E680-4F8F-4976-9B53-34618B44B46C.jpeg

A lower-end Bushnell

05AB2B1A-DD9C-4221-B702-F0C2BC1FBA73.jpeg

And a Vortex Razor

08ADAF01-3AE4-41D8-B18A-F9506A174E22.jpeg
 
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As a newbie potential birder I have just bought a pair of Asahi Pentax 8 x 40 wide field 566 for £39 from Oxfam..but not had chance to go out with them yet...not sure whether they'll be ok, but think they are a good buy anyway, with case and caps ???
For many years, one of the many incarnations of the Pentax 8x40 wide field was my only binocular, and it served me very well indeed - fabulously sharp in the centre of view, but less so at the edges. I sold it to "upgrade" to a roof prism binocular, and gradually regretted the sale. After some 30 years, I re-purchased a clean pair via ebay, and whilst binocular tech really has moved on over the years, the view from the wide-field Pentaxes is still very enjoyable.
 
For many years, one of the many incarnations of the Pentax 8x40 wide field was my only binocular, and it served me very well indeed - fabulously sharp in the centre of view, but less so at the edges. I sold it to "upgrade" to a roof prism binocular, and gradually regretted the sale. After some 30 years, I re-purchased a clean pair via ebay, and whilst binocular tech really has moved on over the years, the view from the wide-field Pentaxes is still very enjoyable.
Thanks for your positive input MandoBear....I went to a favourite high mound with them at the weekend and tracked a wheeling pair of buzzards which were a fair distance and height away with no problem, so really pleased with them......just need to avoid looking through £2000 pairs, as Maljunulo recommended!!
 
Out here in India, one hardly gets to see binocular toting wildlifers- everyone seems to be carrying a camera with a long focal length zoom lens or a prime. There are of course exceptions - bird walks curated in a few places - usually in Bangalore by Zeiss - some dedicated bird watching groups like Bird Watchers Society out of Kolkata ( a mix of Zeiss SFs, Conquest HDs, a couple of Hawkes, a Nikon Aculon) and of course in the Keoladeo Ghana National Park (KNP), Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

In KNP, birding/ birdwatching means livelihoods. The bird guides and rickshaw pullers (who also double as guides) always carry a bin or a scope. Scopes are usually Celestron or beaten up Swarovskis with one or two Nikons occasionally.
As far a binoculars are concerned, the ones that I have noted represent what is easily available in India. Quite a few Zeiss Terra EDs (8x42), a few Swarovski SLCs and ELs even, an occasional Nikon roof prism - am guessing Monarch 5s given their price point, Nikon Aculons, entry level Bushnells, a Vortex (not sure which - but a couple of friends have them), one Zeiss Dialyt - a wonderful piece, and very few old Leica Trinovids - the large light green ones.
I do recall a tourist with a modern Leica which looked like a modern 8x Trinovid from a distance.
One tourist couple from Europe had a pair of Leica 10x25s - very nice glasses.
The Park Management used to have two pairs of Swarovski porros - probably 8x42 Habichts. Need to check where and how they are. Swarovski had financed the interpretation centre in the Park many years ago.

Once in a while one sees a tourist family with large porros, could be ChinBins…

Arijit
 
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any birders out and about.
Migration picking up so I’m sure I’ll see more people next month.

1 Nikon Monarch (7 I think) 42mm yesterday
1 Nikon Monarch (7 again I think) 42mm today
+ my Nikon Monarch HG 8x30 makes it an all Nikon weekend

highlight was a Peregrine Falcon flying low overhead and then perching top of a dead tree close by; great close view. I’m not sure I’ll ever have such a wonderful view of a Peregrine again.
 
I was hiking in the mountains in Romania and I saw a cyclist with a Leica Trinovid 10x25 BCA, a woman with a Meopta Meostar ?x42mm and a man with a binoculars 10x50 with ruby coating objective lenses.
 
If I see people out and about, they mostly don't have bins. A few of the wealthier retired folk sometimes carry some matching x32 Swaros or maybe a Leica. Occasionally someone will be packing a big prosumer tele dslr.

Earlier this year when I went for a stickybeak at the river in flood, I went for a walk along the concrete walking circuit, though didn't have my bins. I didn't need them as there was an Osprey sitting on a dead tree all of about 15ft from me. So I'm just leaning on the handrail looking at this beautiful bird, and there must have been 300 people who walked behind my back on the path. I was waiting for someone to stop and say whatchyalookinat ? Not one did ! The only person to stop alongside was this older fulla on one of those electric gophers - orange flag on a stick and all ! Oh well .....

An elderly (80s) gent that I met in the middle of the bush was toting some 8x36 ED Vanguard. The 8x43 ED3 Zens were a bit of a revelation to him, but he preferred the smaller size and weight of his bins. He would probably benefit from some 8x32 SV Swaros, but I think he prefers beer and yarnin to his mates up at the club. He said I was only the 3rd person he'd seen in the bush there in 44 years !

Sometimes I see old porros etc but I rarely have an interest since most aren't glasses friendly - I wouldn't know if they're $25 fleabay specials, or cost $5000 from Christies !

As far as rarities go, I think the Canon 15x50 IS takes that mantle - I was lucky enough to borrow them for a couple of hours too ! 🙂


Chosun 👧
 

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