BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="etudiant" data-source="post: 3470146" data-attributes="member: 48052">It is true that few birders use stabilized binoculars. They are rare even here in my NYC Central Park patch. I've only ever seen one with a guide, on a pelagic off Japan. The benefit of stabilization is a much clearer view of the bird. They really make it much easier to spot features on small, moving or remote targets.They combine the ease of use and flexibility of binoculars with some of the extra resolving power of a scope, without the clumsiness and weight of a scope/tripod. I quite agree that the emergence of super zoom cameras opens the door to more optics advancement, ideally perhaps a way to ditch the tripod while still getting good stable scope views. The camera displays are still no substitute for a binocular view though, so I don't think there is immediate  impact on stabilized binoculars.Note that Sony offers the DEV-50, stabilized electronic binoculars with 25x zoom and HD recording, perhaps an indication of where this is headed. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>