Glare Monsters! (3 Viewers)

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What are the two best birding binoculars you have used that controlled glare the best, and what are the two worst you have used for glare? Glare control is very important in a birding binocular because there are so many times when you are looking close to the sun, or you are looking up at odd angles and glare and sometimes veiling glare will destroy your view. What have you noticed that affects glare? Do binoculars with bigger aperture control glare better? Do WA binoculars have more glare than binoculars with a smaller FOV? Do some brands of binoculars control glare better than others? Let's talk about glare and what you can do to control it and get rid of it. Here are my choices for the two best and the two worst binoculars for glare.

Best Binoculars for Controlling Glare.

1) Zeiss FL 8x56
2) Swarovski SLC 8x56


Worst Binoculars for Controlling Glare.

1) Nikon M7 8x30
2) Swarovski Habicht 8x30 W

 

[dries1]

According to Cornell's review of 8X32s the M7 wins, so how could it be a glare monster. I had an image of Cornell West doing the review and LMOL.

 

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According to Cornell's review of 8X32s the M7 wins, so how could it be a glare monster. I had an image of Cornell West doing the review and LMOL.

That was my personal experience with the M7 but remember not every binocular is going to show glare for every user. It depends on how the binoculars fits your face and interacts with your eyes and brain. Some people don't see glare with any binoculars. From a post by F88 and the thread link.

Nikon Monarch M7 / Kite Lynx HD x30s - Still Veiling Glare?

Hi all, I'm still in the market for a light, compact, high quality 10x30 roof prism for use as a travel / backup / take-with-me-when-just-pottering-about binocular. I like the M7 and Kite Lynx but don't currently own either as I couldn't get past the veiling glare that both suffered from when...

www.birdforum.net

A Monarch 7 8x30 for a couple of days

A friend of mine wanted to buy a new bino as a present for her husband. Intended for hiking, canoeing and bicyclng it had to be small enough without being a compact. I helped her decide on a Nikon Monarch 7 8x30, which was available for € 252,- delivered. It arrived at my doorstep, so the hubbie...

www.birdforum.net

"I strongly agree with Dennis. The M7 8x30 suffers from glare more than any other binoculars I've tried. Sometimes it can go unnoticed and when it does, they are quite good for their tiny size, but when it shows it's terrible, and it can happen when you wouldn't particularly think it would.I participated in another thread where this wasn't the main topic but came up and in that thread I mentioned how I never sought out glare or even remotely pointed them at the sun, it just happened and then with further use became evident that there were too many situations where glare completely washed out the view of color and contrast. I really wanted to like the little M7 and even thought I could relegate them to a backpack pair, but the "Glare Monster" won, and they had to go.I'm happy to hear that people are having success with them, but for me, the above was their "fatal flaw"."

 

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According to Cornell's review of 8X32s the M7 wins, so how could it be a glare monster. I had an image of Cornell West doing the review and LMOL.

Which of your binoculars are the most glare resistant, and which show the most glare?

 

[has530]

For me the worst was the Hawke Frontier EDX 8x32. I loved everything else about them but golly at least half the FOV was washed out by veiling glare under almost all lighting conditions. The best probably the meostars or 7x42 SLC.

 

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For me the worst was the Hawke Frontier EDX 8x32. I loved everything else about them but golly at least half the FOV was washed out by veiling glare under almost all lighting conditions. The best probably the meostars or 7x42 SLC.

I guess that supports the aperture theory. It seems the bigger the EP the better because the glare passes the field stop of the binocular and never reaches your eyes.

 

[has530]

I guess that supports the aperture theory. It seems the bigger the EP the better because the glare passes the field stop of the binocular and never reaches your eyes.

I'm guessing you mean that the glare doesn't enter your pupil because the EP is larger than the pupil of your eye so the iris blocks the stray light? I kind of hinted at that idea here (Post in thread 'Veiling glare: a bird club's unanimous verdict on my 8x32 EL FP' Veiling glare: a bird club's unanimous verdict on my 8x32 EL FP). However I think that is only part of the story. Internal baffling, AR coatings, and optical design all play a roll. For example my 8x20 UV had better glare control than my 8x42 Legend M and likewise my 8x32 meostar has better glare control than my 8x42 UV or 10x50 Nikon action EX.

 

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I'm guessing you mean that the glare doesn't enter your pupil because the EP is larger than the pupil of your eye so the iris blocks the stray light? I kind of hinted at that idea here (Post in thread 'Veiling glare: a bird club's unanimous verdict on my 8x32 EL FP' Veiling glare: a bird club's unanimous verdict on my 8x32 EL FP). However I think that is only part of the story. Internal baffling, AR coatings, and optical design all play a roll. For example my 8x20 UV had better glare control than my 8x42 Legend M and likewise my 8x32 meostar has better glare control than my 8x42 UV or 10x50 Nikon action EX.

I agree. Internal baffling plays a major role in reducing glare, and Leica seems to be excellent at that in general, especially in the 8x32 UVHD. I believe the newer WA alpha binoculars like the NL and SF are less glare resistant than the previous generation EL and FL because of the eyepiece design that is necessary to achieve the huge FOV's that they have. The Habicht 7x42 uses a simple 3 element Kellner eyepiece versus the WA 6 element eyepiece used in the Habicht 8x30, and it has much less glare at the expense of a narrow FOV. Every thing in binocular design seems to be tradeoffs. You improve one thing at the cost of decreasing performance in another area. One thing I have noticed when I was trying a lot of different 8x56 binoculars is that in general they are very good at controlling glare, so I attribute that to the huge EP.

 

[William Lewis]

Kowa 8x25 svii

 

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Kowa 8x25 svii

I have always wondered about those. How good are they at controlling glare?

 

[has530]

I agree. Internal baffling plays a major role in reducing glare, and Leica seems to be excellent at that in general, especially in the 8x32 UVHD. I believe the newer WA alpha binoculars like the NL and SF are less glare resistant than the previous generation EL and FL because of the eyepiece design that is necessary to achieve the huge FOV's that they have. The Habicht 7x42 uses a simple 3 element Kellner eyepiece versus the WA 6 element eyepiece used in the Habicht 8x30, and it has much less glare at the expense of a narrow FOV. Every thing in binocular design seems to be tradeoffs. You improve one thing at the cost of decreasing performance in another area. One thing I have noticed when I was trying a lot of different 8x56 binoculars is that in general they are very good at controlling glare, so I attribute that to the huge EP.

I think it may be actually just about everything else but the eyepiece design that makes wide angle binos have more glare. If you have a narrower FOV you can be more aggressive with baffling without worrying about clipping the light cone and vignetting, you can have smaller prisms which are easier to stop leaks, you have fewer rays incident to lenses at higher angles (and can get away with slower objectives) which reduce scattering, and you also inherently have a smaller field stop diameter which blocks stray light from entering the eyepiece.

 

[has530]

I have always wondered about those. How good are they at controlling glare?

They are bad. (Kowa 8x25 SV vs. BD Brief Comparison) not unusable but definitely one of the worse pairs I have used.

 

[William Lewis]

I have always wondered about those. How good are they at controlling glare?

Absolutely terrible.

 

[Patudo]

This was just one month ago. Was d***o trying to sell one then?

I experienced the glare Henry talked about on an older pair of Habicht 8x30's I had, but I bought a new pair of Habicht 8x30's about two weeks ago, and I believe Swarovski has corrected the problem because I duplicated the situations where I had glare before, and I don't have it anymore! My S/N AA1315882A.

 

[S_Man]

According to Cornell's review of 8X32s the M7 wins, so how could it be a glare monster. I had an image of Cornell West doing the review and LMOL.

I'm happy to see that recent review, as have I just replaced my main pair with the small M7 8x30, but I have to agree that glare is present...

Not sure if this is the same phenomenon, but the second day I used them, I had a sunset behind me, and a very strong reflection was there... happily enough it happened only on the side, the field of view itself was not concerned, so it was more a disturbance than a serious optical problem.

I suppose it's mostly an issue if you have short hair and low backlight?

I haven't noticed any "flare" though (at least not yet!), when looking in the direction of the Sun...

 

[John A Roberts]

I experienced the glare Henry talked about on an older pair of Habicht 8x30's I had, but I bought a new pair of Habicht 8x30's about two weeks ago, and I believe Swarovski has corrected the problem because I duplicated the situations where I had glare before, and I don't have it anymore! My S/N AA1315882A.

This was just one month ago. Was d***o trying to sell one then?

Earlier this week on an obscure sales site:




John

 

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Absolutely terrible.

A lot of pocket and compact binoculars seem to show a lot of glare. Maybe the small EP.

 

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I'm happy to see that recent review, as have I just replaced my main pair with the small M7 8x30, but I have to agree that glare is present...

Not sure if this is the same phenomenon, but the second day I used them, I had a sunset behind me, and a very strong reflection was there... happily enough it happened only on the side, the field of view itself was not concerned, so it was more a disturbance than a serious optical problem.

I suppose it's mostly an issue if you have short hair and low backlight?

I haven't noticed any "flare" though (at least not yet!), when looking in the direction of the Sun...

The M7 8x30 is a good binocular, but it has always had glare issues. The M7 8x42 handles glare better, probably because of the bigger aperture. I think the toughest glare situation is when you are looking close to a setting sun. The only binocular I have found that will handle it is the big 8x56's. What do you mean by short hair?

 

[S_Man]

The M7 8x30 is a good binocular, but it has always had glare issues. The M7 8x42 handles glare better, probably because of the bigger aperture. I think the toughest glare situation is when you are looking close to a setting sun. The only binocular I have found that will handle it is the big 8x56's. What do you mean by short hair?

I only get glares when light comes from behind me with my M7 8x30 (and outside of the exit pupil)... so longer hair (or a hoodie, etc.) would prevent any light from this direction!

Otoh I have never seen any flares or unexpected reflection (ie glares) in the field of view, when looking toward a light (and I tried at night, and with the sunlight - not directly of course).

 

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I think it may be actually just about everything else but the eyepiece design that makes wide angle binos have more glare. If you have a narrower FOV you can be more aggressive with baffling without worrying about clipping the light cone and vignetting, you can have smaller prisms which are easier to stop leaks, you have fewer rays incident to lenses at higher angles (and can get away with slower objectives) which reduce scattering, and you also inherently have a smaller field stop diameter which blocks stray light from entering the eyepiece.

Excellent point. Those are good reasons to stay away from the WA binoculars, like the NL and SF. I HATE glare. Anymore I would rather have an average size FOV with less glare than a huge FOV with a lot of glare. What good is that huge FOV if you can't see anything in it because of the glare.