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Message: <blockquote data-quote="james holdsworth" data-source="post: 3304976" data-attributes="member: 79864">I bird everyday, in different scenarios all the time but very rarely do I pine for image stabilization. Most of the time, we make the ID and move on and any added detail with IS might be great for reading bands or counting scutes, but not really helpful in normal birding. The added negatives of the IS will often outweigh the benefits, IMO.If and when I do feel IS could help, it would be shorebirds, raptors or lakewatches and then I would want something with more punch, like a 18 or 20x. I see no need for a 8 or 10 x stabilized binocular for 90% of my birding and it would seem most agree as IS bins are virtually ignored.I agree on variable focus. On both the FL and HT, although the focus is really nice, to get down to the actual CF requires labourious cranking that takes time and gets tiresome after a while. The HD focus speed is perfect but the optics still lag a bit.</blockquote>