I think that's a habitat/terrain thing. HERE...I RARELY see a 10X42. There's a good chance one would more than likely fall behind in bird count with 10X and 330ft FOV. Most in my birding group have 8X42s of some type. Last time I made note of the brands...Zeiss(3), Swarovski(1), Nikon(3), Levenhuk(1), Bushnell(1), Eagle Optics(1), Vanguard(1). There will occasionally be a 8X32 Ultravid and occasionally a 7X42 Trinovid BA. The Zeiss units were an HT, a Conquest HD 42mm and my SF 32mm. The Swarovski was a EL 8.5X42 non Swarovision. Most of these guys/gals are average or better birders too.
But PS....an avid birder generally doesn't give a rip about what binocular everyone else is carrying.
Perfect! I hope its Ok with you Chuck to reveal, but we have exchanged photos of where we bird. Our respective terrain appeared really quite different, mine open, no cover, large salt marsh, and San Francisco Bay, migratory waterfowl and shore birds. Chuck's seemed very different at least in the few pics we swapped.
I agree, birders are busy birding, binos along for the ride!
How's this for a theory? (Perhaps its been covered here before if so somebody shut me down.) We each contribute from our own place, express opinions, offer advice, differ in our experience. Almost never though it seems, do we calibrate or provide context. Most, I gather don't know each other personally, have never met, don't have a clue about age, stature, size, fitness, and even though often described as a variable, facial characteristics. Do you carry a scope, a long lens camera, or is it just binos and go?These offered as examples of calibration things. Which bino we like is partly a function of these personal characteristics... no?
Then there's context, where we bird, what kind of birds are we looking for, the stuff alluded to above. I was emailing with another from the forum a bit ago. It was revealed this person birds from his home, looking out over terrain, is mostly stable, to include his hand position on binos, he's not moving about. I on the other hand bird and hike, averaging 4 miles a go. I'm constantly on the move, except when I stop to check out a vantage place. Ducks, Geese, Kites, an occasional, (but rare) owl, flying about, tracking above with that limited ol' 330 FOV... er 34' @ the more likely 100 yds. While I like identifying and I do keep a list, my joy, the thing that keeps me coming is that frame filling, macro-like view of a rareish duck or 2 doing their thing. I have written about watching the adult breeding female Goldeneye, flipping a crab about trying to orient it so she could swallow it as I stared through my binos from a bridge looking down 20 yards away. I think, I think, my choice of 10 and the reason most birders here as well seem to choose 10 is the terrain and the birds.
Calibration and context.... what do you think?
