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To use objective covers or not (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter nodd
- Start date
I don't know why you wouldn't use objective covers especially if they are tethered to the binocular so you can quickly take them off and on without losing them like they are on your Swarovski Field Pro's. They protect your lenses and keep the dust off of them. I have tethered objective covers on all my binoculars even my EII's. I keep them on while hiking and then when I start seeing birds I pop them off.
leonardo_simon
Well-known member
I use them
Nodd,
Congrats on the fine new bin!
I have in the past always always used objective covers in the field but at the urging of a friend I have recently begun to use them only for storage and transportation - sometimes taking the covers along just in case in a pocket when in the field. This has eliminated some steps and you don't have the covers hanging off the barrels, popping back on in use and/or flapping in the wind. IME you gain more in speed and convenience than you give up in protection by taking them off. That said, it appears SW designed the new FP objective covers to be less intrusive in use, but I have also started leaving the FP objective covers off during use. Always use a rain guard though.
Enjoy those 8.5 SV FP.
Mike
Hi,
not a swaro owner but on the one pair of bins that have dangling objective covers (Pentax ED 8x32) they get used for storage and transport. I never use the bag for those - they're very well armoured so I just wrap the strap around to keep the rainguard on and put them into the backpack.
I might start a walk with the objective covers on but once they're off, they stay off as long as the bins are on my neck. The rainguard on the other hand stays on if I can help it and only gets flicked off when raising the bins.
Joachim
not a swaro owner but on the one pair of bins that have dangling objective covers (Pentax ED 8x32) they get used for storage and transport. I never use the bag for those - they're very well armoured so I just wrap the strap around to keep the rainguard on and put them into the backpack.
I might start a walk with the objective covers on but once they're off, they stay off as long as the bins are on my neck. The rainguard on the other hand stays on if I can help it and only gets flicked off when raising the bins.
Joachim
I have never used objective covers in more than 40 years observing. The only occasions I feel the objectives need protecting is when experiencing blown sand on sand dunes, or thorns while making my way through scrub or while avoiding barbed wire on fences, and in all these circumstances tucking the bins inside my jacket or holding them securely against my body has protected them well. While the binos are in the case I don't feel the need for additional protection and if handled and stored with care this has also proved sufficient.
Lee
Lee
Ian Byrnes
Well-known member
Always use mine.....but can be a bit of a fiddle at times.
Ian
Ian
MandoBear
Well-known member
I'm not sure whether that comment is brave or foolish...
but you may find an asbestos suit of more value than objective covers.
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Foss
Well-known member
Same here
Ian Byrnes
Well-known member
I don't put them back after every view....they are kept off while birding and back on when I get back in the car
Alexis Powell
Natural history enthusiast
Same here. For me, all objective covers do is get in the way, get caught on other equipment or straps of other equipment when dangling etc. I do sometimes use an ocular guard that can be flipped aside. Despite much birding in many rugged circumstances, I've never damaged a lens for lack of objective covers.
I do use them if packing my bin in a bag without a case. I might also use them in a case if the case is soft sided. I prefer cases that have a hard floor (or else I make one for them out of a piece of stiff flat plastic) so that the sides of the case can't be pushed in to rub directly against the glass. Maybe I'm paranoid, but having spent a lot of time birding and doing photography in the Middle East, I don't trust even soft cloth (such as the inner lining of a case) to be free of silica dust that can scratch.
--AP
temmie
Well-known member
I'm not sure whether that comment is brave or foolish...
but you may find an asbestos suit of more value than objective covers.
I do have an abestos suit anywhere I go (no kidding; visiting construction sites for work
)I realize my previous comment could be seen as (more than) a bit teasing, but frankly, it's a neutral observation and I swear I do not encounter objective covers in the field on any binocular I see (and I virtually know all of the birders over here).
A bit more about my personal experience: I haven't used them for more than 10 years and been travelling and birding everywhere in all circumstances, and I DO have a very tiny little nick on one objective lens. All I can think about is either it was onto something sharp while in my backpack, or I must have hit something hard and sharp while they were hanging around my neck birding (but I can't remember). This little nick is absolutely invisible looking through them, but ofcourse it will devaluate the 2nd hand value. Luckily, I never plan to sell them.
tenex
reality-based
This strikes me as much like bringing up the subject of protective filters among photographers. There still seem to be a minority who use and recommend them, whether due to a particular style of use (or carelessness?) or perhaps just on an especially expensive lens, though there doesn't always seem to be a real reason.
I have never used either one, or come to regret that. In the end I'm sure it just comes down to individual psychology.
I have never used either one, or come to regret that. In the end I'm sure it just comes down to individual psychology.
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I was once between hides at a popular reserve, looking through a finch flock high up in some trees. Another birder asked me what I was looking at, I told them. They proceeded to take their rucksack off, take out a leather case, open it up, remove what looked like Grandad's porros inside a plastic bag, once out of the bag they took off eye piece and objective covers. The covers were stowed in the bag, then back in the case then back into rucksack. They look at the flock with me and then repeated the process to restow the binoculars.
temmie
Well-known member
and this is exactly the reason why you should never ever have objective covers on while birding. You never know if you have a once in a lifetime bird sitting on a bush, and the 2 seconds you get to have a good look at the bird, you first need to take the covers off...
Worth every nick and scratch on the objective lenses for me (and mind you, I have zero scratches and one nick, and most will probably have zero scratches). I would never forgive myself if at the end of a binocular lifetime I have missed several good looks on birds while my bins are still superclean because they always had objective covers. Just my opinion!
