The first binos I can well remember as a young lad (with acknowledgement to ‘Black Beauty’ by Anna Sewell) are the 8x30 ex-army Kershaws my father inherited from my grandfather. I didn’t know what they were at the time and when they came to me following my father’s passing I found their individual eyepiece focussing awkward to use when watching wildlife so this prompted me and Troubadoris to try out more modern porro binos with centre focussing namely Swift’s Audubon and Saratoga.
These were a revelation to us with smooth and convenient focusing and excellent optics. Note that I do not analyse the view through binos as I am only concerned with whether they can deliver useful and enjoyable views of nature and these Swifts surely did this, but they had one disadvantage: they were huge. In their cases the two of them more or less filled one of the two pannier cases that were our sole means of carrying luggage on the BMW motorcycle that was our transport at the time.
It was around this time in the early1970’s that we discovered roof prism binos with their slim optical tubes and Troubadoris opted for Leica Trinovids in 8x40 bought from Metwood Accessories whereas I was seduced by Zeiss’s Dialyt BGA from Focus Optics in 10x40, mainly on the basis that binos were about magnification and 10x seemed like the way to go and a glowing review by John Gooders the respected editor of Birds of the World that the Dialyt was a fine choice convinced me.
In some ways this was an ill-informed decision and over the next few years, and after owning a Swarovski 8.5x42 for several of them, I came to appreciate there is more to binoculars than simply magnification, qualities such as the field of view, depth of focus and steadiness of the image that lower magnifications deliver, and I eventually went the whole hog and switched to a Zeiss 8x42 FL and later an HT 8x42 and have never regretted it. I should emphasise here that I am a nature observer not a twitcher focussed on collecting new species so have never felt compelled to use higher magnifications routinely although I do use these to view long distances from our rental cottages on holidays in the west of Scotland.
One feature I find really useful is a short distance close-focus capability which allows easy close views without the need to kneel down and so trample the habitat. I use this to get closer looks at objects not only of insects but of organisms in rock pools, on rocky crags and cliff edges. In addition, in habitats rich with new species a bino with a faster focus speed can be really helpful.
In more recent times I have discovered that 32mm binos are perfectly adequate for my needs and so Zeiss’s SF8x32 is my main instrument now supported by Zeiss’s fast-focusing Conquest HD 8x32.
Lee
These were a revelation to us with smooth and convenient focusing and excellent optics. Note that I do not analyse the view through binos as I am only concerned with whether they can deliver useful and enjoyable views of nature and these Swifts surely did this, but they had one disadvantage: they were huge. In their cases the two of them more or less filled one of the two pannier cases that were our sole means of carrying luggage on the BMW motorcycle that was our transport at the time.
It was around this time in the early1970’s that we discovered roof prism binos with their slim optical tubes and Troubadoris opted for Leica Trinovids in 8x40 bought from Metwood Accessories whereas I was seduced by Zeiss’s Dialyt BGA from Focus Optics in 10x40, mainly on the basis that binos were about magnification and 10x seemed like the way to go and a glowing review by John Gooders the respected editor of Birds of the World that the Dialyt was a fine choice convinced me.
In some ways this was an ill-informed decision and over the next few years, and after owning a Swarovski 8.5x42 for several of them, I came to appreciate there is more to binoculars than simply magnification, qualities such as the field of view, depth of focus and steadiness of the image that lower magnifications deliver, and I eventually went the whole hog and switched to a Zeiss 8x42 FL and later an HT 8x42 and have never regretted it. I should emphasise here that I am a nature observer not a twitcher focussed on collecting new species so have never felt compelled to use higher magnifications routinely although I do use these to view long distances from our rental cottages on holidays in the west of Scotland.
One feature I find really useful is a short distance close-focus capability which allows easy close views without the need to kneel down and so trample the habitat. I use this to get closer looks at objects not only of insects but of organisms in rock pools, on rocky crags and cliff edges. In addition, in habitats rich with new species a bino with a faster focus speed can be really helpful.
In more recent times I have discovered that 32mm binos are perfectly adequate for my needs and so Zeiss’s SF8x32 is my main instrument now supported by Zeiss’s fast-focusing Conquest HD 8x32.
Lee
