Relative Brightness
Gathering and transmitting enough of the available light to provide a sufficiently bright and sharp image define the brightness of a pair of binoculars. Brightness is certainly one factor to consider when determining the best pair of binoculars for you, but is not usually the most important. After all, most of your bird watching likely will be during well lit conditions when birds are active.
Eye Relief
Eye Relief is the distance, measured in millimeters (mm), that binoculars can be held from the eye and the full field of view can still be observed comfortably. Those who wear eyeglass in particular benefit from longer eye relief. Normally a minimum rating of 15mm will be needed for those wearing eyeglasses.
While the ultimate choice is one of personal preference, generally full size binoculars ranging anywhere from 7x30 to 8.5x50 are preferred and considered the most popular range in magnification and objective lens size for bird watching. For instance, binoculars with an 8x42 configuration feature a 42mm objective lens size which provides ample light gathering capabilities in even lower light conditions and an 8x magnification allows you to steady the binoculars much more readily than with significantly higher powers, making the task of bird identification easier. Some birders with steady hands may prefer 10 power binoculars or greater.
Please remember that as you increase the power of your binoculars, less light will be gathered and therefore the viewing field will be reduced as well. It is also very difficult to keep an image steady at very high magnifications using standard hand held binoculars. A tripod is often necessary to steady an image at higher magnifications. A good alternative though for those seeking the option of high power magnification is a pair of binoculars with a zoom feature. This gives you the option of higher magnifications without the limitations of fixed, high power binoculars that can be a bit unwieldy.
Support Staff - the Outdoor Nature Resource.com
Optics from theOutdoor Nature Resource.com
Gathering and transmitting enough of the available light to provide a sufficiently bright and sharp image define the brightness of a pair of binoculars. Brightness is certainly one factor to consider when determining the best pair of binoculars for you, but is not usually the most important. After all, most of your bird watching likely will be during well lit conditions when birds are active.
Eye Relief
Eye Relief is the distance, measured in millimeters (mm), that binoculars can be held from the eye and the full field of view can still be observed comfortably. Those who wear eyeglass in particular benefit from longer eye relief. Normally a minimum rating of 15mm will be needed for those wearing eyeglasses.
Best Binoculars for Birding
While the ultimate choice is one of personal preference, generally full size binoculars ranging anywhere from 7x30 to 8.5x50 are preferred and considered the most popular range in magnification and objective lens size for bird watching. For instance, binoculars with an 8x42 configuration feature a 42mm objective lens size which provides ample light gathering capabilities in even lower light conditions and an 8x magnification allows you to steady the binoculars much more readily than with significantly higher powers, making the task of bird identification easier. Some birders with steady hands may prefer 10 power binoculars or greater.
Please remember that as you increase the power of your binoculars, less light will be gathered and therefore the viewing field will be reduced as well. It is also very difficult to keep an image steady at very high magnifications using standard hand held binoculars. A tripod is often necessary to steady an image at higher magnifications. A good alternative though for those seeking the option of high power magnification is a pair of binoculars with a zoom feature. This gives you the option of higher magnifications without the limitations of fixed, high power binoculars that can be a bit unwieldy.
Support Staff - the Outdoor Nature Resource.com
Optics from theOutdoor Nature Resource.com
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