Binoculars are the most essential gadget that every birder possesses. Binoculars let birders enjoy the true colors of birds. No double, it’s a must-have gadget for birders but with so many models in the market, it can be daunting to find a perfect pair.
Beginners who are just new to bird watching take it more seriously and spend endless time in research and effort to find the best binocular. To make this simple, we at birdcare created this short buyer guide to give you every small detail that should be looked at while purchasing a binocular.
This is basically the best choice of other clients getting items related to binoculars for bird watching. For more options, take a look at our recomendations of Binoculars For Bird Watching or use the search box.
What to check while purchasing a binocular for bird watching
- Price of the binocular: The first thing to decide before purchasing a binocular is the price. How much price you are able to pay for a particle binocular. Top-quality and high priced binocular give you a pristine image of the object. Lower price binoculars also offers great view but with minimum quality. Some of the common issues consumers experience with cheap binocular is the loss of brightness and color, depth of field issues, chromatic aberration, fringing, and crispness. So always go for well-priced binoculars.
- Magnification of binocular: Price is not the only thing to check Magnification of the binocular is something that cannot be ignored. Magnification is the number of times an object is magnified through the binocular. The most common binocular magnification is 8x and 10x that almost every birdwatcher prefers.
- Objective lens diameter: The second most confusing criteria is “Objective lens diameter”. It is basically a lens that decides the flaw of light, how much light should be passed through the lens? An objective lens between 30-42 mm Diameter is considered best because it gives the best performance without hurting your eyes.
- Field of view: Field of view is the actual area that you see through your binocular. Remember that increased magnification decreases the field of view. In less field of view, it’s very easy to lose track of the birds as they move. That’s why a magnification between 8x-10x is preferred.
- Close focus: Close focus simply means how close the view you can get through your binocular without losing the picture quality. Smaller focus means you will get a clear picture of the object.
- Check your eyes relief: If you wear glasses, It’s important to get a binocular that doesn’t hurt your eyes. It should let you see the entire picture without any hurdle. Any binocular that offers an objective lens diameter of 42mm is considered best for people with glasses.
- Waterproof and fog proof: A binocular should be waterproof and fog proof. Waterproof means water cannot enter into the binocular up to a specific period of time such as 5 minutes or 10 minutes. If you go to a hill station with your birdwatcher binoculars, it’s obvious that your binocular lenses will be fogged up in moisture. To prevent it, companies fill dry nitrogen or argon gas in binocular instead of oxygen that makes the binocular fog proof.
These were the basic features that every birdwatcher should check to enjoy the his bird watching habit fully. However, finding the perfect binocular with the same features will be confusing and time-consuming. To made this simple. birdcare listed some of the best binoculars on this page that you should consider.
Related Products:Last update 2020-08-12. Price and product availability may change.