G'day,
There is one important aspect to consider, often overlooked, when
selecting a pair of binoculars. See below some very interesting comments
from my good friend, Ron Johns, about his observations when working in
London, UK.
"Some years ago whilst I was helping In Focus at their optics /
book store in Piccadilly, I developed a quick and easy test to help
people buying binoculars to demonstrate that x10 binoculars would
not necessarily make it easier for them to see fine detail on birds.
The Venezuela Test, as it became known, was to read the names of the
authors shown in small typeface on the spine of the /Guide to the Birds
of Venezuela/ - the unusual names (De Schauensee and Phelps) would have
been unknown to most people, which meant that they couldn't easily guess.
Even using top-rated binoculars at c20 yards in ideal conditions (i.e.
very well lit and with no wind shake to contend with) more than 50% of
the people couldn't read the details on the spine of the book with x10,
but more often than not could with x8. I attributed this to the
inability of the majority of people to successfully hand-hold x10
binoculars. Some people couldn't read the detail with any binocular!
It was also interesting that when using a newly introduced 10x50
binocular from a leading German manufacturer none of the people tested
could read the names, although many could with a cheap pair of Russian
6x30s! By this time I had rather lost faith in claims by avid
sea-watchers to be able to see minute detail on distant seabirds in poor
light and strong wind."
Cheers - Trevor Ford.
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