On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Rob Geraghty <> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Sadly my eyesight isn't what it used to be - too many hours too close to
> computers screens. I've seen a lot of birders with spotting scopes, but
> these seem excessively cumbersome unless I could get one that was adaptable
> for a camera. Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of binoculars to
> use for birding? More importantly - any suggestions of where in Canberra or
> Sydney to buy them?
>
> I found an Australian website to buy binoculars online, but last time I
> bought a pair I found I had to try a dozen before I found a pair that were
> comfortable. Can't try binoculars with an online store! :(
>
> I don't want to spend a huge amount of money on binoculars or a scope. I'd
> rather spend money on a new camera or lens. What do people generally use?
> I'm finding my current binoculars not quite up to the job at only 8x
> magnification, although the poor image quality is more of a problem.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology published a comparison of a goodly number
of binoculars covering a wide price range that you might find useful:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Publications/LivingBird/Winter2005/Age_Binos.html
A few general points:
* The best place to buy optics in Australia seems to be New York ;-)
Even with the crash of the $A, prices from the US are still
considerably cheaper than buying the same item here in Australia.
Chances are, this may prove even more true going forward as US
importers start using stronger $US to resupply their stocks.
* Magnification is less important than optical quality. If I
understand it rightly, 2x makes 100m look like 50m so you've just
gotten the single biggest gain you're going to get (50m) even if you
go to 10x (100m looks like 10m - a net gain of 40m over the 2x). If I
understand how it works...For sure I can say that in the real world a
good 7x model is lighter and gives better results than a cheaper 8x or
10x binocular.
* I've had very good results from Pentax scopes and binoculars. You
get most (only most) of the quality of high end optics (Zeiss, etc.)
at a fraction of the cost. Apart from that they're comfortable. I've
bought 4 pairs at various price points for my wife and I over the past
10 years and would say we've also gotten excellent value for money.
* As to putting a scope on your camera, it's easier to sort out if you
pick one (camera or scope) first as some combinations are supported by
OEM adapters, others by popular third party adapters, and others are
hard to do.
Best of luck.
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
