Binoculars and Monoculars, How many PW members use either for Decoying, Bird Watching, General use, I cannot resist buying !!!!!, Now 5 Pairs and 1 Mono

[JohnfromUK]

8 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, could not resist another pair and this time 10 X 25 and Bushnell , posty should deliver today, cost £18 with signed posting, it said in VGC so will see how it goes,  

There are some cracking bargains to be had, but there is always the risk that you may end up with one that is out of alignment.  There are places that will realign the 'collimation' - but I suspect it will be expensive as it is labour intensive to strip down, clean and adjust.  I had one pair (which I think may have been my parents) that I could never get good results (seemed to get double vision) with and someone who knew about these things said that they were out of collimation, but bearing in mind that they were an inexpensive pair anyway, not worth spending on getting done.

I have a very aged set of E. Leitz and although the rubber eye cups have perished badly, they still give really good results and seem much 'easier' to get right than more recent ones.

[oldypigeonpopper]

1 minute ago, JohnfromUK said:

There are some cracking bargains to be had, but there is always the risk that you may end up with one that is out of alignment.  There are places that will realign the 'collimation' - but I suspect it will be expensive as it is labour intensive to strip down, clean and adjust.  I had one pair (which I think may have been my parents) that I could never get good results (seemed to get double vision) with and someone who knew about these things said that they were out of collimation, but bearing in mind that they were an inexpensive pair anyway, not worth spending on getting done.

I have a very aged set of E. Leitz and although the rubber eye cups have perished badly, they still give really good results and seem much 'easier' to get right than more recent ones.

Hello, Never heard of Collimation 🤔, i do not need 5 pairs so will off load 2 i think and just keep 1 good 10 X 42 , 7x15 35 Zoom and the 10 X 25 which will be handy as pocket size

[JohnfromUK]

12 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Never heard of Collimation

It is a bit like when you have a double barrelled shotgun and making both patterns cover the same 30" circle.  When you look at a distant subject, the main point of interest should be in the centre of the vision on both eyes.  When they have been dropped, the glass inside can move slightly and it isn't possible for both eyes to have quite the same image presented.  It can make them very tiring to (try to) use as your brain tries to correct the misalignment, or if bad then you seem to get double vision.  Googling Binoculars collimation gives a lot more.

[oldypigeonpopper]

1 hour ago, JohnfromUK said:

It is a bit like when you have a double barrelled shotgun and making both patterns cover the same 30" circle.  When you look at a distant subject, the main point of interest should be in the centre of the vision on both eyes.  When they have been dropped, the glass inside can move slightly and it isn't possible for both eyes to have quite the same image presented.  It can make them very tiring to (try to) use as your brain tries to correct the misalignment, or if bad then you seem to get double vision.  Googling Binoculars collimation gives a lot more.

Hello, I did google that, will remember in future, my Bushnells arrived today and so far all good

[steve_b_wales]

After selling my expensive set of Kahles binoculars, mainly through lack of use, I purchased some Hawke Nature Trek 8x42 and was very impressed with them. 

[Minky]

I've always carried a small compact pair in the top jacket pocket to identify rabbits out along hedge bottoms and if pigeons are dropping into the corn or sitting up in trees over the rape etc. The pair that I did have were 8x32 and did, but were nothing special. They fell out of the jacket pocket and something inside moved and they developed sort of double vision.  They weren't worth spending money on.  The daughters clubbed together£450 for a present for me and I replaced the old binos with a new pair of Leica compacts. All I can say is that until you take a pair of binoculars such as these out at dusk and compare against "binos" you don't know how good a TOP pair really are.  Recently I have been toying with the ida of  buying a 10x40 pair for use at longer ranges and the other day I was at a friend's and he had a pair of Zeiss dialyt 7x42 hanging on his workshop door to view the deer that come out of his woods to feed on his fields at dusk. I  asked if I could look through them down into the tree line edge of the wood. The pentration and contrast clarity through the trees and overhanging branches was exceptional.  The price is high but so is the clarity. AND you can't take it with you. 

[JohnfromUK]

22 minutes ago, Minky said:

I've always carried a small compact pair in the top jacket pocket to identify rabbits out along hedge bottoms and if pigeons are dropping into the corn or sitting up in trees over the rape etc. The pair that I did have were 8x32 and did, but were nothing special. They fell out of the jacket pocket and something inside moved and they developed sort of double vision.  They weren't worth spending money on.  The daughters clubbed together£450 for a present for me and I replaced the old binos with a new pair of Leica compacts. All I can say is that until you take a pair of binoculars such as these out at dusk and compare against "binos" you don't know how good a TOP pair really are.  Recently I have been toying with the ida of  buying a 10x40 pair for use at longer ranges and the other day I was at a friend's and he had a pair of Zeiss dialyt 7x42 hanging on his workshop door to view the deer that come out of his woods to feed on his fields at dusk. I  asked if I could look through them down into the tree line edge of the wood. The pentration and contrast clarity through the trees and overhanging branches was exceptional.  The price is high but so is the clarity. AND you can't take it with you. 

You will find that in good light your Leica compacts will be very hard to beat.  They have to follow the laws of physics and like all compacts - will be at a disadvantage in light gathering as the light fails - which is where the bigger set will be better.  Bigger also has a wider field of view.  However, the laws of physics also cover the weight and the light compacts are so easy to have with you - and that alone is worth a lot.

I bought some Leica 10 x 50s about 30 years ago.  They are fantastic in low light (still), but the weight and size mean that they are seldom used - whereas my 8 x 20s get regular use (as does the 8 x 20 monocular).

[holloway]

55 minutes ago, Minky said:

I've always carried a small compact pair in the top jacket pocket to identify rabbits out along hedge bottoms and if pigeons are dropping into the corn or sitting up in trees over the rape etc. The pair that I did have were 8x32 and did, but were nothing special. They fell out of the jacket pocket and something inside moved and they developed sort of double vision.  They weren't worth spending money on.  The daughters clubbed together£450 for a present for me and I replaced the old binos with a new pair of Leica compacts. All I can say is that until you take a pair of binoculars such as these out at dusk and compare against "binos" you don't know how good a TOP pair really are.  Recently I have been toying with the ida of  buying a 10x40 pair for use at longer ranges and the other day I was at a friend's and he had a pair of Zeiss dialyt 7x42 hanging on his workshop door to view the deer that come out of his woods to feed on his fields at dusk. I  asked if I could look through them down into the tree line edge of the wood. The pentration and contrast clarity through the trees and overhanging branches was exceptional.  The price is high but so is the clarity. AND you can't take it with you. 

A quality binocular will always give you a bit of a wow factor when you look through it the good thing is until you do you wont know haw ordinary most are.

[London Best]

10 hours ago, holloway said:

A quality binocular will always give you a bit of a wow factor when you look through it the good thing is until you do you wont know haw ordinary most are.

And the same applies to rifle scopes.

[samboy]

The money i have spent on bino's over the years i could of bought a pair of Swar's, Zeiss and Leica. 

[London Best]

For thirty years I used a pair of Opticron High Resolution 8x42 for woodland stalking. In Africa I was impressed by a friend’s Zeiss 8x42 and splashed out and bought some when I returned home. I took them to Africa a couple of times and they were fine. But for stalking in the woods at home they were not so good as the old Opticrons. The problem was the Zeiss were too critical to focus quickly. The penetration through leaves/cover was much better when there was time to fiddle about getting the exact focus, but the field of view seemed less and the depth of focus was less than the Opticrons. 
I sold the Zeiss to a nice chap on this forum at a price which was satisfactory to both parties and returned to using Opticron High Resolution.

[Minky]

15 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

You will find that in good light your Leica compacts will be very hard to beat.  They have to follow the laws of physics and like all compacts - will be at a disadvantage in light gathering as the light fails - which is where the bigger set will be better.  Bigger also has a wider field of view.  However, the laws of physics also cover the weight and the light compacts are so easy to have with you - and that alone is worth a lot.

I bought some Leica 10 x 50s about 30 years ago.  They are fantastic in low light (still), but the weight and size mean that they are seldom used - whereas my 8 x 20s get regular use (as does the 8 x 20 monocular).

It's just what  my situation is the Leicas pretty much cover most of what I would require from glass.   The only thing which I run a bit short on is that when we go down to the sea and view ships going down the  channel.  I  can determine what they are but I would like a bit more reach out to them.  But the weight and size factor comes into it.   Can I afford to buy another pair. ?  Can I justify buying a pair.?  Will I  look like either a geekoid bird watcher or a voyeur with a big pair hanging around my neck.?  Still when down at the coast there are quite a lot of ....People with big binos and telescopes and tripods etc.

Ps. How is the field of view with 10x mag as opposed to 7x and how is the stability factor of 10x in comparison to 7x

Pps. The difficulty is that there are not many specialist places out there and not much individual shop stock to look at and the next thing is that you can't get much of any sort of true impression of the viewing potential of the lens.  When I bought my Leicas the guy was a small obscure dealer who let me try the Leicas and a pair of Swarovski and another top grade pair.  I was sent out to corridor to look out of a window through the glasses for as long as I liked.  There wasn't  much between all of them but I felt that the Leicas had a better  colour rendition than the others.  He didn't even come out there.  All he was interested in was watching England play France at Rugby.  I  said blimey you are pretty trusting letting me go out there with that lot.  I could have bolted up the road. He said that I looked like a decent sort of fellow.  Unfortunately he went out of business. He used to go round places at the weekend where birdwatchers used to congregate.   He was Kays optics of Morden if I remember correctly. 

I. Must have spent over half an hour going from one pair to another and back again !