How To Choose Birding Binoculars

May 27, 2009

Do you have an interest in entering the hobby of bird watching?  Bird watching is as much an art as it is a hobby.  Therefore, it requires binoculars which are suitable for bird watching.  This will make your bird watching pastime more fun and rewarding.  Not just any old pair of binoculars will do.  We’ll give you some of the important things to consider when buying binoculars to successfully enter the world of bird watching. This information is also great for those bird watching for beginners enthusiasts. 

Select binoculars that have significant magnification power.  If you can’t clearly see the birds you will not be able to appreciate their detail and not their habits from a safe distance.  You don’t want to creep in to closely.  Birds will only fly away.  The solution is high magnification binoculars.

Binoculars are marketed with two numbers and a multiplication sign between them.  This is called the magnification indicator.  Binoculars marked 8×40 offer eight times more magnification that normal, healthy eyesight.  The number to the right of the multiplication sign indicates the amount of light the binocular allows into the prism.

The higher the lighting number, the easier it is to see in poorer lighting conditions.  That isn’t to say that a magnification followed by a 30 wouldn’t be sufficient.  It would not be as optimal as the forty when you begin bird watching. 

It is certainly tempting to go out and buy the highest magnification you can find to optimize your bird watching experience.  The problems with that are twofold.  One, the higher the magnification the heavier the equipment is and the more difficult it is to maintain.  A magnification of 10x is best for highly trained bird watchers or professionals.  If you are starting out go for a 7x or 8x magnification, at least until you get the hang of the hobby.  The other reason to wait on a more advanced purchase is because the difference in cost can be significant.  Professional, highly accurate 10x magnification binoculars will cost a lot more than 7x or 8x binoculars.  Start at the lower end.  If you grow to love bird watching, you can increase the quality of your equipment over time. 

There are a few other things to keep in mind when buying binoculars for bird watching.  Before you buy always compare.  Get a feel for the binoculars; compare them to comparable brands and prices.  Then, choose the brand with which you are the most comfortable.  Also, spectacle wearers should use scopes that have a minimum of 15mm of eve relief and also have a foldable eye piece.  Another important factor is the exit pupil which is where balance, design, weather proofing, focusing and safety coating become a factor.  These things can contribute to, or detract from the quality of your binocular.

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