BINOCULARS

woodworker414 wrote:
Good afternoon everyone.
As I have mentioned. We plan to purchase a Lance 1172 next spring. And just thinking about what we wan to carry with u.
Yesterday we were exploring in the Withlacoochee State Forest here in central FL. Brenda spotted some large birds up the creek. Well the binoculars that I had with me were not very good. They were given to me. We finally decided that they were Sandhill cranes all puffed up because of the cold breeze.
So we thought we needed to get a better par.
We do not know anything about binoculars
Was wondering what all you folks are using?

Don't think (can gaurantee they were not) sandhill cranes, they don't use trees. Probably were great blue herons, they use trees for roosting and rookeries in large groups. Sandhills fly w their neck extended and herons fold their neck into an "s" when in flight. My area in Central Idaho is Sandhill (Bear Valley Turkey) breeding range. They are incredile to be around and have a haunting call.

Read something the other day about eyes and how they age and the ratio of magnification to diameter. For someone in the early 60's the proper ratio typically was 5 - 5.5 making 8x42, or 8.5 x 42 a good bet.

10x are hard to hold steady, 15x-18x needs a tripod and are useful for hours of scanning(i.e. mule deer hunting in open country.) 30 mm doesn't gather enough light in low light for hunting and birding and 50 mm and larger are heavy and bulky for hiking.

Swaroski EL 8.5 x 42 is what I'm after. Zeiss, Swaroski, and Leica are considered top 3 brands. Vortex is a great company that provides excellent service. I have a Kowa spotting scope that's top notch, but nowhere near the top 3 in price but very acceptable build and optics.