Looking at nature with binoculars and spotting scopes, or even monoculars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 31, 2022 I blogged about Julia Zarankin’s 2020 memoir, Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, in a post titled Birds and a world full of wonder. Binoculars (as shown above: a green 10x50 and a gray 10x22) are one of the basic tools used by birders. On page 33 she mentions that a widowed family friend loaned her late husband’s binoculars. But then she had a look through some expensive ones. On page 222 she describes going to B&H in New York City to try out and then purchase an over thousand-dollar Zeiss Conquest HD.  

 

There is a pair of recent articles on binoculars at the All About Birds web site. One on December 4, 2022 is titled How to Choose Binoculars: Our Testing Tips, and another on December 7, 2022 is titled The Cornell Lab Review: Affordable Full-Size 8x42 Binoculars. Before you get that far, and contemplate spending $300 to $500, you should look at a book, like the 2009 one by Laura Erickson titled The Bird Watching Answer Book. On page 43 in chapter 2 she discusses choosing binoculars. In the phrase 8x42 the magnification is 8X, and the objective lens diameter is 42 mm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image brightness is proportional to the lens area (pi times the radius squared), as shown above in a table. My serious 10x50 has a lens area of 1963 square mm, over five times the 380 for that compact 10x22. But that compact one only weighs 6.4 oz, and it will fit in my pants pocket. Compare with the four times heavier green 27.4 oz one that needs to hang around my neck. The compact gets taken along for summer vacation viewing on sunny days.

 

There is a bewildering variety of binoculars for sale. Before buying, you can visit an outdoor store like Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops and try looking through a bunch of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At All About Birds there is another pair of articles: one on April 6, 2007 about How to Choose a Spotting Scope, and a second on January 15, 2008 titled Scope Quest 2008: Our Review of Spotting Scopes. On page 225 of her book Julia mentions that she needed to begin a weight-training program before considering trying to tote around a spotting scope. My decade-old 60mm diameter LOMO Astele (shown above) weighs 3 pounds, but the Manfrotto 190 tripod and 410 geared head for it weigh another 8 pounds. (My scope also has a red dot finderscope). I was able to easily carry the tripod and head for a quarter mile and photograph balloons with my digital SLR camera, as described in my August 30, 2012 blog post titled After all… tomorrow is another day.

 

Craigslist is an option for buying used binoculars or scopes. I found my green 10x50 binoculars at a local pawn shop. Here in Boise we have lots of firearms enthusiasts, so there usually are some spotting scopes listed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monoculars are another inexpensive option for looking at nature. As shown above, I have a 4 oz. LOMO 10x30 Little Mak (Matsukov pocket telescope) which I bought a decade ago. It goes in my car or my vacation backpack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You also can get a tiny 8x20 pocket monocular, like the Cstar one shown above. Similar ones only are about $12 at Amazon or eBay. It will easily fit in a shirt or blouse pocket, and is decent enough for glimpsing objects on a sunny day. Remember, the best optic is the one you have with you!