The field of view and the magnification are interdependent - higher magnifications *means* a smaller field of view. When you think about it, that is exactly what you are seeking; to reduce your field of view down to cover only a previously small detail and magnify it so that its fills your frame of view.
Yup made the same mistake and mail ordered (remember that?) a set of
20x50 binos. As you say, they are quite difficult and distracting to use free hand, since they wobble all over the place!
In fairness to the supplier I think you ought to do the distant brick wall counting test before rejecting them as not actually 20x magnification. 16x might be easier to use in practice anyway.
I reckon binoculars are actually worth trying out in person - the balance affects how well you can hold them steady. You may find 20x something of a handful unless you are experience or using a tripod.
16x is probably about the highest hand holdable magnification.I'd recommend buying from a reputable UK optics dealer like Telescope House, Wex or Rother Valley optics rather than noname Chinese kit.
7x50 is really only any good for people aged under 40. Otherwise you are wasting some of the front lens since your iris won't open wide enough. 10x50 is common as are 16x70 but after that you are on a tripod. It takes a fair amount of practice to hold the latter steady.
For use in daylight you can stand a more magnification per inch than for night use with advantage or correspondingly smaller and lighter main front lenses since in daytime your iris aperture is typically 2-3mm.
You pay a huge amount for the last 20% improvement in optical performance as any Leica owning birder will tell you.
The image in my friend's 8x20 was awesome. Worth £700? I'd don't know.
got a pair of these
are they not x8 magnification?
no. 10x50 is what is marked on them. My dad had a pair of 8x ones which he bought in the 1920s. I think my brother inheriated them.
Is that legal?
I've just researched this. You can tell by the fact that it says "Binoculars for adults", and typo's and bad English that it's made in China.
I found the same ones that were on ebay:
The trademark registration is shown here: SOTAE, Jan 07 2021 No trademark owner shown - all the others are Chinese.
It is definitely in the eye of the beholder. They have extremely good definition and are virtually diffraction limited with no false colour.
My smallest binoculars are Nikon 10x25 a snip at about half that price.
I also have a pair of Vixen 2.1x42 widefield binoculars which are decidedly specialist kit for dark adapted eyes in dark skies.
Ditto, I then get some "budget" 10 x 50 Bresser, good enough to see the moons of Jupiter. But some while later a birder let me have a look through his CL 8 x 25 Swarovski and looking through them it was as if someone had turned the light on plus so easy to hold and carry.
I bought my 8x30 Carl Zeiss Jena binoculars in a 2nd hand shop about 35 years ago for £10. Fine for my occasional use, but I don't so star-gazing.
until the re-unification of Germany, there were tow differnt Zeiss companies. Carl Zeiss Jena were the Eastern version and there was a West German version simply Carl Zeiss. In London the two firms faced each other across a street in Fitzrovia.
image-stabilised models are available.
Yes I knew that. In the path labs in the 70's the best microscopes were Carl Zeiss Oberkochen. This was the west German branch. Very expensive and very good. Only the Consultant haematologist and other lab medical staff had them. The technical staff had to get by with Olympus (not all that good) and a motley collection of old Baker and Watson microscopes which were very good but obselete, but ok for what they were used for.
The Nikon Coolpix 1000 has a 'moon mode' setting for taking pics of craters
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required