01.02.2024 18:36
How to Choose Marine Binocular for Marine Use
First off, a couple important features. All marine binoculars should be filled with an inner gas - nitrogen, argon, something like that so that they don't fog up inside when they go through a very drastic temperature change, which can just be walking from the cabin to out on deck. It's very important. Secondly, obviously since we're talking about marine binoculars, they need to be waterproof. There are two numbers you need to be aware of that go a long way in helping you understand a pair of binoculars. This right here is 7 by 50. The 7 stands for how many times the binoculars magnify. The 50 stands for the objective lens diameter, and this tells you basically how large the lenses are. Larger is generally thought of as better because it lets in more light. Standard marine binoculars like these are commonly 7 by somewhere between 30 to 50. Now, here's why it's important to stay with marine binoculars. I have another binoculars and it’s not marine. These are just regular binoculars. These are 10 times magnification, so they're even stronger than this pair, right? But they're 10 by 20s. When I hold these up and look through them, there is so much motion that on a boat, it'd be hopeless to ever try and focus in on anything. Now, binoculars like these, you can get a couple, few hundred dollars. If you can spend a little bit more, you can get a pair with gyroscopic stabilization. Now these cost about a thousand dollars, but the gyroscopic stabilization allows you to use a much stronger magnification. These here are 14 times, and that gyroscopic ability takes the motion out of being on the boat. You can even tell the difference with your hand jitters standing here like this. For instance, if I look, there's some movement there. But when I hit the gyroscope, that's pretty intense. The down side to the gyrobinocs, plain and simple, is cost. Now, there are a couple other considerations to keep in mind. Some people like binoculars that have compasses built in, that can be helpful. Some have range finders. And don't forget to consider weight. Really heavy binoculars do get tiring after hours and hours on the boat. There are a few other details you may want to research depending on how in-depth you want to get as you're looking at your binoculars. Things like different lens coatings, etc. But we've covered the important points here. We've covered the big items. Which binoculars are right for you? Well, that's a decision that only you can make. There are a few things that are more fun and more important to have on board a boat than a pair of good binoculars. But it can be a little intimidating to go into a store and see the wide range of binoculars that are available. So let's take a look at some of the features that differentiates one set of binoculars from another.Waterproof (Water-Resistant) Feature
The first thing is that marine binoculars are different than normal sports binoculars because they're inevitably waterproof or at least highly water-resistant. And this includes being filled with dry nitrogen to prevent them from fogging up inside. If you've ever picked up an old pair of binoculars and look through and see it sort of drips on the inside of the lenses that's because water can condense inside. So the binoculars that are used in the marine industry are filled with dry nitrogen gas so that they don't fog up.Rubber Coating
Another important difference is that most marine binoculars have a rubber coating on the outside. This does two things - one is that it keeps them from sliding around as the boats in motion and the other thing is that just protects the binoculars against hard bumps, of course any binocular is better off when you don't drop it or subject it to too much motion.Magnification
At the risk of sounding condescending by giving you well-known info, magnification refers to how close the binoculars will make images further away appear, and it’s expressed by a figure representing how many times the object you’re looking at has been magnified, followed by an “x.” Although it is the most important feature of binoculars, too much magnification can have its downsides. If the object is brought too close, then you risk losing all the background, which will prove very confusing. Furthermore, handshaking will seriously affect the stability of the image, if we don’t use support.
For common purposes, the sweet spot between long reach and practicality is at around 8x-10x magnification. Choose more than that only if you want to use the binoculars for looking at objects that are very far, like ships off to sea. Smaller, and your piece will only be good for watching ball games and theater plays.
So one of the key features of a binocular is the magnification. Normally, when you're on a boat, you can hold steady up to about a 7 power binocular. If you get over 7 power just the motion of the boat and the motion of your body and your hands mix the view to unsteady. So you'll find most marine binoculars have seven power magnification. If you're going to sporting events something like the Lake Champlain binoculars have ten power and so this gives you it magnifies more brings objects closer but again that's because you're sitting in the bleachers of a stadium or someplace and not on a moving boat. So smaller binoculars with greater magnification although they're handy are generally restricted to land use.
Stabilized Binoculars
One exception to that rule is if you're using stabilized binoculars. They have a gyroscopic stabilization inside which takes out the movement of the boat and the movement of your hand and stabilizes the image. So in this case, these are 12 power binoculars, so with 12 power it gives you very good close-up views that a very steady view at the same time. So for most uses we'll use 7 power on land, we can usually use 10 power, or so, and if you have stabilized binoculars you can go 12 or 15 power.Objective Lens Diameter
The second thing that you want to look for in marine binoculars is the objective lens diameter. By the objective lens we're talking about the large lens on the part that's away from your face. So for example binoculars have a 42 millimeter objective lens, so the distance from one side of the other is 42 millimeter. The most common size in marine binoculars is 50 millimeters. Now there's a reason for this. The greater the objective lens diameter the more light it lets in. now in brightly lit conditions that's not that big a deal because when you're in daytime you don't actually need the full light gathering ability of a 50 millimeter lens, but as you get darker and darker and darker either at dawn or a dusk or in the middle of the night, having the greater light gathering ability of a larger lens is a really good feature. The reason these are 50 millimeters is because this is a 7 power binocular. If you take the objective lens diameter and divide it by the power, it determines what's called the exit pupil, which is the little disc of light that you see when you hold binoculars at arm's length. The exit pupil for a 7 by 50 pair of binoculars is 7 millimeters well that's the same size as your eye when it's dilated. So if you had bigger lenses or lower power and combination you actually couldn't utilize the light because you couldn't get it into your eye to see. So we find that a 7 by 50 binocular is the normal ratio.Focusing
the next feature to look for is focusing. All binoculars need to be focused for two different reasons. One is the difference in the prescription between your right eye and your left eye and the other is to make an adjustment for the distance at which you're viewing. So there are two distinct types of focusing. The old style of focusing uses an independently adjusted eyepiece for each eye. Now with center focus you still can adjust the left and right differences. This is how it works. I would look at an object to say across the way say a couple of hundred feet away. And one of these eyepieces is adjustable and the other is fixed. so I would adjust the center focus for the eye that is on the fixed eyepiece and then I would close that eye and adjust the other one using the adjustment the diopter adjustment. In the end what that does is it corrects the binoculars for your left right vision differences and then from then on you just use the center adjuster so it's much much easier. It used to be that to get waterproof binoculars you couldn't get them and have them be center focus now virtually all binoculars are center focus and it's a really really good feature to look. For there are two normal styles of the prisms that are in the binocular. These are called roof prism binoculars. Roof prism binoculars have sort of stacked pieces of glass inside of them and so they have a classic sort of tubular look, the light path doesn't go around angles or at least you can't determine that it does. And the advantage is that you get something that's very compact and fits in your hands. So many many outdoor binoculars and sporting events binoculars will be a roof prism style.Field of view
Or how much of the background will “fit” inside the range of the binoculars. This is usually expressed in degrees or in units of a size set for a particular distance (e.g., 300 yards at 1000 yards). A lot of magnification naturally diminishes how much of the background you can see, so a wide field of view will be especially important for 10x-16x binoculars. Activities that involve watching fast-moving objects, such as birds will require it the most, but a wide field of view will help in any situation since it makes it less confusing to focus upon relatively close objects using powerful binoculars. The minimum focus distance will also be important if your intention is to watch nature up close since it will make small nearby objects, such as dragonflies, butterflies or fish appear clearly to the observer. The minimum focus distance for good binoculars should fall below 10 feet.Brightness
The brightness is generally calculated by dividing the figure indicating the width of the lens (expressed in mm, always after the magnification figure) by the figure for magnification. For example, a 10x-42 model will have a 42/10 brightness score, meaning 4.2. This is a good indication of the range of light conditions in which binoculars will provide a clear, discernible image, and the bigger the figure is, the better. Pricey models, but even some of the best binoculars under 200$ have specially treated lenses to increase the overall brightness past the threshold defined by their specs.Porro Prism Binoculars
Other binoculars use what's called a porro prism. And what happens is that the light goes down through the eyepiece, gets reflected up to the other side, it gets reflected back down and in the process of going through that path, it inverts the image so that it appears right-side up. They're a little bulkier but actually these fit in the hand quite nicely and especially on modern designs like Antigua binocular. It's really compact and fits well so. The porro prism binoculars like this will tend to have a little higher light transmissibility and so at night they'll be brighter and they'll allow you to see dimmer objects than the roof prism style.Quality of the Optics
One of the differentiating factors between binoculars that cost $100 and those that cost $300 or $500 or more is the quality of the optics. And the way that you notice this isn't so much how sharp the image is but it's really the efficiency of how much light passes through all of these lenses and prisms. So by coating the surfaces of the lenses and prisms with these really microscopic layers of chemicals or minerals, you end up with better light transmissibility. So for example on Antiqua binoculars they have a little bit of a green cast when you look at them. And what this does is cut down on the internal reflection on the lenses and makes them color corrected so that they focus perfectly for all frequencies of light. So one of the things that West Marine looks for our binoculars that are called fully multi-coated meaning that they have multiple layers on the glass surfaces in all of the lenses and prisms that are in the light path.Adjustable Eye Cups
One feature that's common to almost all marine binoculars is adjustable eye cups. And they do this one of two different ways. Sometimes they sort of fold over the rubber portion folds down on itself, in other cases they spin up and spin down. This is kind of a nice feature and they have some intermediate locations. The reason they do this is because each binocular allows you to have your surface of your eye a certain distance away measured in millimeters from the eyepiece. And so if you have glasses on you turn these down and the glasses sort of move the binoculars away from your eyes but it still allows you to see the full field of vision. So this is called eye relief and modern binoculars will have a maximum eye relief of about 25 millimeters. Meaning that the eyepieces can be as much as an inch away from you the surface of your eye and still see the full vision. Another feature you might consider is that marine binoculars frequently have a built in bearing compass on them. And the way this works is that when you look through the left-hand eyepiece in this case. You'll actually see a compass bearing that's sort of floating at the top or the bottom of the image. That allows you to use this just like you would a hand bearing compass that you'd either hold at arm's length or what a little hockey puck compasses. And you can usually take a bearing down to about a 1 degree accuracy.Stabilized Binoculars + Night Vision
There are two other products that fall into this general topic of marine optics. As we mentioned earlier one of them is the stabilized binocular. Although there are a couple of other brands as well. And these allow you to have higher magnification, because they have internal gyroscopes that somehow make the image look steady. So this might be a very very good companion to a normal set of seven by fifty binoculars.Night-Vision Scope
The other item is to consider a night-vision scope. This is one this by floor this is a first mate. And what this does is actually not look at visible light it looks at infrared light. And by looking at the difference in temperature that different that objects put off. It allows you to see in total darkness, without any source of light, not even starlight, not anything ,it allows you to see for example people in the water if you've lost somebody overboard, it allows you to see bridges that would otherwise be invisible, even dead heads in the water will have a slightly different temperature and you can see them through it. So it's not actually light amplification, it's infrared radiation amplification and it works great. These don't provide a lot of magnification, that's not really the point, they allow you to see in the dark.Other features
Like with nearly all optics, the lenses on binoculars can get foggy in certain conditions, such as those offered by the high altitude, low temperature, and high humidity environments that are frequented by hikers. Some manufacturers offer special provisions to counteract this phenomenon, and anti-fog lenses might prove a great investment for passionate outdoorsmen. Likewise, if you spend a lot of time on a river or lake, it would be a good idea to look for a water-resistant model. People that use spectacles might want to pay special attention to the “eye relief” spec. This tells you how far can the eyepiece move from the back lens, and should be as high as possible in order to accommodate their specific needs. Above certain figures, size and weight might become important for hikers and bird watchers, who have to carry their binoculars for hours on end, usually by a neck strap.Antigua model, 7 by 50 binocular waterproof internal compass, really compact, great set of binoculars, for under $300. Another choice in that same area our Tahiti binoculars - same general idea, high quality compass, waterproof, center focus, an extremely good set of binoculars, top rated by practical sailors several years ago. If you find that you don't need the compass consider one without a compass and you'll be saving 40 or 50 dollars and most of these models come in a compass or non compass model. And finally if you need something that's smaller for sports or just for general recreational use, consider one of the roof prism binoculars with a little higher magnification,n smaller lenses, more compact, very very handy and these obviously fit in the glove box of a car, fit in a small backpack they go anywhere with. After going through dozens and dozens of online reviews and product comparisons, we found the Carson VP-042 to be the most suitable inexpensive binoculars available for sale. The minimum focus distance of 6.6 feet will allow you to study insects and birds without getting too close and the 330 feet/1,000 yards field of view places in the upper ranges for 10x magnification binoculars. If the well-rated Carson product isn’t available, then the Celestron 71333-CGL will make for a good alternative. Finding some good marine binoculars for the money can look like a daunting task at first, especially if you are unfamiliar with all the technical specifications involved and the relevance, they hold for our particular needs. But things aren’t that complicated, and a brief summary of the most relevant things to look for and an explanation will get us well on our way to finding the binoculars we want.
Marine Binoculars Brands
The market is dominated by some manufacturers such as: Hooway, Bushnell, Steiner, UsCamel, Carson, Celestron, Wingspan Optics.Binoculars for Boating [Carson]
The Carson VP-042 falls roughly middle of the range between a small, portable binoculars and high magnification professional equipment. As such, it’s good for most outdoor activities but should also perform well in an urban setting. It’s most salient feature is the water and fog proofing, conferred by a nitrogen purged body and O-ring seals, which give it great reliability when used in high humidity environments, such as temperate mountains or the seaside. At 10x magnification power with 42 mm objective lens, it lets enough light through to be adequately used during sunset and sunrise hours, or under a heavy cast sky. This makes for a good medium between magnification and field of view, with its lens being curved enough to cover 330 feet of width at 1,000 yards. It can focus down to 6.6 feet from the observer, meaning you could get a detailed close view of near objects, without having to step away from them.Marine Binoculars Stabilized [Celestron]
The Celestron 711333 is intended as a good companion for outdoorsmen and nature explorers of all sorts. As such, its lenses have been outfitted with a special coating that allows for superior visibility in low-light conditions, since you can’t really count on car headlights and streetlights lighting up your objective when on the trail. Its 10x magnification place it among the higher ranges for a medium sized binoculars, and paired with 42 mm of lens diameter, it offers a good mean between how much and how far you can see. The minimum focus distance is just 6.5’ feet, which means you won’t have any trouble studying rare birds or insects up close. At only 1.75 lbs the item is lightweight enough to not feel like a strain on the back of your neck when worn with an appropriate strap during long hikes.Nautical Binoculars for Sailing [Bushnell]
With an extra-large field of view — 350 feet at 1000 yards — the Bushnell Legend L series will prove great for hunters who don’t want to lose sight of their mark or bird watchers that need to keep track of those fast flying critters. The item is also fog and waterproof, with additional lens covers, to better handle the humid environments where it will see the most use. A number of coatings have been added to its 42 mm objective lens, both to better contrast the light coming from the roof prism (which is a given for all good binoculars of its type) but also to offer better brightness during dusk and early morning hours. The minimum focusing distance is rather poor, however, at around 9 feet, which will make it less than an ideal pick for nature watching. But it more than supplements with the superior ruggedness the 2.2-pound frame offers to this hunting-oriented piece.Binoculars for Marine Use [Bushnell]
The Bushnell H2O is a compact and rugged binoculars well fit for use in the outdoors, which comes at a fraction of the cost of models with similar specifications It has been nitrogen treated and fitted with re-inforced O-rings to prevent fogging in cool and wet environments. Users tend to find it sturdy, with rubber inserts into its frame giving better grip and better resistance to mechanical forces. Like nearly all high rated 10×42 mid-range models, it features a BaK-4 roof prism for image correction, which is generally considered to be more reliable than the Porro found on some units. As for downsides, the H2O is slightly heavier than its competition, and the minimum focus range is nothing to write home about either, with anything closer than 15 feet appearing as a blur, regardless of how precisely you might work the easy-to-handle rubber knobs.Image Stabilized Binoculars for Boating [Wingspan Optics]
This Wingspan model is specifically intended to meet the demands of any bird watcher, and if you consider yourself among the practitioner of this hobby, feel free to elevate it to the top of the list. It has 8x magnification with a 32mm objective lens diameter, which is great for observing objects at around 1000 yards away, without adding too much bulk to the whole frame. In regards to the maximum field of vision, the 32 mm objective hits well above its weight, with 352 feet of width covered at 1000 yards. Needless to say, this will help you keep your eye on fast flying birds, that might otherwise escape the frame of the binoculars.FAQ
How do I chose binoculars if I wear glasses. Do you look through the binoculars with glasses on or with glasses off?
Most binoculars have a diopter adjustment on one eyepiece that allows you to use them without your glasses. You can certainly wear your glasses while using binoculars if you prefer, but it can be awkward and uncomfortable.
