Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]If you want a binocular mainly for birding, you want one where the bird's image doesn't jump around because it's difficult to hold the binocular entirely steady without a tripod...The stronger the binocular's power -- your Voitlaender is 7 power -- the harder it is to hold steady on the bird...Therefore, I suggest no more than 6 power. Your Voitlaender also has a very small opening of 17mm, which means that it while this makes your binocular very lightweight, you get very little light on cloudy days. Therefore I suggest 30mm or 40mm. That means you would be looking for a 6 x 30 or 6 x 40 binocular. Next you want to decide whether you want what is called Individual Focusing [IF], where you focus each eye individually...or center focus [CF], where you have a knurl in the center of the binocular that you turn to focus your left eye only and then, using the focusing feature on the right eyepiece, you focus the right eye separately... Most modern binoculars, including yours, come with the folding feature you describe to fit your eyes. As for the brand, many have already been mentioned...On the high side, around $1,000 usd or so when brand new, are Leitz/Leica, Swarovski, Zeiss and others...Somewhat less are Steiner, Nikon, Fujinon, and others... Vintage Bausch & Lomb are also excellent, if made in the U.S.A. A great, not-to-expensive brand is Swift...Audubon, the bird society, also offers a few excellent models at moderate prices. One caution: If you buy a used binocular, look through it from the wrong end to make sure that the glass is clean and the prisms are not chipped...Then look through them at, say, the side of a building to make sure that the two sides of the binocular are in alignment and that you see just one image, rather than one a little [or a lot] higher than the other. If you pay via PayPal, they typically will not help get a refund if you get cheated...If you pay by an established credit card, you stand a better chance of getting fair treatment in the event of a problem with the binocular... One other thing: If you buy a major used binocular in less-than-great condition, it might cost $50-$100 usd to have it professionally cleaned and aligned[collimated] but not much in the outside cosmetics if the metal's scratched or the leather is missing... Also check to see you don't have cross-hairs inside that generally come with military binoculars. I hope this helps...bob cole I don't know anything about birding but I've got a pair of Voigtlaender binoculars (Dynaret 7x17) which I really like. They'd be in your middle price range, around USD 200 I guess. They're very small because they fold in quite a special way, which I find hard to describe - they don't actually fold but you slide them apart in order to adjust the distance of the lenses to the distance of your eyes. They're so small and light that I carry them with me almost all the time (even though I live in Hong Kong, where wildlife is relatively rare ...). Lens quality is really good; I have to admit though that a small Carl Zeiss pair (around USD 500) which I tried before I bought the Voigtlaender seemed even sharper. > > Oliver