larryepage Loc: North Texas area

One extremely important thing that I did not mention in my quick reply yesterday is to make sure that you understand what "Exit Pupil" means and how to calculate it. Exit Pupil, which is the objective lens diameter (the "42") divided by the magnification (the "8") is the key parameter for binoculars and drives almost everything else important about them. If everything else is equal, a larger exit pupil is better. This number drives the size of the focused image on your retina, so just about everything important about the image (except for the magnification) derives from it. Eye relief is important also, especially in relation to the physical eyepiece design and whether you wear glasses. As an eyeglass wearer, I will tell you that I have found it much better to ditch my glasses and use the focus knob. Of course, that may not be possible if you have astigmatism or other non-spherical correction. If you do wear glasses and plan to use your binoculars without them, make sure that there is at least one really good individual eye adjustment to correct for acuity differences from one eye to the other, but once that is set, you will want to leave it and use the center focus adjustment. This is of critical importance if you have one eye corrected for near vision and the other corrected for distant vision In that case, I'd probably suggest having both eyepieces individually adjustable in addition to the center focus.

It has been mentioned here several times not to scrimp or try to "go cheap" on binoculars that you will be using extensively. It is impossible to overemphasize that point. That is not saying that you have to buy the absolutely most expensive pair of binoculars, just don't think that you can get by on the cheap. I have had a pair of Bushnell 7x35 uncorrected binoculars for years. Tons of people have binoculars just like them. They are essentially unusable for anything beyond a couple of minutes.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

In this section we talk about whatever people want. This topic has more to do with photography than most do.