I am still new in bird watching, and so far I mostly used other people binoculars to watch birds. I am aware that for birding it would be best to take some bigger binocular like 10x50, 10x40 or something, but the thing is... whenever I go on some bird-watching field trips, I always have my camera around my neck, and it is already heavy to carry around... so I was thinking about purchasing some small binloculars like 10x25, or 12x25 (that would also be handy to carry around in my backpack every day), but I have no idea are they any good for birding, or I will just waste my money on something like that??
I saw in some local store:
Practica 12x25 S
magnification: 12
lens: 25 mm diameter
eye ring diameter: 2.08 mm
brightness: 4.33
twilight factor: 17.32
angel of view: 3.8°
field of view in 1000 m: 84 m
focusing distance: 6 m to infinity
weight: 225 g
and
Practica 10x25 S
magnification: 10
lens: 25 mm diameter
eye ring diameter: 2.5 mm
brightness: 6.25
twilight factor: 15.81
angel of view: 5.8°
field of view in 1000 m: 96 m
focusing distance: 4.5 m to infinity
weight: 200 g
... but I have no idea what some of these specifications actually mean? So any advice is most welcome. Thanks in advance!
Hello,
Greetings to you. Nice to have someone from Serbia with us.
I don't know the Practica brand, but in my experience these compact bins are not very useful. The image is dark, unsharp, possibly even causing headaches.
I guess they make these 10x and 12x because these numbers appeal to inexperienced buyers who think they are getting more "power." With a 25mm objective lens, more power is very bad design. You should not be going above 8x or even 6-7x if they would make them that way.
Notice also the field of view is quite narrow. How does it compare with your current bins? Are you willing to go from what you have now to a peephole FOV?
In this size range, I have some Nikon sprint 7x21 and a minolta 8x25. Both are brighter than most of the other compact binoculars I have tried. But, they are so bad compared to my full sized Swift 8.5x44 820s, that I almost never use them, even when I am burdened by kit or bringing bins 'just in case' to a nonbirding outing.
Sorry to be a downer.
What are your current bins?
Marc
I tend to agree with all that Jedku posted. If you are going to go the compact-style (20-25 mm objective lenses) then I would suggest a reverse porro design like that of the 8x26 Bushnell Legend or the Nikon Prostaff/Travelite EX 8x25. Their size and designs is a good compromise between portability and image quality without compromising your pocketbook too much.
Having said that, and if you have a bit of money to spend and want something closer to a full sized bin, then I would suggest the Zeiss Conquest 8x30s. They are lighweight for their class weighing in at about 16 ounces with very good image quality for their price. If I was looking for a lightweight, mid-sized glass then they would be my first choice.