Binoculars
- Thread starter mx8
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I too fall in the Fujinon camp. My 7x50 FMTRC-SX's are one of my prized possessions. I like the compass feature and use it a lot for taking ranges underway and at anchor. Extremely rugged and waterproof. These are not for everyone, to be sure. They are heavy. Like Brett, I look to back them up one day with a stabilized higher power pair (the Admiral in paricular wants those); but I have yet to see their match (including Steiners in a side by side, although bias certainly could have crept in) for light gathering and image clarity. Otherwise undiscerning guests pick them up, take one look through them and invariably go "ooh!" My dad has an old pair of Mariners that washed up on his beach, the neck strap tangled on a tree limb that floated down river; save a broken off eye cup they worked, and still work, perfectly.
George
George
mx8, I'll make these recommendations assuming your binoculars are 7x50, in good working order and you use them properly (you would be surprised how many people think the field of vision in binos looks like two overlapping circles and not a single circle.)
If I understand you right, you have a problem with using your binoculars when the boat is in motion, and you want better vision at low light or night.
The motion problem: Field of View (FOV). Keep the 7x or so magnification. What you want is a larger FOV. Larger FOV means that you will see a larger area in your binoculars. This allows more room for you eyes to track an object that is moving around in your binos. FOV for 7x50 is 7 degrees at 1000m. You want a larger FOV than that.
Better low light performance: There are a couple of ways to do this. The first is the basic lens set-up (age-related) and the second is the low light quality of the glass coatings.
Oberwerk Mariner Series 8x40M. FOV of 8.4 degrees. Much easier to aim and spot something with a 8x40 so I'm surprised there are so few marine versions around as an alternate to the 7x50. Excellent quality at a bargain price. This has the same 5.0mm exit pupil diameter as the Steiners and Fujinons below, but gathers more light than either with a slightly higher magnification. With the Oberwerk full multicoatings and larger objective lens, this should be the brightest marine 8x40 available, but it is not as bright as an excellent quality 7x50. $140.
Don't buy any of the Steiners (one exception). None of their smaller binoculars will give you a significantly larger FOV than the 7x50 unless you get the Military R 6x30 (it has the recticle eyepiece and low light coatings.) It has an 8.2 degree FOV. I checked them all. $549. First-rate binos.
Fujinon Nautilus AR-SX. 6x30 and doesn't have the reticle, which is a royal pain if you don't need it. No claim to be fully multi-coated. Nothing special in brightness, but same lens configuration as the Steiners. $179
If I understand you right, you have a problem with using your binoculars when the boat is in motion, and you want better vision at low light or night.
The motion problem: Field of View (FOV). Keep the 7x or so magnification. What you want is a larger FOV. Larger FOV means that you will see a larger area in your binoculars. This allows more room for you eyes to track an object that is moving around in your binos. FOV for 7x50 is 7 degrees at 1000m. You want a larger FOV than that.
Better low light performance: There are a couple of ways to do this. The first is the basic lens set-up (age-related) and the second is the low light quality of the glass coatings.
Oberwerk Mariner Series 8x40M. FOV of 8.4 degrees. Much easier to aim and spot something with a 8x40 so I'm surprised there are so few marine versions around as an alternate to the 7x50. Excellent quality at a bargain price. This has the same 5.0mm exit pupil diameter as the Steiners and Fujinons below, but gathers more light than either with a slightly higher magnification. With the Oberwerk full multicoatings and larger objective lens, this should be the brightest marine 8x40 available, but it is not as bright as an excellent quality 7x50. $140.
Don't buy any of the Steiners (one exception). None of their smaller binoculars will give you a significantly larger FOV than the 7x50 unless you get the Military R 6x30 (it has the recticle eyepiece and low light coatings.) It has an 8.2 degree FOV. I checked them all. $549. First-rate binos.
Fujinon Nautilus AR-SX. 6x30 and doesn't have the reticle, which is a royal pain if you don't need it. No claim to be fully multi-coated. Nothing special in brightness, but same lens configuration as the Steiners. $179
Now you're talking. But think of what you could have seen with the Oberwerk 15x70, the primo deck ornament bino.
...or the Oberwerk 20x80LW.
I'll make some digital shots: normal view and with the 15x70 and post them here later today. Don't expect me to find subject matter that interesting this time of year, though.
...or the Oberwerk 20x80LW.
I'll make some digital shots: normal view and with the 15x70 and post them here later today. Don't expect me to find subject matter that interesting this time of year, though.
I still use a Nikon FM2n 35mm and lenses for the good stuff. I'll be using the 2.3 gig camera on my cell phone for the shots this afternoon. That will not look as good as your photo quality but it will provide an idea of what the binos will do... maybe some low light shots at sundown if I'm lucky. If I remember to focus the binos while looking at that little camera screen it might work.
Of course, there was a light rain when I got home so I didn't go any farther than the garage to take some pictures with the Oberwerk 15x70.
I'm sitting on the garage floor to get a steady shot. This is the normal view through the cell phone camera. No magnification from the cell phone was used any any of these shots.
Same view through the 15x70s.
While the first two photos are reduced in size from the original to better fit the forum page, this is a detail of the same picture taken through the Oberwerk 15x70 at 100% size. This a cell phone pic and is not as good as the real thing. I could easily read all of the stickers on the car through the binos. I know those folks and they won't mind me snapping the shot. I blurred the back plate, though. You can see rain falling at the top of the pic.
I've had these binos for 5 years and they have received a lot of use, including every trip on the boat since then. The Oberwerks are still perfectly aligned. I've treated then reasonably well, we don't boat under combat conditions.
The camera phone is a Sony Ericsson W810i. This is marketed as a 2.0 gigapixel camera phone. Interestingly, all of these cameras are shipped with the still camera defaulted to 1.8 gig resolution. After reading the manual I went into the settings and set the camera for "fine" resolution, which is actually 2.3 gig! You see 2.3 gig on all of the shots here.
I'll go to a nearby field and shoot a pair of pics in low light or dark in an hour or two, as long as it stops raining.
I'm sitting on the garage floor to get a steady shot. This is the normal view through the cell phone camera. No magnification from the cell phone was used any any of these shots.
Same view through the 15x70s.
While the first two photos are reduced in size from the original to better fit the forum page, this is a detail of the same picture taken through the Oberwerk 15x70 at 100% size. This a cell phone pic and is not as good as the real thing. I could easily read all of the stickers on the car through the binos. I know those folks and they won't mind me snapping the shot. I blurred the back plate, though. You can see rain falling at the top of the pic.
I've had these binos for 5 years and they have received a lot of use, including every trip on the boat since then. The Oberwerks are still perfectly aligned. I've treated then reasonably well, we don't boat under combat conditions.
The camera phone is a Sony Ericsson W810i. This is marketed as a 2.0 gigapixel camera phone. Interestingly, all of these cameras are shipped with the still camera defaulted to 1.8 gig resolution. After reading the manual I went into the settings and set the camera for "fine" resolution, which is actually 2.3 gig! You see 2.3 gig on all of the shots here.
I'll go to a nearby field and shoot a pair of pics in low light or dark in an hour or two, as long as it stops raining.
The 15x70 is a specialized size and not as good for general boating as the 7x50 or 8x40 which they stock, too. They have two versions of the 15x70. The one I have costs $150 and weighs 3.1 lbs. The Ultra version 15x70 (which they claim is the equal to the best Japanese binos) is $350 and weighs 5.0 lbs. Probably best to use that one on a tripod. The "best" Japanese they allude too is the Fujinon 16x70FMT-SX, which they sell for $720 and weighing 4.8 lbs. Still, not a light bino. I notice that these Fujis went on back order within the last couple of days.
At 10:30 this evening the rain let up, so I went out to the garage to set-up pictures from the same position as this afternoon. No luck. There was not enough light to use the 2.3g digital camera. In fact, I had to stand up in appoximately the same spot to get an image of any kind. Yes, it's the 8th of February and those people across the street still have the Xmas lights set on the timer. This is a university city of 70,000 full-time residents. These must be the last people to have their Christmas lights on. This photo is zero magnification:
The 15x70 Oberwerk was another story. From the same position on the garage floor at 10:30 this evening I could see the car and the Subaru name tag. The white car looked salmon pink in the light from street lights 1/2 block away. I couldn't read anything else though. When I held the digital camera to the binos I just got this:
The 15x70 Oberwerk was another story. From the same position on the garage floor at 10:30 this evening I could see the car and the Subaru name tag. The white car looked salmon pink in the light from street lights 1/2 block away. I couldn't read anything else though. When I held the digital camera to the binos I just got this:
I recently bought a pair of Canon 8 x 25 image stabilized binoculars. They worked great on a recent 8 day trip. I could read signs that we could not read with the non-stabilized binos. I do not know the brand of teh non-stabilized binos (7 x 25).