Wildlife Watching

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Andrew Cooper's Guide to Wildlife Watching & Photography.

These pages are made possible by the kind sponsorship of
London Camera Exchange

CHOOSING YOUR BINOCULARS Every person is different. It is essential to try different binoculars before buying. Seek advice from a recommended supplier. Go for the best optical performance in your chosen price range. Are they comfortable to hold and use? Hands and fingers vary in size, so do binoculars. Are they lightweight, come with a good strap and comfortable when worn around your neck? Focussing should be smooth and easy. Waterproof binoculars are best for wildlife watching. Bird watching binoculars especially need to be robust. Rubber armouring is useful. Are they comfortable to see through, no tunnel effect, just a single, large bright crisp image? Find your nearest LCE Branch GETTING THE BEST OUT OF YOUR BINOCULARS Leave lens caps on when not in use. Keep the lenses clean by only using a specially made lens cloths. Blow away any grit with a simple rubber blower and/or special soft brush. Gently wipe lens in a circle starting in the centre and work out towards the edge. Do not scrub! Most lenses are now protected by a non-reflective coating to give a brighter image and this can be damaged by too heavy a hand when cleaning.
SETTING UP YOUR BINOCULARS FOR USE Set the eye cups to suit your eyes, with or without spectacles. Open or close the central hinge to suit the width of your eyes and see a single image circle. Close one eye – the one with the dioptre adjustment ring. Focus on something with a sharp edge with the other eye, using only the central focus wheel. Now close that eye, open the other eye and adjust the focus using only the dioptre ring. Now both eyes should be comfortable and the image sharp.
HOW MUCH TO PAY? Prices vary between manufacturers and design. Porro prism binoculars are less expensive to construct than roof-prisms and are usually optically superior when compared with roof prism models at similar price levels. So it is important to pay more money for roof prism designs of comparable image quality. As a general rule, low price roof-prism models do not provide the same performance as equivalently priced porroprism designs.
	CONCLUSIONS For everyday wildlife watching the lower magnifications tend to be best eg. 8x30 or 8x40. Using binoculars in low light conditions such as dawn or dusk and in woodland is optically more challenging in light gathering ability, so consider a 7x42. A good compromise for hide use is the higher magnification binoculars with adequate objective lens diameter, so choose a 10x40 or 10x42.