Understanding What Specs Mean Before Buying Binoculars

If this is your first pair of binoculars you may be overwhelmed by all the choices and the wide range of prices on binoculars with similar looking styles. If you are wondering why the wide range of prices it is because the price will normally correspond to the quality of the optics, or a specs, in the binoculars. When you look at a pair of binoculars you will usually see two numbers which help to identify the binoculars. These numbers represent the magnification power and the diameter of the front lenses. For example if the number is 7 x 35 the first number is the magnification number. The seven means that the object you are looking at is seven times closer than it would be if you were just looking at it without binoculars.

The second number refers to the diameter and is stated in millimeters of the objective lenses which are those farther from your eyes and those closer to what you are viewing. In the above example the number thirty-five would be thirty-five millimeters. What the diameter of your objective lens is will determine just how much light the binoculars can gather. The larger the diameter objective lens is the more light the binoculars will catch which means that the more light you have the brighter the view. This is particularly true in low-light conditions.

The next thing that you need to look at is the exit pupil spec which is the number that will indicate how bright objects will look when they are viewed in low-light situations. To see how bright the objects will appear point your binoculars at a light source and hold them about a foot in front of your face. Look into either eyepiece and you will see a small bright dot which is the exit pupil. This is the opening that will permit light to exit the binocular barrel and reach your pupils. The wider the diameter of the exit pupil the more light will be able to pass through. If you are going to use the binoculars a lot in low-light situations you should look for an exit pupil number of four millimeters or higher.

The eye relief spec is the distance between your eyes and each eyepiece when you can see the entire field of vision. Having long eye relief will increase the comfort of letting you hold the binoculars away from your face. If you wear glasses you should look for an eye relief of eleven millimeters or more. The field of view spec will tell you what the width of the area that you can see at a glance. This is normally considered one thousand yards and is stated in feet. If you are using your binoculars for bird watching you would want to have a wide field of view because this will help you to find the birds and be better able to identify them One thing to note is that you will have a more narrow field of view with higher magnification powers.