Best Birding Binoculars

To find the best binoculars for bird watching, it is important to assess your needs. How do you want your birding binoculars to look? What kind of lens strength do you want? Do you want your bird binoculars to automatically focus for you? You should research different brands and types of binoculars construction in order to find the set that meets all your needs, instead of settling for a pair that just meets some of them.

A bird watcher needs to be able to see feathers in dim light, and have strong magnification. They should also be able to focus on close objects, have color viewing, and a large field of view in order to see the bird well. They should also be light and have a strap to carry them on, and be comfortable for the user. It's a great idea to get birding binoculars that are waterproof and can also stand on a tripod, since you never know where the birds will go.

Binoculars for bird watching are classified by two numbers: the first giving us the magnification and the second, the diameter of the lens. It is a good idea to keep the magnification of bird binoculars fairly low, usually around 8 times, in order to lessen the impact of natural hand shake, and to keep the field of vision sizable. A larger diameter gives a clearer image because it traps more light, and it also widens your field of view. The most popular are 40mm and 42mm, because any larger can make bird binoculars heavy and hard to use.

You should also consider product quality when picking birding binoculars. Optical coatings will help you keep a lot of light, and give you a clearer view with truer colors. You should look for Fully-Multi-Coated bird binoculars, and be sure that the eye relief is adjusted for your particular vision needs. The higher the quality of the product, the longer it will last, and the better they will work, allowing you to capture scenes better than you would with a cheap pair.

Here are two body types of binoculars for bird watching -- Roof and Porro Prisms -- so look at the differences carefully in order to determine what you want. Roof prisms offer a more compact design, and have objective lenses nearly in line with the eye pieces, making them more compact. Porro prism binoculars have lenses out of step with the eye pieces, and are more traditional, and can also be larger in size and a bit more difficult to handle. Roof prism binoculars have rapidly increased in quality and popularity, and are definitely an option to consider.