question regarding strenth of binoculars

As i am waiting for the boat to be ready my wife and i were talking about some supply's we need to get. Our current binoculars work good for our rv travels at 10X30. Do you guys find when in open water with such long distances 10 power ok or should i look to go up.
Thoughts

Because of the movement on boats it is very difficult to use higher powered binoculars.

Get a good pair of stabilized binoculars. We love ours. 10 power unstabilized are probably going to be difficult to control.

Ours are canon stabilized and work slick. I was just unsure if 10 power was enough.

I think ours are 12 or 14. 10 would be ok but higher is better.

7 x 50, as I understand it, is best for marine binoculars. One reason, steadiness of image stated above, and the other, 7x provides better vision when its darker than even 8x. Perhaps this is nothing new to you, but I'm providing this from West Marine: https://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/Selecting-Marine-Binoculars

The size of the objective lens determines whether they see well in limited light, the more power they have the larger the objective lens needs to be to see well in limited light. That's why 7X50's were so popular, a good combination of lens size and power...

Yes, 7x50 was the standard until stabilized binoculars came out. We have both. My wife used to insist that the stabilized ones were too heavy, too complex and too whatever until she used them a bit and found out that she could actually hold them on target and with the extra power actually read the numbers on the bouys way farther than with the regular ones, now we have to fight over the stabilized ones. The 7x50s never get used anymore. Until you have used a stabilized set for a period of time, you don’t know what you are missing.

Been using a 7x50 Nikon bino for many years, big, heavy and excellent.
BTW, calling binoculars a "pair" of binoculars is redundant.

Comodave said:

Yes, 7x50 was the standard until stabilized binoculars came out. We have both. My wife used to insist that the stabilized ones were too heavy, too complex and too whatever until she used them a bit and found out that she could actually hold them on target and with the extra power actually read the numbers on the bouys way farther than with the regular ones, now we have to fight over the stabilized ones. The 7x50s never get used anymore. Until you have used a stabilized set for a period of time, you don’t know what you are missing.

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So what power are your stabilized?

Thanks
Rod

I would have to go look but they are either 12 or 14s. Love them. And ours are old, maybe 18 years old back when they were really expensive, but still worth it.

I was just looking on Amazon at stabilized binoculars. They have some 18 power ones. I wonder how they would be on the boat...

I understand that age and the ability of the eye to see brightness plays a part in the choice (e.g. here). For example, at 50 you may not be able to tell the brightness difference between 50mm and 40mm lenses - so 7x42 may be the same to you as 7x50. Depending on your age, and personal to your eyes, it may be that the cheaper pairs are actually all you need!

Yellow, floating, nitrogen filled autofocus 7x50 for $100 on eBay.
Good enough for marine rescue and lifesavers, good enough for me.

Second pair I've bought , previous set served me for 30 years on the water.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Special...3b399d0fad:g:H60AAOSw32lYweVJ&redirect=mobile

7x50s are a good choice. If you've got steady hands and can live with a tiny loss of light transmission, 8x50 is fine as well. For most people's eyes, the difference in light transmission between the 2 shouldn't be particularly noticeable. You definitely want a much larger exit pupil than a 10x30 would give. With 7x50s, for example, things will actually look brighter through the binoculars at dusk than they do without them.

Personally, I find it fairly rare that I need more magnification than the 7x50s give.

magna 6882 said:

As i am waiting for the boat to be ready my wife and i were talking about some supply's we need to get. Our current binoculars work good for our rv travels at 10X30. Do you guys find when in open water with such long distances 10 power ok or should i look to go up.
Thoughts

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7x unstabilized is about as high as I can use (Steiner 7x50s).

Wifey uses a Fuji 12x stabilized compact binoc and she likes it. Would have gotten her the 14x stabilized version but it's way heavier.

-Chris

7 X 50, nothing stronger. I have a pair of "Steiners" which I LOVE, they are great. I also have a pair with a compass , I think they are West Marine. Nice but quite heavy.

Save your pennies, get stabilized with a compass from Steiner. The price is slowly dropping.

DON'T BUY CHEAP BINOCULARS!!

pete

In the budget realm, the Fujinon "Mariner" series are quite good. But if you can handle the cost, their "Polaris" series or a good set of Steiners are better, and pretty much as good as you can get. IIRC, the Fuji Polaris have been standard issue in the Navy for a while at this point. Higher end Nikons should be good as well.

I have 18x stabilized Canons and 14x stabilized Fujinons and the Fuji’s are far superior. The range of stabilization is much greater. I use the Canons on the ICW where things are calm to read or find markers and the Fuji’s when we are at sea or in a sound or inlet. If I had to have just one it would be the Fuji’s.

BTW I bought both used, one on eBay and the other from a pawnshop for 50 cents on the dollar. I once dropped the Canons knocking them out of alignment and had Canon USA service them for around $200. Now they are like new again.

Does anyone use a monocular?

magna 6882 said:

Ours are canon stabilized and work slick. I was just unsure if 10 power was enough.

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+1 I don't go anywhere (boat or land) without them.

rslifkin said:

In the budget realm, the Fujinon "Mariner" series are quite good. But if you can handle the cost, their "Polaris" series or a good set of Steiners are better, and pretty much as good as you can get. IIRC, the Fuji Polaris have been standard issue in the Navy for a while at this point. Higher end Nikons should be good as well.

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I have Mariner, Polaris, and the 14x40 Stabil from Fujinon. The Polaris are slightly better optics than the Mariner, but for routine use I prefer the Mariner as they are much lighter. Anything far away and I use the Stabil, which are superb, matching great optics with unmatched stabilization.

DDW said:

I have Mariner, Polaris, and the 14x40 Stabil from Fujinon. The Polaris are slightly better optics than the Mariner, but for routine use I prefer the Mariner as they are much lighter. Anything far away and I use the Stabil, which are superb, matching great optics with unmatched stabilization.

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Agreed on the Mariners being very lightweight and easy to grab. And they're cheap enough that it's no big deal to keep a few sets around to avoid re-focusing for different people, to have at multiple helms, spares in case of damage, etc.

soin2la said:

Does anyone use a monocular?

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I have a couple of pair of monoculars. Once caught in a rolling motion, my binoculars would fall from the dash to the galley floor, about 6'. That hard landing would eliminate the possibility of aligning the images from each lens, creating a pair of monoculars. You can get used to closing one eye.

koliver said:

You can get used to closing one eye.

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No trouble at all if you only have one eye. An old, coastal reprobate, used the left one on a cod jig.

koliver said:

I have a couple of pair of monoculars. Once caught in a rolling motion, my binoculars would fall from the dash to the galley floor, about 6'. That hard landing would eliminate the possibility of aligning the images from each lens, creating a pair of monoculars. You can get used to closing one eye.

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Our Fuji Polaris, now 29 years old, fell 6-7 feet a couple of times. Still perfect.

78puget-trawler said:

BTW, calling binoculars a "pair" of binoculars is redundant.

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I've always heard and read it this way. I figured it's because there are two similar things attached as one. Such as a pair of scissors, a pair of pants, or a pair of (eye)glasses.

A binocular(s?), a pant(s?), a glasses, or a scissors (the latter I've occasionally heard) all sound weird to me.

soin2la said:

Does anyone use a monocular?

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Very popular with pirates. Aaaargh!
7x50 is the standard,I have some set focus ones from Ebay, quite good. Stabilized would be better though. Light transmission after cataract lens replacement is truly amazing.

I'm out of the norm, it appears.

We have one pair of 7x35 manual focus, a pair of 10x50 permafocus, and a new pair of 12x50 permafocus. My eyes have very different strengths from left to right, and the permafocus is very easy for all of us to use on board without alot of fiddling. They are all inexpensive but provide good focus from our platform. I've never used stabilized binoculars so don't have a frame of reference for what everyone else is used to. I used them to look at other vessels, landmarks, marks, and wildlife with what I feel is good success.

Frosty said:

I've always heard and read it this way. I figured it's because there are two similar things attached as one. Such as a pair of scissors, a pair of pants, or a pair of (eye)glasses.

A binocular(s?), a pant(s?), a glasses, or a scissors (the latter I've occasionally heard) all sound weird to me.

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Well, you don't ask for A binocular, you just say hand me my bino's or my binoculars. You don't say, hand me a pair of binos. And also whats the first part of the word?? BI, which means two, right? So a pair of BInoculars is redundant.
No BI with pants, glasses, scissors or pliers etc.