How Magnification affects stability and field of view.
Today I'm going to talk about magnification and how a binoculars power (magnification) will impact your experience whilst using it. Please note: For the purpose of this video I’ll be using the terms power and magnification interchangeably. Before I get started let's take a quick tour the relevant parts of a binocular: At the front of the binocular you have the objective lenses These collect light to be sent through the binocular and out through the ocular lenses and onto your eyes The ocular lenses are the ones at the rear of the binocular and which actually magnify the image.
Also it is important to mention the physical dimensions of the binocular have nothing to do with its magnification. It is a common misconception to assume that a giant binocular has to be the most powerful and that compacts only have low powers Sure it is common for very high powered long range binoculars to be large, but this is simply because they need to capture more light in order to deliver reasonably bright image and so to do this they need larger objective lenses In this example of two Snypex binoculars, Different in size, but both have the same 10x magnification. Ok, now let's now take a look at how the Magnification actually affects the view: By increasing the magnification, you get more image detail However there are a number of trade-offs associated with this increase in power: To explain, take a look at this photo of as mall herd of elephants coming down to the waters edge for a drink. This is what you might see with the naked eye or with zero magnification.
Here you can see a nice wide field of view and a lot of things around the elephants like the water, tree stumps and the trees in the background. So if a lion was to come out from back there you would instantly see it! Now Let’s now look at the image through 8x and 10x power binoculars Notice how you get more detail, but the more you increase the power, the more the field of view gets narrower and you can no longer see the water or the trees in the background.
So if a lion had to come out from back there,you would miss it! So remember that when you increase the power of a pair of binoculars your field of view is going to decrease. So although you can see the object closer with more detail, a higher power binocular will have a more restrictive field of view. This is something you certainly want to keep that in mind when you’re looking for binoculars for activities like bird-watching or spectator sports where a wider field of view is really helpful. Another thing to consider as you increase magnification is how it impacts image stability Any movement from your upper body or hands is going to be magnified With a lower magnification like 7x or even 8x, if the binocular isn't perfectly steady you may see some movement or bounciness of the image, but unless you are particularly unsteady this is not going to be an issue.