binoculars necessary?

[plenox]

Calmom, thanks a lot for the link for the Nikon! I forwarded it to my friend. I want to thank everyone for sharing your experience. I also got a pair of zens and am very happy. Together with my newly acquired canon 75-300mm lens (less than $200), I think I am all set for those gadgets. Now, I need to really spend time to get to know them well. :)

[CALMOM]

Calmom, thanks a lot for the link for the Nikon! I forwarded it to my friend. I want to thank everyone for sharing your experience. I also got a pair of zens and am very happy. Together with my newly acquired canon 75-300mm lens (less than $200), I think I am all set for those gadgets. Now, I need to really spend time to get to know them well. :)

 

Your welcome plenox. have fun learning your new toys and have a great time on your cruise:)

[Corner Exit]

Together with my newly acquired canon 75-300mm lens (less than $200), :)

Where would one find a 300mm canon lens for $200??? Better yet, where could I find a 100-400 canon glasses for say $300??? :)

 

Thanks

Wayne

[plenox]

Where would one find a 300mm canon lens for $200??? Better yet, where could I find a 100-400 canon glasses for say $300??? :)

 

Thanks

Wayne

 

Wayne, I just got a very basic canon 75-300 USM lens from buydig.com for around $200. It does not have IS. It seems the one with IS is the most popular one. But it will cost almost three times of the one I got. I also saw the 100-400 canon for $1700:eek: . That is definitely out of my price range.

[plenox]

Wayne, I just got a very basic canon 75-300 USM lens from buydig.com for around $200. It does not have IS. It seems the one with IS is the most popular one. But it will cost almost three times of the one I got. I also saw the 100-400 canon for $1700:eek: . That is definitely out of my price range.

 

I am lucky enough to borrow a 75-300 IS from my friend for a week. The lens looks substantially better than my inexpensive non-IS lens. After trying it for a week, I have to say, the IS feature is great, especially during low light condition. My next purchase (maybe many years later) definitely will be an IS lens.

[plenox]

I posted a comparison between nikon and zen-ray before but seems not to be able to find it (maybe system purged it out after a while). My conclusion pretty much echoes what Kathy has described before. Optically they are almost identical. There are some minor difference in details. I will try to put a comparison together some time next week when I am less busy with my work. remind me in case I forget.

 

Dave, did you have a chance to work on the comparison? No rush though. My friend won't need her binocular until September. thanks

[qiangf2]

Dave, did you have a chance to work on the comparison? No rush though. My friend won't need her binocular until September. thanks

 

I haven't been able to work on the write-up (too busy with work lately). I haven't forgotten this though. :) I will give it another try later this week.

[qiangf2]

Dave, did you have a chance to work on the comparison? No rush though. My friend won't need her binocular until September. thanks

 

plenox, sorry for the long delay. It has been very busy with work and other commitment in the last few weeks. As promised, I finally was able to find a block of time to put the comparison together. It is just my personal experience of those two great binoculars. Are they THE BEST? Certainly not, and no way. In my own opinion, the best binocular title belongs to Leica, whose 10x42 model will cost at least $1800. For beginner and modest users, Monarch and Summit represent the best value without compromising the quality. In addition, it is hard to wring out which one is better between these two since optical quality is very similar. Hence I would rather just highlight the subtle difference I noticed from my experience.

 

By simply looking at the specs, these two binoculars are very similar. Nikon focus knob says “Nikon Vision Japan”. But there is a little label on the back of the binoculars that says Made in China. The fact that both of them are so similar in shape makes me wonder whether they actually came out of the same factory. Both of them are solidly built. Each comes with ocular lens cap and tethered objective lens caps. I really like design of the tethered lens cap since I never have to worry about losing those accessories any more. The ocular lens cap for Monarch is slightly too big and it can come off very easily if I flip my binoculars. I don't know whether it is problem of my particular copy or intrinsic problem with this batch of 10x42 Monarch, or somebody put a lens cap for 10x56 in this box at assembly. I used to own an 8x42 Monarch. Its ocular lens cap fits perfectly. Nevertheless, it is rather strange for a quality manufacturer like Nikon to miss such a minor detail here.

On the quantitative spec, Monarch does slightly better on FOV, weight, and eye relief. The extra 10 ft field of view at 1000 yards is actually noticeable when I put two binoculars side by side and looked at a town home building several blocks away. Monarch can see extra half window on the building than Summit does when I compare them in a controlled manner. Monarch is also 2 oz lighter. Since both of them are designed to be comfortably handheld by small hands, like my wife’s, neither of us can tell the 2 oz difference. But it is there for sure.

Summit shines on its minimal focus distance 6ft vs. 8.2 ft for Monarch. If you mainly use the binoculars for viewing distant objects, like wildlife, landscape, or sky, this difference is not that important at all. For people who sometimes use binoculars viewing wild birds visiting the backyard feeders (yes, I am one of those rare kind:) ), the minimal focus might be a factor to consider.

Another trivial difference is turning range of the focus knobs: Monarch can make one full turn plus another 70 degrees for a total of 430 degrees. Summit can make two full turn plus another 10 degrees for a total of 730 degrees. It is probably the conscious design decision by the manufacturers: more turns allow a more precise focus, but less turns enables a faster focus.

Optical comparison

Both binoculars are fully multi-coated with phase coating on the roof prisms. Viewing at the ocular lens and objective lens, there are deep green coated layers on both ends of optics. One easy test to check the quality of optical coating is to look straight into the objective lens. If you can see your face, that means a lot of light have been reflected back, resulting a dim image. Neither Nikon nor Zen-Ray bounced back much light when I did that inspection. As a result, the image is very bright, which makes them ideal for low light condition.

Both binoculars' viewing fields are very sharp. Recently I bought a Canon A640 camera to attach to the binocular to shoot the pictures seen in the binoculars (Calmom, thanks for your help in choosing this great camera). This zoom camera+10x binocular combo give me a “super optical zoom” of 28x. I took the following two uncropped pictures with summit and monarch on an object about 50 yards away. To avoid vibration from handshake, both pictures were taken on heavy-duty tripod with 10s auto timer. There are some vignetting effects around the edges of the images. It seems the lens system from A640 is still not perfectly matching with the eyepiece from these two 10x42, which is something I need to work on. In any case, I am very happy with the results of usable parts of both images: they are very sharp, come to very close to the pictures I took with my Canon 100-400 lens.

Summit view captured by Canon A640

 

Monarch view captured by Canon A640

However, both summit and monarch show some degree of degraded edge sharpness, covering the outer 10-20% field of view. It is typical for all the binoculars I have seen with price below $600. I once owned a pair of 8x42 Monarch. Its edge sharpness is slightly better than its 10x cousin. That’s the trade off when someone switches from 8x or 7x to 10x power. That process took me almost two years to fully give up all the wonderful trades of 8x42 binoculars, in a search for higher magnification power. Once I used the 10x binoculars for a while, I trained my eyes and brain to adapt to the new viewing experience. In addition, I rarely use my peripheral vision anyway. What's left is the pure excitement with the extra power brought in with 10x binoculars.

Moon observation

When I first got my Nikon Monarch, I took it out during a full moon night. I aimed it to the brightly lit moon and adjusted the focus to infinite. The brightness of moon was so blinding. That was truly a wow experience. I spent the next few minutes staring at the moon and was awed by those numerous craters until my neck started complaining. The best moon viewing time is during the 1st quarter or 3rd quarter moon when the sun casts a deep shadow along the cliffs and craters on the moon.

Stargazing

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine took us out for a star watching trip. We drove out and away from the light polluted city into a national forest area. My friend and his wife are seasoned amateur astronomers with a 12 inch Dobsonian telescope. DW and I just want to hang out with friends and learn a little about sky. So we equipped ourselves with our beloved monarch and summit and hitched the ride with them. It was dark, cold, cloudless night. The sky was dotted with stars bisected by the mesmerizing Milky Way. I don't think I have seen Milky Way like I saw that night for almost couple of decades. Once my friends set up their telescope and showed us the Jupiter and three of its moons, we were completely blown away by the beauty of their sighting. At first I thought my binoculars would be completely useless since I am standing next to a giant telescope that has 200x magnification power and a lot of light gathering power. My friend took out his laser pointer and asked me to look at the sky where he is pointing at using my binoculars. When I slowly adjusted my focus to infinite, a fuzzy little light ball among a bunch of discrete stars all of sudden popped out of nowhere. He told me that was the Great Hercules Cluster M13 globular cluster, a ball of half millions stars clustered together. Then, he went on pointed many objects on the sky for me to view with my 10x binoculars. That night, DW and I exchanged our binoculars several times. Both of us were amazed by this unique experience. I didn't know there is so much out there as long as you know what to look for. We were so grateful that we have such experienced astronomers to guide us through the wonderful skytour that night. After we came back, they loaned us this book “Binocular Highlights: 99 Celestial Sights for binoculars users”. I think I am hooked.

In summary, both Nikon Monarch 10x42 and Zen-Ray Summit 10x42 are truly one of the best in their class I have ever tried. Although they are not the same as those $1500 European brand binoculars, they are close, at least 95% as good as those.

[Red Rox]

We just returned from our Coral Princess cruise tour. Yes, binoculars are a must for this trip! I was thrilled with my Zen ray Summits and found them to be superior to most of the binoculars that were being used by our travel companions and others on the trip. We saw dozens of animals in Denali SP on the Polychrome tour and the sea days and excursions on the cruise.

My general advice is to buy (or borrow) the best binoculars that you can afford or find. You'll be lost without them.

[jakehyr]

Binoculars are like your sustenance for your Alaskan cruise. Almost everything requires binoculars (since its mainly wildlife spotting). If you spot a whale on your cruise ship, chances are that it'd be very far away. Also in Denali, the dall sheep will look like small specks of snow unless you have your binoculars!

[IMNiles]

Recently I bought a Canon A640 camera to attach to the binocular to shoot the pictures seen in the binoculars (Calmom, thanks for your help in choosing this great camera). This zoom camera+10x binocular combo give me a “super optical zoom” of 28x. I took the following two uncropped pictures with summit and monarch on an object about 50 yards away. To avoid vibration from handshake, both pictures were taken on heavy-duty tripod with 10s auto timer. There are some vignetting effects around the edges of the images. It seems the lens system from A640 is still not perfectly matching with the eyepiece from these two 10x42, which is something I need to work on.

 

Thanks so much for putting this info together - I'm sure it will come in handy for a lot of us preparing to go.. I'm shopping for Binoculars myself and just happen to have the very same camera (love it!) - are you somehow attaching the binoc to the camera, or are you just holding it up to the lens?

 

Thanks!

[qiangf2]

Thanks so much for putting this info together - I'm sure it will come in handy for a lot of us preparing to go.. I'm shopping for Binoculars myself and just happen to have the very same camera (love it!) - are you somehow attaching the binoc to the camera, or are you just holding it up to the lens?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi, I bought a camera adapter and a binocular tripod adaptor, see the pictures below. You can find them in camera or sporting goods stores. I haven't tried handheld yet, but it is quite cumbersome without somebody helping it

 

 

[photodoodle]

I just returned from an Alaska cruise on the Statendam. I would say Binoculars are definitely necessary. My complete review is here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=11119700&posted=1#post11119700

 

Here's the section I wrote on binoculars:

 

Binoculars: I took the Olympus 8x42s that I’ve had for years and a new pair of Zen-ray Summit 10x42s; both were waterproof. My mom used the Olympus and I used the Zen-rays. I was happy to have the extra reach of the Zen-rays. On the Kenai tour we were moving between a warm cabin and a cold exterior. Another passenger’s binoculars fogged up a little on the inside. Neither of mine did. I was extremely happy with Zen-rays and I consider them an excellent value. If wildlife is a priority for you on an Alaska cruise, you will need binoculars.

[TXARF]

We just got our newly ordered Zen Ray 10 X 42 and have found them to be wonderful. We also bought a new 70 - 300 mm vibration reduction lens for our Nikon D50. Both have been fun to try out and "practice" before our September trip. DH and I plan to switch off between camera and binoculars - anyone have an opinion on how that works, or for optimum viewing do we need 2 pairs of binoculars?:eek:

[plenox]

Dave, we just came back from a camping trip and tried to bug you again. But it is here already. I have copied/pasted and emailed it to my friend. Thank you, thank you!

[JohnQ]

We just got back from two week cruise to Alaska. We took my Nikon 10x50's to mainly use on the ship and Pentax 8x25's to carry with us on all day port days. We used the Nikons a few times like when we had a bear on the beach in ISP and you could barely see it with bare eye. I let several people use to see it. Also for just general viewing in distance. Mostly, when I am looking from ship, I am focusing closer in order to be in camera range rather than seeing something at afar.

 

But for shore excursions, we found we didn't use binocs much. Again, we want to see things closer and if we are always looking in distance, we don't see things close. I am looking thru a 27-300 lens most of the time and my wife uses the digital video camera with 10x zoom. Yeah, the big binocs will bring you closer, but I am trying to capture a good photo which is hard to do if you have binocs in your hand instead of camera. Especially on a tour like a whalewatch tour or bear viewing tour where I want and expect to get close and not need binocs.

 

Then there is the issue of carrying both around for 10-14 hours a day for two weeks! I know my shoulders and neck have still not recovered even though I have been doing this on every vacation forever!!!

 

We saw some people on deck or sitting at windows that would sit there for long periods with their binocs handy. But for most of the average, normal people we saw, did not use or carry their binocs much. Just like when the Capt would announce whales, or porpoises near ship. Most had to go get their camera or binocs from cabin and missed whole thing.

 

So you probably want to bring and keep hand when on ship, but you will have to decide how much you use them for shore tours.

[plenox]

We just got back from two week cruise to Alaska. We took my Nikon 10x50's to mainly use on the ship and Pentax 8x25's to carry with us on all day port days. We used the Nikons a few times like when we had a bear on the beach in ISP and you could barely see it with bare eye. I let several people use to see it. Also for just general viewing in distance. Mostly, when I am looking from ship, I am focusing closer in order to be in camera range rather than seeing something at afar.

 

But for shore excursions, we found we didn't use binocs much. Again, we want to see things closer and if we are always looking in distance, we don't see things close. I am looking thru a 27-300 lens most of the time and my wife uses the digital video camera with 10x zoom. Yeah, the big binocs will bring you closer, but I am trying to capture a good photo which is hard to do if you have binocs in your hand instead of camera. Especially on a tour like a whalewatch tour or bear viewing tour where I want and expect to get close and not need binocs.

 

Then there is the issue of carrying both around for 10-14 hours a day for two weeks! I know my shoulders and neck have still not recovered even though I have been doing this on every vacation forever!!!

 

We saw some people on deck or sitting at windows that would sit there for long periods with their binocs handy. But for most of the average, normal people we saw, did not use or carry their binocs much. Just like when the Capt would announce whales, or porpoises near ship. Most had to go get their camera or binocs from cabin and missed whole thing.

 

So you probably want to bring and keep hand when on ship, but you will have to decide how much you use them for shore tours.

 

John, thank you so much for your detailed observation. It is daunting to carry binoculars, camera with big lens, and digital camcorder for long period of time. I am thinking to get a backpack for that.

 

BTW, has anyone had any experience with zenray's Yukon binoculars. It is not waterproof, but spec looks very similar to summit except it has 12x mag power. We want to get a second pair, but didn't want to spend too much this time around.

[knorrisb07]

John, thank you so much for your detailed observation. It is daunting to carry binoculars, camera with big lens, and digital camcorder for long period of time. I am thinking to get a backpack for that.

 

BTW, has anyone had any experience with zenray's Yukon binoculars. It is not waterproof, but spec looks very similar to summit except it has 12x mag power. We want to get a second pair, but didn't want to spend too much this time around.

 

We took binoculars wherever we went during our trip and we are so glad we did. Many people around us were scrambling to try to get a glimpse of the wildlifes by borrowing other people's binoculars. We did get the Zen-Ray's 10x42 Yukon and summit. In my opinion, Yukon is bright, sharp and very inexpensive. We did notice that its focus knob is significantly tighter than summit, which is ok for DH, but bothers me a lot (and I end up using Summit one :D). Overall, we like the feel and build of summit better and will definitely get another pair next time. Yukon can be a good option if someone is on budget, just don't expect the same stellar performance as summit.

[vbmom87]

One of the things I forgot to mention in my Alaskan review, was how much we enjoyed our Zen Ray Binnoculars. We had purchased them directly from their web site and my husband says they are the finest pair he has ever owned and he has 5 pair. We looked out our hotel window in Vancouver towards Mt. Ranier. With the naked eye, it was pretty hard to see, but with the Zen Ray's it was so exciting to see it. And that is a long way off from Vancouver harbour. On the Inside Passage cruise, we could clearly see the island banks, lighthouses, homes, eagles in the trees, etc. A good purchase, indeed. gg

 

Any suggestions on what magnification one needs to be able to see distant objects in Alaska. Sorry it this sounds like a dumb question, but I don't own binoculars, and really have no idea what I would even need to look for. Thanks.

[plenox]

Any suggestions on what magnification one needs to be able to see distant objects in Alaska. Sorry it this sounds like a dumb question, but I don't own binoculars, and really have no idea what I would even need to look for. Thanks.

 

there are a lot of good advice on this board on how to choose camera and binoculars. I got a pair of 10x42 and like it a lot. There are few threads you can read on.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=550923 or http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=589778

[93ser]

I was wondering where I could purchase that binocular mount. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi, I bought a camera adapter and a binocular tripod adaptor, see the pictures below. You can find them in camera or sporting goods stores. I haven't tried handheld yet, but it is quite cumbersome without somebody helping it

 

 

[qiangf2]

I was wondering where I could purchase that binocular mount. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

try this one at Bhphoto http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/403807-USA/Radian_DCARD2845_Small_Digiscoping_Adapter_f_.html

 

BTW, are you looking for tripod mount or camera mount? Here is one for tripod mount

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/339218-REG/Bushnell_161001CM_Binocular_Tripod_Adapter.html

 

There are other brands as well, but they all based on the same design. Mine is made by Zhumell. Depending on how big your binocular's eye piece is, you need to find the right size. I got 28-45mm version that fits perfectly for my Zen-Ray and Nikon binoculars. Hope this helps.

[fti]

I returned Friday from a weeklong cruise. I would never go to Alaska - landtour or cruise (or even on any cruise) without a good pair of binoculars. I was using them all the time. Saw a whale breach from the ship near Icy Strait Point as we were leaving and never would have seen that without the binoculars. I also often carried my fairly large camera bag with me that included a SLR body and four lenses around the ship. When I went ashore, I usually put just the camera body and two lenses in my backpack, wrapped well along with my binoculars. Sure it was a bit to carry around but the reward was well worth it.

 

PS I have been using B&H Photo in NY for 30 years or more and they are excellent.

 

John

[qiangf2]

I was wondering where I could purchase that binocular mount. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here is another try with summit binocular and A640 camera during the 1st quarter moon. It is slightly over-exposed. I am waiting for the next opportunity to try it again.

 

[tjbarney]

This may be a dumb question, but how are you able to do that with the binocs and camera? :confused:

 

 

Here is another try with summit binocular and A640 camera during the 1st quarter moon. It is slightly over-exposed. I am waiting for the next opportunity to try it again.