[RooTramping]

Early this year i could not see a hut due to evening sun. It was only about 150 metres away. The hut could be seen within 5 minutes in the morning. Therefore, I am after a mini lightweight and compact binoculars for tramping . What model is best for bushwalking? Thanks in advance.

[Mike McGavin]

Hi RooTramping

Is the problem that you couldn’t see the hut (and might have had to sleep outside), or that you were just generally having trouble seeing things and wanted to see more? And are you sure binoculars would actually help?

If you really want some, I’d personally try starting with a cheap scungey small and light pair for $20, and see how they go. Nearly all binoculars will help you see better to at least some extent if you get used to using them, and once you’ve tried them a few times, you’ll have a better idea of what you need to improve on to meet your needs.

I never bother to pack binoculars for tramping and my main experience with them is through amateur astronomy, which has a very different set of priorities. There may be someone here who can comment more on binoculars for tramping, but here are a few things I’ve noticed about binoculars in general.

* The most likely problem (in my experience) is if the barrels aren’t lined up properly. This can make it really difficult to look through them using both eyes without eventually feeling a bit sick. If you get a pair that aren’t durable in that area, they’ll probably get knocked out of alignment very quickly after being stuffed into your pack a few times. Even if they are durable, you’d still need to think carefully about how you pack them if you plan to look after them.

* Higher magnification will make it more difficult to hold them still. It’ll also make it harder to scan horizons because you get a smaller field of view. Personally I’d be careful about going above about 10x magnification, unless you specifically know you want to for some reason.

* Some binoculars will come with extra coatings on the lenses which can correct for certain refractive problems that lenses tend to have, and maybe help them to last longer, especially if you’re doing reckless things like pointing them into the wind a lot. I’m not sure how much effect they have during the daytime, though, and things like chromatic aberration are more of an inconvenience if you don’t care about a brilliant image.

* Don’t bother with a larger objective lenses unless you have a good reason. It only really makes a difference when it’s dark, I think. 30 mm lenses is probably fine for nearly everything during the day. Even at night a 25 mm pair of binoculars will still pick up more than 12 times as much light as a very generously dark adapted 7 mm eye. (Realistically the actual effect won’t be that good due to some other factors.) Anything bigger will add weight and volume which you probably don’t need, as well as probably costing a lot more.

These are just my thoughts, and I’m not an expert on binoculars for tramping (or for astronomy, for that matter). I’d also be interested to hear if anyone has any opposing thoughts.

As a side note, if the reason you were having problems seeing the hut was because the Sun was behind it, you obviously should be really careful about pointing any binoculars in that general direction at all. (Cue the standard lecture about people suffering instantaneous serious permanent eye damage, etc.)

Mike.

[RooTramping]

Hello Mike,

Please use the below link, the photograph of the place where I could not see the hut / campsites due to evening sun. I planned to camp out and carried a tent and pitched my tent by a lake. There was no track around and I waded a short section of a river and bush bashed to get through. I am after a mini binoculars to see better.

http://members.westnet.com.au/dzungn/where_is_the_hut.jpg

Regards, D.

[Author]

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