What to look for choosing the lens of your binocular?

On binoculars, you will find out two types of objective lenses. The purpose of these lenses is to collect light from the object you have focused on. When the light is brought into focus, it creates visibility of the image on your eyes. 


With the help of the objective lens, the image of a certain distance comes to vision. A prism is used in binoculars which block the glass and works as a mirror. It creates an internal reflections to the object. You will get two types of the prism used in binoculars. These are the roof prism and Porro prism. Two prisms are used for completely different purpose in binoculars. If you're planning a safari adventure soon, you will need to know about the lens and focus of binoculars. The best binoculars have fully multi-coated lenses. Here I am discussing about the focus and lens features of a binocular.

1)    Focus Type - when you are bird watching you need to be able to focus on birds that are close to you and birds that are a long distance away, so you want to select a binocular with a center focus system. Bird watching binoculars with a center focus system has the greatest ability to cope with all ranges (near focus, medium distance, and long range).

2)    Focus Speed – birds rarely oblige by sitting in one place for long periods so with bird watching binoculars there is a constant need to refocus as the birds move from one place to another. Binoculars that are slow to focus or refocus can negatively impact on your bird watching experience so always select a binocular that is quick to focus.

3)    Waterproof / Fog Proof - waterproof / fog proof binoculars are only critical if you want to go bird watching in wet, foggy conditions. An extra upside of this feature is that your binoculars will have extra protection against dust and dirt getting inside.

4)    Lens Coating - If you’ve already had a look at some binoculars you will have seen reference to coated, fully coated, multi-coated and fully multi-coated lenses. For increased light and better image brightness, you want coated lenses and many standard models now come with multi-coated lenses so don’t settle for less.

5)    Field of View -
The field of view is the how much you see when you are looking through your binoculars, so a wide field of view allows you to see a wider area and makes it easier when you are trying to spot a bird. A greater field of view is important but not at the expense of image quality, so don’t be tempted with cheap models that boast a wide field of view when they lack more essential features.

And there you have the features you need to look for while choosing binoculars.

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