An acquaintance of mine is going to be sailing across the North Atlantic later this spring. He was wondering about good rugged binoculars, with a range about two miles, that he can use on his sailboat. Would anybody have any recommendations?
Thanks,
Rob
I know there are specific nautical binoculars available in sailing shops, but I've never seen through a pair and don't know how they differ from ordinary bins. My brother sails and uses a simple pair of Olympus 10x50 bins that cost him 100 euro, perfectly adequate for the task (he's not a birder). A lot of sailing folk use IS (Image Stablisation) bins, 'cos obviously the boat moves up and down. Canon make the cheapest ones, but only one model is waterproof, the 10x42 IS "L-series". Amazing optics, but strange in the hand, quite large and heavy. I have the Canon 12x36 IS version, it's not waterproof but it is rainproof (well, showerproof), fine as long as you don't drop it in the water. The IS feature is really amazing, steadies an image wonderfully to eliminate hand-shake and presumably sea-swell. The 12x36 cost about 700 euro. The waterproof 10x42 are more expensive, I think about 1200.
Hi Rob. No specific recommendations, but I did a search on Google looking for the words "boating" and "binoculars" and came up with a lot of useful stuff, including this page of recommendations:
http://www.just-binoculars.com/merc...ry_Code=BOATING
It looks as though there are a lot of ways to go. 7 x 50 seems like a popular configuration, because that will give you a large exit pupil and make it easier to stay on target when the boat is rocking. And a relatively low magnification will minimize the adverse effects of motion.
There also appear to be several binoculars specifically designed to float in the water, and some that claim to be resistant to fogging up.
And then there are also various image stabilized binoculars, which come in a wide variety of price ranges, and should theoretically enable you to see better at greater distances despite the rocking motion of a boat. But I think these often require batteries, and not all are waterproof.
You might also want to specify what your friends price range might be, what specifically he is going to be using the binoculars for, and whether he wears glasses.
Hope this helps,
Jim