I spent hours going back and forth between the 3 sets of binoculars that I had available.
8x42 Maven B1
12x50 Cabelas Euro HD/Meopta Meostar
15x56 Cabelas Euro HD/Meopta Meostar
Thankfully, I had some good targets. There are always speedgoats, at 2.25 miles, and 1.7 miles to watch and while they're not that well camouflaged, they are pretty small, especially the fawns. I was trying to get a feel for magnification, and whether I want to keep the 12x50 or 15x56 binos. I'm trying to decide on an "optics system" for my hunting, both now and in the future.
Possible components:
7x24 monocular (Leica rangefinder)
8x30 Maven B3
8x42 Maven B1
10x42 (don't have these)
12x50 Cabelas Euro HD
15x56 Cabelas Euro HD
50, 60, 80, 90 mm Spotting Scope (don't have this yet)
Trying to figure out which pieces give me the best modular system for Wyoming hunting, mostly out of a backpack.
Everything will run off a Promaster 525c Tripod with Benro S2 head, KDC bino mount.
I do not have the spotter at the moment. Likely candidates are the Maven S1 and Kowa TSN 773, but maybe the bigger scope is better (Kowa 883)
Impressions:
I was surprised at how reasonably I could handhold the 12 and 15x binoculars (especially the 12x). I wouldn't want to do it for very long, but a 5 second look was very manageable with either one.
At 2.25, and 1.7 miles, the 15x did have a noticeable advantage in gathering detail, but it wasn't as much as I expected. The 12x worked very well at those distances. Whatever I could see through the 15x, I could also see, but with slightly less detail, through the 12x.
The same held true on the other end of the distance spectrum. At 150 yards, there was a noticable loss of FOV with the 15x vs the 12x, but it wasn't major.
Heat mirage is a much bigger problem than I realized. I was looking over a reservoir for most of my "testing" which minimized the mirage. When I took them to a different location in the middle of the day, the mirage was really messing with me.
The 15's are much bigger than the 12's in terms of physical size, but they balanced very nicely and were not uncomfortable to handhold.
I really obsessed at the end of light comparison where I was surprised that there was very little difference. I thought the 12x50, with a 4.2 exit pupil (vs. 3.7 for the 15x56) would outperform the 15x56 and would give me a clear reason to choose them for my primary hunting optic, but it was not the case. There was very little difference, even up to an hour after sunset. Within shooting light timeframe, both were amazing and there was no clear difference, much to my disappointment.
So, these are my impressions/experience with binos this weekend. My family enjoyed the experience as well, my wife even sort of got involved prefering the bright picture of the 8x42 Maven over the details of the higher power binos, and the 15x56 over the 12x50 for details in bright daylight.
Not sure that I learned much more than quality optics are amazing, and that there is always a tradeoff that is neither "good" nor "bad" in these products. At least at the common levels 8x42, 10x42, 12x50, 15x56, you're going to have a very good view, just depending on whether you value brightness, detail, and physical structure (size/weight) more will determine the "best" optic for your situation.
8x42 Maven B1
12x50 Cabelas Euro HD/Meopta Meostar
15x56 Cabelas Euro HD/Meopta Meostar
Thankfully, I had some good targets. There are always speedgoats, at 2.25 miles, and 1.7 miles to watch and while they're not that well camouflaged, they are pretty small, especially the fawns. I was trying to get a feel for magnification, and whether I want to keep the 12x50 or 15x56 binos. I'm trying to decide on an "optics system" for my hunting, both now and in the future.
Possible components:
7x24 monocular (Leica rangefinder)
8x30 Maven B3
8x42 Maven B1
10x42 (don't have these)
12x50 Cabelas Euro HD
15x56 Cabelas Euro HD
50, 60, 80, 90 mm Spotting Scope (don't have this yet)
Trying to figure out which pieces give me the best modular system for Wyoming hunting, mostly out of a backpack.
Everything will run off a Promaster 525c Tripod with Benro S2 head, KDC bino mount.
I do not have the spotter at the moment. Likely candidates are the Maven S1 and Kowa TSN 773, but maybe the bigger scope is better (Kowa 883)
Impressions:
I was surprised at how reasonably I could handhold the 12 and 15x binoculars (especially the 12x). I wouldn't want to do it for very long, but a 5 second look was very manageable with either one.
At 2.25, and 1.7 miles, the 15x did have a noticeable advantage in gathering detail, but it wasn't as much as I expected. The 12x worked very well at those distances. Whatever I could see through the 15x, I could also see, but with slightly less detail, through the 12x.
The same held true on the other end of the distance spectrum. At 150 yards, there was a noticable loss of FOV with the 15x vs the 12x, but it wasn't major.
Heat mirage is a much bigger problem than I realized. I was looking over a reservoir for most of my "testing" which minimized the mirage. When I took them to a different location in the middle of the day, the mirage was really messing with me.
The 15's are much bigger than the 12's in terms of physical size, but they balanced very nicely and were not uncomfortable to handhold.
I really obsessed at the end of light comparison where I was surprised that there was very little difference. I thought the 12x50, with a 4.2 exit pupil (vs. 3.7 for the 15x56) would outperform the 15x56 and would give me a clear reason to choose them for my primary hunting optic, but it was not the case. There was very little difference, even up to an hour after sunset. Within shooting light timeframe, both were amazing and there was no clear difference, much to my disappointment.
So, these are my impressions/experience with binos this weekend. My family enjoyed the experience as well, my wife even sort of got involved prefering the bright picture of the 8x42 Maven over the details of the higher power binos, and the 15x56 over the 12x50 for details in bright daylight.
Not sure that I learned much more than quality optics are amazing, and that there is always a tradeoff that is neither "good" nor "bad" in these products. At least at the common levels 8x42, 10x42, 12x50, 15x56, you're going to have a very good view, just depending on whether you value brightness, detail, and physical structure (size/weight) more will determine the "best" optic for your situation.
