A review of reviewers. (2 Viewers)

[kimsrk]

Every step into new territory of a hobby leads one to ask: “How did everybody else do this before me?”, or “What equipment did you use they use?”
There is an entire online economy and community around reviewing products, and these options all fall within a distinct spectrum: from outright shilling on one end and honest hobbyist on the other. I suppose there could be another branch of the spectrum, the one I want to talk about, “The obsessed delusional” (sorry the name is a work in progress). Delusional isn’t meant to be this terrible thing, honestly whenever any of us get obsessed with anything we can sometimes loose track of objectivity. We fall in love with the feel of the ergonomic grip, we take in the joy and perfectly fluid motion of each physical competent, the wonderful pictures, the classy looking manual, and that sets the tone for the review. We already want to love it. Now, in the case of binoculars, a bad view is going to be evident. Some aspects are measurable and objective, but preference is not. The subtle feeling you got from liking the look, the name, the smell maybe, the way it was packaged; all of it makes the entire experience ‘better’. It starts to tint your prefernce. All of it primes your conscience to enjoy it more, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with objective quality and how that makes you feel.


I’ve spent a lot of time being obsessed. Two ‘hobbies’, if you can call them that, that are rife with the obsessed delusional are audiophiles and now binoculars. I had no idea. I only wanted a decent pair of bino’s to look at some birds. Maybe I could have grabbed the Zeiss Terra’s and never looked back, but I got sucked in. Just like speakers and stereos, I HAD to know if the differences mattered. Off to the internet. Well the first thing I noticed, was the price range was pretty enormous, anything from $50-$3500…yay. $3500 isn’t a crazy amount of money, but for binoculars it definitely is. I find myself immediately getting embarrassed when I tell people that I’m considering spending that much on a pair of glass tubes to look at birds, simply because I’m obsessed with looking at them with THE perfect glass. As I took in review after review, learning a little here and there, taking notes of the group terms: “alpha glass” “CA” “transmission”, I started to notice this feeling. I know this feeling; audiophiles!! Then I couldn’t unsee it, it was everywhere. The flowery language to describe how wonderful it was to look through a new set of glass you’d never seen before. The tools people used to setup and measure to prove: Yes! This one is the best, look at these numbers! People buying and reselling so they can know, and test, and make videos, and websites, to experience everything; Obsession. In its purest form. This didn’t stop me from my obsession though. And just like speakers and stereo equipment, the diminishing returns start very early, probably around $300. Throw your best bins in front of a casual and they’ll say, “Wow, neat, these are really great!” And then give them your mid’s and expect to hear the same. Every time. Then try to get them to see the CA, the slight discoloration, and you’ll probably get: “Yeah, I see it I Just don’t really notice it unless I look for it”. I know this isn’t just me, I’ve read posts, I’ve seen videos of camera shy SO’s trying their best to say what you want them to! But just like with audio equipment, anyone can still enjoy the music without $10000 equipment, shoot maybe even a set of phone speakers is enough to set the mood and enjoy the song you want to hear.


So don’t get too obsessed, and don’t let your obsession make you delusional, it’s about enjoying the music, the visual music and beauty. Just being out there is enough usually, it doesn’t have to be perfect.


Anyway, I love my Kowa Genesis bino's and I'm still obsessed with seeing more!

 

[dries1]

Thank you for a very honest read, with humor. You included CA, but don't forget the veiling glare.

 

[Pinewood]

Hello Kimsrk,

As an audiophile, you understand the point of diminishing returns and the attachment, or justification, some have with their optics. It happens both up and down the price ladder. There may be praise for a budget model, as in, "I get 90% of what others pay three times the price." The owners of a higher priced binocular may not acknowledge their binocular's faults or that others do have real issues with an alpha.

For sure, a $500 binocular will improve the enjoyment of bird watching over either the naked eye alone, or a bubble packed optic from Walmart. Above $900, higher quality and much higher prices seem to rule.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood

 

[kimsrk]

Hello Kimsrk,

As an audiophile, you understand the point of diminishing returns and the attachment, or justification, some have with their optics. It happens both up and down the price ladder. There may be praise for a budget model, as in, "I get 90% of what others pay three times the price." The owner of a higher priced binocular may not acknowledge their binocular's faults or that others do have real issues with an alpha.

For sure, a $500 binocular will improve the enjoyment of bird watching over either the naked eye alone, or a bubble packed optic from Walmart. Above $900, higher quality and much higher prices seem to rule.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood

Oh it definitely goes both ways. I've also seen people give a harsher review simply because it's expensive and they don't think any incremental improvements are worth the cost. Decided to pick one angle as to keep the wordiness to a minimum.

 

[Patudo]

Ultimately the best judge of optics is you yourself. It's such a personal thing, and differences between observers in sensitivity to CA (for instance) can be quite significant. The "cataracts" thread is a good reminder that most of us have failing vision in some measure or another. I'd gladly trade all my alphas for the eyesight I had when I was 20.

That said, I confess I do read other folks' opinions (but some definitely have more credence than others). At the top of the tree there are those who have a good working knowledge of optics, experience with a good number of quality binocular makes/models, and use them regularly for/have good knowledge of similar purposes/pastimes I do - chill6x6, Hermann and a few others. I also appreciate the trouble that those with excellent (at least compared to my own) optical knowledge who focus on objective testing (henry link and a couple of others) go to, although I often wonder whether some of their tests (eg. on tripods with boosters, etc) are not entering the realm of BB stacking.

But, to be honest, I find almost any opinion interesting. Unless it's from d***o, of course.