The next time you plan to travel or take a road trip, you want to carry along a pair of travelling binoculars with you. You will be surprised at the completely new experience you are going to have; you will discover many more plant, bird and animal species than you have ever done in all your previous trips. It is even possible to notice details about landmarks and buildings that were not visible to the naked eye. You will be able to see right across the valley or straight into an open air event literally broadening your horizons.
You may already know how difficult it is to choose travelling binoculars due to a number of reasons. Most people love travelling light and, as such, the size and weight of everything they take; including the binoculars must be reduced to bare minimum. This makes it obvious that traveling binoculars are small so that it is easy to pack them within your small luggage.
However, you want to consider a few downsides of reducing the size of the binoculars. The smaller objective lenses that they have will mean that they will capture less light and the same will be transmitted to your eyes. This becomes a real challenge in situations where there isn’t too much light. The other challenge you are likely to face is that smaller optics come with less eye relief and, as such, they can cause some problems especially for people who wear eye glasses.
If you love to watch wildlife as you travel, you will realize that in most cases, they keep out of the midday sun and try to keep cool under the shades. This means that they become more active in the morning cool and then later in the afternoon. The same is true about most birds that are not active during those times of the day when the light is ideal for holders of small binoculars. This is why you want to make sure that you balance the need for a small travel binocular with its ability to do well during times when the light is less than ideal.
What all this means is that, unless you are really constrained in terms of space or you want to travel extremely light and you are planning to use a camera and binoculars, you should try to go for a mid-sized binocular that has an objective lens of that has a diameter of about 32mm.
Even though this will not match the fuller version that has a lens which is 42mm in diameter, it will definitely do better than the compact binoculars of 28mm or lower lenses in low light situations where you will be able to encounter birds and wildlife in their active life. This size becomes a good compromise between the two extremes in terms of size and performance.
The best thing to do when looking for travel binoculars is to spend as much as you don’t mind losing. This is because when you are traveling, there is always the risk of misplacing, breaking or even having it stolen; the risk is higher than when it is kept securely in your house. However, you don’t have to go for the cheapest binoculars especially if you care about quality.
About the author:
This article has been written by Mohit Jain who loves collectibles like binoculars and scopes. He is also avid bird watchers and has written a number of articles on bird watching binoculars review as well as travel binoculars.