Stabilizing binoculars ???

Kings Gambit · Jun 23, 2018

steveebryant said:
Who has an opinion regarding Stabilizing binoculars in the price range of $500 to $1000?
I am in the market for a new pair of binoculars. The last pair I had were from west marine with compass. I liked them really well until I was thrown off balance in my sailboat and fell back on them in the seat. I bent them out of alignment.

I've never experienced the stabilizing binoculars so I don't know how effective or practical they are.

I have tried to read marks on the water from a distance and could not make out the lettering in some part due to my inability to avoid the small movement, in hand, while using them.

I can't even find them in any store where I can examine them before purchase. If you have experience using them, I would like to hear from you. I am willing to pay $1,200.00 for a pair if there is a measurable or appreciable improvement over the conventional type.

No, but call these guys for technical info or chat.

Also, they might be able to fix the ones you bent. Binocular repair is their business.

http://www.bakermarineusa.com/index.php?id=17&cat=41&prod=101

Captain Larry-DH · Jun 23, 2018

I have the Fuji Techno Stabi 14x40, incredible. Definitely worth it. If you want to read a ships name, buoy or tide board - this IS what you should get. Also great for stargazing.

However, it’s not a full replacement for a quality set of 7x50 conventional binos. (I also have Nikons with compass). These have great light gathering and are better for night scanning or a quick look, to see if a relative bearing is changing. (The relative bearing of another vessel remains constant if on a collision course.)

jon hansen · Jun 23, 2018

i like mine. i prefer them to standard. been using them a lot over the last ten years. it's the only way to go. i never will go back. they are 10 times better. it's such a simple choice. your on a moving vessel in a seaway. they make the view like a set on a tripod on land. it's a no brainer.

uncledom · Jun 23, 2018

I recently used a friends pair of Fuji stabilized binoculars and was very impressed. The difference is amazing. I can't wait to get to that item on my list.

jon hansen · Jun 23, 2018

looking at the moon or planets is sweet

CarlN · Jun 23, 2018

I have a pair of Fuji 12x32 Technostabil JR's and love them. Not a great night binocular but I have a pair of 7x50's for low light. The optics and stabilizer is really incredible for the price. You can often find these for as little as $400.

Don S/V ILLusion · Jun 23, 2018

I'm still waiting for someone to make stabilized sextants. How Shackleton's crew managed accurate sites from a small boat is jaw dropping.

Rich Stidger · Jun 23, 2018

Don S/V ILLusion said:
I'm still waiting for someone to make stabilized sextants. How Shackleton's crew managed accurate sites from a small boat is jaw dropping.

Why do you need a stabilized sextant? You are measuring the angle from the body to the horizon. As your boat moves the body and the horizon move exactly the same amount, so when you "bring down" the body to the horizon everything appears stable. What am I missing?

capta · Jun 23, 2018

Absolutely, positively and without a doubt the best purchase I have made in navigational equipment in the last ten years or so.
I would never go back to standard binoculars.

Don S/V ILLusion · Jun 24, 2018

Rich Stidger said:
Why do you need a stabilized sextant? You are measuring the angle from the body to the horizon. As your boat moves the body and the horizon move exactly the same amount, so when you "bring down" the body to the horizon everything appears stable. What am I missing?

If the horizon isn't stable, you run the risk of "missing" the precise angle.

shemandr · Jun 24, 2018

I could hardly get an accurate fix standing on the boardwalk at Jones Beach when I took USPS JN course. I was thinking that this is an area ripe for technology. Imagine an app in which you could pick a celestial body, enter the time and date, the app would find the body and measure the angle to the horizon with a stabilized image, and freeze a time. Then I thought we already have that. It's called GPS.

jssailem · Jun 24, 2018

Not sure even a “Stabalized” sextant (if one could exist) would give you a “precise” angle. Stabalized to what. Level? Bouncing all about on an angry sea, changing the angle you are viewing the angles in the instrument the term precise seems impossible.
So how can the sextant have worked? I think making it work, in part, is the art of using a sextant. It worked better for some than others. Through the application of Darwinian theory the good ones became trusted navigators. Sextant precise is not GPS precise. With a sextant you could be off by hundreds of miles. But your continued repetitive action would over time reduce the error. Reduce it enough for you to find that tiny island group several miles large in the vast ocean. Or you sailed long enough in a one direction till you hit a continent, somewhere between Boston and Miami. Then you sail along the coast till you find a welcoming harbor.
Precision the old fashioned way you earn it.

Rich Stidger · Jun 24, 2018

I didn't intend to hijack this thread from the stabilizing binocs. However, having used a extant to take quite a few sights for the USPS JN and N courses, my experience is different. I have taken sights form land and from a boat moving at anchor. The task is to measure the angle between a body and the horizon. When the boat pitches up or down the body and the horizon both move up in down in concert. The angle between them is constant. Looking through the sextant the body and the horizon are superimposed regardless of the movement of the sextant. If this were not true, it would be absolutely impossible to measure the angle. jssailem - the sextant is not required to be level to measure the angle between the body and the horizon.

SG · Jun 24, 2018

My personal take on this:

I have had both 14 power Fuji's and Steiner Commander 7x50's with an illuminated compass.
The Fuji's do what they're supposed to -- but the batteries wear-out surprising fast when you're using them a lot.
The Steiners are incomparably tough and great pieces of glass.
When I put both pairs out, almost no one seems to pick-up the Fuji's except for specialized target sightings. Eventually I just put them away below in their case.
Scanning the horizon with the image stabilized continually cases a bit of vertigo. The higher magnification is only useful when you're trying to focus on a very small object (that isn't moving a lot).

jssailem · Jun 24, 2018

Good information SG. Thanks. Practical knowledge. Priceless.

Rich. I understand your comments. Having attempted sightings from a rolling deck where the horizon is not always visible, the art of timing and rhythm became valuable in accomplishing a Nooner. Granted I have become spoiled by the sirens allure of GPS and have for many years not ventured out beyond a coastal view.

jon hansen · Jun 24, 2018

i agree that higher magnification sucks. i have never liked it. even stabilized. comparing glasses that suck your eyeballs out. to a more comfortable magnification is not really valid. that said, it does bring up a good point. if buying the upgrade keep within your eye's comfort zone.

capta · Jun 24, 2018

Don S/V ILLusion said:
I'm still waiting for someone to make stabilized sextants. How Shackleton's crew managed accurate sites from a small boat is jaw dropping.

You are joking, right? Shackleton was on dry land for most of his noteworthy sights.
There acttually is a sort of 'stabilized' sextant. It was called a bubble sextant and it is used on airplanes.

Don S/V ILLusion · Jun 24, 2018

capta said:
You are joking, right? Shackleton was on dry land for most of his noteworthy sights.
There acttually is a sort of 'stabilized' sextant. It was called a bubble sextant and it is used on airplanes.

The 800 mile trip from Elephant Island to South Georgia is about as far away from dry land as one can get and the South Atlantic isn't very stable from which to get a good horizon site but we are way off topic here. Guess my interjecting some mediocre humor here wasn't a good idea.

Kings Gambit · Jun 24, 2018

My recollection of the story is that he and his crew were stranded on sea (pack) ice until reaching Elephant Island via the rotation of the ice. That's hardly "dry land." Once at E.I., several of 'em including Shackleton took off for South Georgia Island. Certainly, they had to know their positions along the way to keep their course. By that time in maritime history, however, a sun-sight at noon and a chronometer reading would do it, no?

Stabilizing binoculars ???

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SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John

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SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John

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