15X for birding?

I'm new to the Bino bird watching hobby and am getting ready to purchase my first good set of bino's. After much research I'm going to go with the Canon Is. I will mainly be watching birds in my back yard, (blue birds, RB Grosbeak....)from 50 to 120 feet away. I am looking at the Canon 15 X 50 IS and 12 X 36 ISII. Is 15X too much magnification, how about 12X? I also am into Astronomy with a couple of scopes and a good set of 15X bino's would be fun to have when I don't feel like lugging out a large scope, but my primary use would be for birding.

Thank You
Frank

Hi Frank: I am no great expert but I like to watch birds, both in my back yard, down at the ocean and on trips and hikes.

In my view, some important factors when considering birding binoculars are: Field of view, eye relief and close focus.

Field of view is important because them little birds like to fly and hop around and finding them before they take off is the first goal. The 12x36's have a 5 degree FOV, the 15x50's have a 4.5 degree FOV. This is pretty narrow and probably means viewing flying birds is not going to often happen.

Eye Relief: I am not a glasses wearer but I like a nice amount, the 15mm of the 15x50's is adequate but 20mm seems preferable. Long eyerelief makes for an "easy view" IME.

Close focus: While at this point, the 20 foot close focus is probably adequate, for a general purpose pair of birding binos I think one needs to be able to focus at 10 feet and preferably closer. It is quite frustrating to have a beautiful bird right up close, say 8 feet, right for that perfect view but the binos won't focus...

Most dedicated birding binoculars are able to focus at 5 or 6 feet.

So, I think these are things to consider..

But most importantly is ergonomics, how they fit you and how comfortable they are to use. Great binos that are just not comfortable, that somehow just don't fit are like a fancy pair of hiking boots that is the wrong size.

So, I think, just like buying shoes, the only way to tell is to try them out and see if they work for you.


Jon

How about both I would be concerned about the weight with the 15x. I don't think the magnification difference is enough to matter unless the apparent field of views differ. I'm not familar with the 12x, I have the 10x30 IS and they are very nice, good FOV and lightweight.