Bino's and eyeglasses

[handirifle]

I was wondering how others deal with this annoying issue? I even had LASIK done some years back, but the astigmatism came back , so I have had to deal with glasses again for the last few years. The problem is, if I screw in the eye cup, as required, it ends up scratching my glasses lens. That is more than annoying, it's expensive.

I can see pretty well, by taking the glasses off and glassing that way, but I am afraid I will end up with big headaches and/or I will miss seeing the details enough to spot game.

Are there any REAL solutions for eyeglass wearers?

[Mescalero]

I do not mean to hijack your thread, but this is a question I have wondered about for some time.
I wear reading glasses, If I wear glasses for up close,should I take the picture with my glasses on or focus the camera with them off?

[handirifle]

I do not mean to hijack your thread, but this is a question I have wondered about for some time.
I wear reading glasses, If I wear glasses for up close,should I take the picture with my glasses on or focus the camera with them off?

I BELIEVE most lenses are more or less distance focused, like a scope is best viewed with distance vision. If you are looking through a viewfinder like an SLR camera, then distance vision focusing, but something like a digital camera, with a rear viewing screen, then you would have to use your reading glasses to see the screen.

Hope that helps YOUR issue .

[Mescalero]

Is this "eye cup" hard plastic, metal?
Some binos have soft rubber eyepieces, is that where you need to go?

[JerryB]

I just take my glasses off to use my binocs. I hold my glasses in my teeth, then slip them back on.
I have tried to use the binocs with my glasses on, just see a small circle.

[RIHMFIRE]

I have the same problem..
My nikons and bushnell binos have rubber coated eye pieces...
the eye cups on my nikons are gone
and they are screwed all the way in on my bushnells...
the rubber so far, has not scratched my glasses...

I am constantly adjusting the glasses to get the best field of view
and focus.....its really a pain...

[Shasta]

I have bought probably a dozen or more various binoculars over the years, always under $150 in price. None were very good, so a few years back I treated myself to a spendy set of Leica 8x42 BN, which are designed for eyeglass wearers. Whoo-weee! What a difference! I can now use my extremely clear binoculars while wearing my glasses, and they have pull-out eyepieces for those who don't wear glasses. I liked 'em so well I sprung for a second pair of slightly smaller 8x32 BN. These are probably the last binoculars I will ever need to buy, provided I don't lose 'em!

SHASTA

[handirifle]

I have bought probably a dozen or more various binoculars over the years, always under $150 in price. None were very good, so a few years back I treated myself to a spendy set of Leica 8x42 BN, which are designed for eyeglass wearers. Whoo-weee! What a difference! I can now use my extremely clear binoculars while wearing my glasses, and they have pull-out eyepieces for those who don't wear glasses. I liked 'em so well I sprung for a second pair of slightly smaller 8x32 BN. These are probably the last binoculars I will ever need to buy, provided I don't lose 'em!

SHASTA

Shasta
What makes them better? Most used with glasses on seem to get about 2/3, at best, the FOV of non eyeglass use, are the LLeica's different, how? The glasses I use both have either plastic or rubber, but the eyeglasses still got scratched, and these suckers are not cheap.

[olyinaz]

I slip the binos under my eye glasses and lift up, thereby displacing my eyeglasses to up on my forehead, and then look directly through the binocs with the glasses out of the way. When you pull the binos away your glasses will fall back down into place. I've done this for years with both cheap and expensive binos and it works well for me, but I supposed it could be an issue for the fellow with certain kinds of eye glasses.

Down side of this is that if you hand your binos to anyone else they can't see through them without refocusing, because you're making your binos into corrective lenses for YOUR eyes and no one elses.

If you're out in the field with dust and grit on your glasses (some of which WILL be quartz and other hard minerals) you will scratch your glasses if you press something against them. Guaranteed. One can either live with it and get new glasses frequently or take better care of them and not have to do that, but whatever works for a fellow is what works.

Oly

[Griff]

I've "readers" for about 20 years and had yo get corrective lenses about 7 years ago. I've used the same 10x25 compact binocs from Cabelas, (even labeled as Cabelas), for over 30 years. I just push the glasses up on my forehead and use the binocs sans glasses. Everything is clear & detail is crisp. I adjust the right side to match my right eye, then use the focus knob to focus both eyes.

[Shasta]

I have bought probably a dozen or more various binoculars over the years, always under $150 in price. None were very good, so a few years back I treated myself to a spendy set of Leica 8x42 BN, which are designed for eyeglass wearers. Whoo-weee! What a difference! I can now use my extremely clear binoculars while wearing my glasses, and they have pull-out eyepieces for those who don't wear glasses. I liked 'em so well I sprung for a second pair of slightly smaller 8x32 BN. These are probably the last binoculars I will ever need to buy, provided I don't lose 'em!

SHASTA

Shasta
What makes them better? Most used with glasses on seem to get about 2/3, at best, the FOV of non eyeglass use, are the LLeica's different, how? The glasses I use both have either plastic or rubber, but the eyeglasses still got scratched, and these suckers are not cheap.

No, they are most certainly not cheap, but I felt that for once I got what I paid for.

I will defer explanation of what makes them better for eyeglass wearers to page 6 of their own statement in the following link:

http://www.company7.com/library/leica/leicabn.pdf


As an aside, I use my Leica binoculars several times each month as a spotter for NRA Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette shooting, as well as for hunting, bird watching, or just "what's that over there?". My eyeglasses have polycarbonate plastic safety type lenses, and I have not to my knowledge scratched them from use of the Leica binoculars. I do know the Leica binoculars are much clearer and have a better field of view than the Bushnell brand I had been using.

SHASTA

[El Chivo]

to use the binocs with my glasses on, just see a small circle.

I think that's the main problem; it's much better to get closer and have that nice field of view.

The focus on the binos will adjust for distance, so all you need to correct is the astigmatism. Small lenses can be ground with just the astigmatism correction, on a flat base, and attached to the eyepieces, if you're ambitious. Your eye doctor could do that for you. It sounds like some brands have inserts for the astigmatism, that's the way to go, if you can find it.

I'm lucky; my dominant eye just corrected its astigmatism. I use monoculars anyway, I don't like the way things look through binos. Everything got flattened so trees and rocks looked like cardboard cutouts of the real thing. Monoculars are much more natural for me.

[stretch]

I bought myself a nice pair of Steiners a few years back, and have had no trouble.

Rolled down the eyecups, adjusted the focus, and haven't looked back....

And yes - they were a little bit spendy....

-Stretch

[Sixgun]

Handi,
Get used to it. Its the nature of the beast when the beast gets about 45. My best solution is that I had my eyeglass guy grind me a lens at half power reading lens in the upper corner of my dominate eye lens. It works for me.-----------Sixgun

never mind, I'm the tart

[AJMD429]

I've never spent over $200 on binoculars, so I can't comment on the upper-strata, but of all the under-$200 ones I have, the BEST for use with glasses are a $10 1970's-vintage Sears & Roebuck pair of 7x50's I have. I think it is mostly a matter of a) eye-relief, and b) non-abrasive (non-afterthought) removable eye-cups.

On a colposcope I use in the office (magnifies the cervix for when a biopsy is needed - like a pair of binoculars on a stand, essentially) I was having glasses-scratch issues, and careful work with really fine sandpaper, followed by some application of tool-handle rubber paint, solved the problem.

[KirkD]

I wear glasses as well. I had several cheaper binoculars over the years, each of which had their problems. Like Shasta, I decided to get serious and go for quality. I went to a Bass Pro shop that sold all the high end binos including Steiner, Leica, Swarovski, Zeiss and a couple others that I can't recall their names. I hauled up to the counter and tried them all. There were two that gave the best views ..... Swarovski and Leica. By 'best' I mean brightness, contrast, and razor sharp resolution right out to the edge of the field. They were also perfectly collimated, a feature that is very difficult to luck into in the cheaper binos.

Both the Leica and the Swarovski were designed for eyeglass wearers, meaning I can see right to the edge of the field with my glasses on. For non-eyeglass wearers, the Swarovski eyecups pull out and lock in with a slight turn. I chose the Swarovski SLC 10 x 42 HD, as the HD (high definition) incorporates a flourite element which means fewer lenses are needed inside the bino's to get perfect color correction (i.e., zero purple fringing on high contrast edges) which results in a noticeably brighter image than the non-HD version . The models and specs have changed in the past year, however, so you would need to start from scratch as to which looks better to you. My SLC 10 x 42 HD's focus up to six feet away, which can really prove useful in watching birds at our bird feeder outside the kitchen window, or taking a real close up look at a butterfly on a flower six feet away. The soft rubber eyecups do not scratch the coatings on my eyeglasses, and I use them almost every day and when hunting, constantly throughout the day.

The Steiners, Leicas, and Swarovski's are pretty expensive. To fund mine, I sold off a couple old Winchesters and believe me, it was worth it! Finally, after 40 years of a series of frustrating bino's, I have found a pair that are perfect, and I mean perfect. They are a pleasure to use every time and I use mine pretty much every day. They are a huge advantage when hunting in very poor lighting conditions with the extra bright HD option. Take a look at your gun safe and ask yourself which ones you don't use much. Convert them into a pair of Swarovski's or Leica's, not the compact ones, but the full 10 x 42 or 8 x 42 for extra brightness and light gathering ability. I chose 10 power because 8 just seemed to be slightly less than the magnification that I wanted. I would hesitate before going higher than 10 power, however, because hand shake becomes a problem. For me at least, 10 power is just perfect.

I didn't end up buying mine at Bass Pro, however. With some searching on the internet, I found a reputable store in the USA that had only two pair in stock and were selling them off at $1,400 less than what Bass Pro was charging. Shop around a bit.

[Marc]

I get the scratch resistant lens coatings on my glasses and that helps some. I have a separate pair for hunting so I don't ruin my everyday glasses. In addition my everyday glasses have Transition lenses that darken in the sunlight. My hunting glasses have clear lenses because I can't see into shadows with the darkened lenses when using binocs.

If you wear eye glasses the critical feature on binoculars is the eye relief. That is the maximum distance from your eye to the lens that still gives a full field of view. Most don't have enough eye relief to give you a full field of view. For my purposes I need 20mm's of eye relief. I use Pentax DCF WP's that I bought about 10 years ago. They are good glass that gives up very little to the high dollar glass for my eyes. They have 20mm of eye relief and I can see the full field.

[Pete44ru]

FWIW, the eyepieces of the small inexpensive 8x21 compact roof prism binocs, that my hunting pal & I both have, are fitted with folding/roll-up rubber eyecups, which I sometimes roll back around the eyepiece for scanning w/o glasses, and which my pal always leaves extended - which seals them against his eyeglasses.


.

[olyinaz]

I adjust the right side to match my right eye, then use the focus knob to focus both eyes.

Exactly how it's supposed to be done.

Oly

[olyinaz]

There were two that gave the best views ..... Swarovski and Leica.

Bingo. No question, hands down the best binos money can buy.

If you're a birder or like looking at the heavens check out the Canon image stabilized binos. The 10x42 "L" series pair is really, really nice (if a bit spendy).

Oly

[M. M. Wright]

handirifle,
Thanks for bringing this subject up. Like Shasta, I decided several years ago to quit buying cheapo binocs and treated myself to a pair of Carl Zeiss 8x30. Bought them slightly used for 300 dollars and the optics are wonderful but they have the hard, non-adjustable eyecups. My glasses are the hard coated polycarbonate but they still get scratched.
Think I will try shortening the cups and applying the paint like AJMD429 did to his uh ____ scope. But those Leicas sure look good. Maybe I can find a trade for one of my BLRs.

[Dave]

I have a pair of Nikon 10 x 25 binos I have used for years for hunting. I don't glass big areas. I just need to make sure the deer is one I can shoot. Figure out what things are like deciding if that black thing is a hog or a stump. The eye cups twist down for use with glasses and they have never scratched my glasses. I am sure top quality binos would be nicer but the Nikons have never fogged up and you can hardly tell you are carrying them.

http://www.basspro.com/Nikon-Realtree-O ... ct/101392/

[handirifle]

Great replies and great info to go forward with. Not sure i want to sell off enough guns to buy binos in that price range, I might not be able to hunt afterwards. They do sound like they are worth the extra $$$ though.

I will have to give this some serious thought.

My lenses have been "scratch resistant" (a joke and waste of money in my experience) for many years. As soon as a little dust gets on them, they are toast.

Two sets might not be a bad idea, and can look into the astigmatism insert idea too, doesn't cost any $$ to ask. Will aslo look at the rubber tool coating mentioned.

I guess worse case I do the "push up" idea.

I always either roll or screw the eye cups down (depending on bino used), or the FOV is useless. That is when they get scratched by the lens housing.

[Cimarron Red]

Like Shasta, I wear glasses, and I grew tired of lesser quality binoculars that did not give me a full field of view. So a few years ago I bought a pair of Leica 10 x 42 binoculars. What a revelation! They are truly a prize, providing crisp, bright and clear images all the way to the edges with no 'rainbows' (chromatic aberration I believe is the term.) And the retractable eye cups are the best I've ever used. I was concerned about spending the money, but I've had no regrets, except I wish I had bought them sooner. Pricey, but worth every dollar. The German/Austrian glasses are the best you can buy.

[Dawg]

Like Shasta, I wear glasses, and I grew tired of lesser quality binoculars that did not give me a full field of view. So a few years ago I bought a pair of Leica 10 x 42 binoculars. What a revelation! They are truly a prize, providing crisp, bright and clear images all the way to the edges with no 'rainbows' (chromatic aberration I believe is the term.) And the retractable eye cups are the best I've ever used. I was concerned about spending the money, but I've had no regrets, except I wish I had bought them sooner. Pricey, but worth every dollar. The German/Austrian glasses are the best you can buy.

Absolutely true. Leica is without a doubt the best Binoculars you can buy. But, for those on a budget, Nikon has a new Monarch 7 bino that uses Extra low Dispersion glass, and they are fully coated optics. They are not exactly cheap, but far less expensive than Leica's and they have 17.1 mm of eye relief which will allow eyeglass wearers to experience the full field of view, without touching the binoculars to your eyeglass lenses.

If you wear eyeglasses, you should try not to get Binos with a power greater than 8, and look for eye relief at least greater than 16mm. The higher the eye relief number, the more comfortable they will be for you to use and not have them touch your eyeglass lenses.

I have found that the Leupold Mojave 8x42's rival the Nikons, and exceed Nikons eye relief of 17.1mm with a spec of 19mm, and they are made in Japan. They are lightweight, and a very strong design, and have superb optical properties. I wear glasses, and have a high astigmatism in one eye do to a previous surgery, and I have no problems with them and they are a joy to use. They are also about $100 cheaper than the Nikons as well.

[bdhold]

I just take my glasses off to use my binocs. I hold my glasses in my teeth, then slip them back on.
I have tried to use the binocs with my glasses on, just see a small circle.

This is why there is a seprate ocular focus on one side (or both) of binoculars. You're not supposed to wear glasses with them.

(In the case of an SLR camera, it has a diopter adjustment so you and the camera focus on the same thing)

[jeepnik]

I adjust the right side to match my right eye, then use the focus knob to focus both eyes.

Exactly how it's supposed to be done.

Oly

This is what I do as well, always have. Of interesting note, I'm farsighted in my left eye and nearsighted in my right, then again so are my sisters and my dad was. Apparently this isn't all that uncommon.

[Cimarron Red]

I just take my glasses off to use my binocs. I hold my glasses in my teeth, then slip them back on.
I have tried to use the binocs with my glasses on, just see a small circle.

This is why there is a seprate ocular focus on one side (or both) of binoculars. You're not supposed to wear glasses with them.

(In the case of an SLR camera, it has a diopter adjustment so you and the camera focus on the same thing)

In theory, this is correct. In practice, however, things can be quite different. When spotting in levergun silhouette matches, removing your glasses is a good way to get disqualified from the shoot. I have heard line officers warn spotters for not maintaining eye protection at the Raton nationals. Also, there are some eye sight problems not corrected merely by turning focusing rings.

[KirkD]

Ooops ..... double post. See the next one.

[KirkD]

... Leica is without a doubt the best Binoculars you can buy. ... If you wear eyeglasses, you should try not to get Binos with a power greater than 8, and look for eye relief at least greater than 16mm.

Maybe, maybe not. The day I went in to Bass Pro to pick out a pair of high performance bino's I was planning to purchase Leica. For several years, I had been stopping by various stores and trying out the Leica's; I was not interested in any other brand. The Leica's edge - edge contrast and resolution was perfect and I thought there was no possibility of improving on them .... until I started trying out all the bino's at Bass Pro and came across the Swarovski SLC 10 x 42 HD. Both the Leica and the Swarovski were equal in resolution and contrast and collimation (I'd say they were both 'perfect'), but the Swarovski HD bino's gave a noticeably brighter image, which is worth a lot in low light conditions. Models have changed since then, and it would not surprise me if Leica now has incorporated some HD glass/crystal in their bino's to catch up in the brightness department, so it may be a whole new ball game in choosing a top pair of bino's. I also preferred the 10 power over the 8 power, and that is with my glasses on. Other's may prefer 8 power. 10 power pushes the practical limits but, at least with my Swarovski's, 10 power is still on the 'perfect' side of the limit (and there are precious few instances in my life where I have used the word 'perfect)'. I also preferred their ergonomics, but that, too, changes with new models.

Here's my point: Models and specs change for each of the high performance manufacturers as time goes on. Furthermore, what one person might think is perfect is not necessarily what another person might think is perfect. Anyone seriously considering purchasing a pair of high performance bino's should gather info as much as they can, but at the end of the day, nothing substitutes for going into a store that has the full selection of bino's, standing at the counter for a half hour or longer, and trying all the high performance bino's out and choosing the model that works best for you as an individual. Even though I don't use a scope on my guns, when it comes to optics, I am a perfectionist (which is why I also own an apochromatic refractor for star gazing rather than a Newtonian or a Schmidt-Cassegrain). My optometrist is a perfectionist as well and once he has determined my prescription as best as his instruments will permit, will give me a special set of fine gradient lenses and send me outside to do the final razor sharp tuning. When he shows me what 20-20 vision looks like through his instruments, I think it is awful and don't see how people can function with eyesight that poor. My wife, on the other hand, is not a visual perfectionist, so she does not see the difference between my bino's and a semi-collimated, left-eye-blurry model. She's happy with severely smudged glasses and never notices that she is looking though a fog. Sometimes her glasses are so badly smudged I just go and wash them with soap myself and clean them. This is another reason why it pays to go to the store to try out the full range. You may not be a visual perfectionist and may find that a much less expensive pair does the job for you, so there is no point in wasting money to get a higher performance pair. My particular pair are perfect for me, a Leica might be preferable for someone else, for others, they may find the Steiner or Zeiss or Nikon rings their bell just as well.

Bottom Line: at the end of it all, 'the best' is what will be the best to you, personally, as you try them all out and compare them directly on the same objects, at the same distances, and at the same time.

A word about collimation: Collimation has to do with how well the optical axes of the two tubes are perfectly aligned. This is very difficult. If you look through a pair of bino's, and then put them down and find that when you pull the bino's away from your eyes, you get a funny feeling while your eyes re-align, those bino's have a collimation problem, giving two slightly different images to your eyes that the eyes and brain try to make into one. It simply drives me nuts to look through bino's like that and almost every pair of cheaper bino's have that problem. Nothing gives me a headache faster than a pair of less than perfectly collimated bino's. You should be able to gaze comfortably through a pair of bino's for several minutes, pull them from your eyes, and feel no readjustment. Thirty years ago I bought some cheaper bino's and to get around that problem, succeeded in convincing the counter clerk to let me try out pair after pair of the same model until I found one that accidentally had good collimation. That can work and you can save some dollars.

[junkwrencher]

I am a lasics patient with stigmatism and eyeglasses. I use Bushnell Insta-focus. As the name implies there is no focus, just look. They are fast, simple and treestand proof atleast once. I also used and owned a pair of Jason no-focus binoculars that worked very good.

[rjohns94]

I can second KirkDs opinion. I got some Swarovski 10x42 at the expense of some of my guns and I am thrilled with them.