| You're watching an eagle from a distance. With a | | | | about this. Generally speaking, the higher the |
| wide curve it starts to fly directly towards you, while | | | | magnification (power) of your binocular, the shorter |
| you get more excited by the second - until the | | | | the depth of field - yet another reason why you |
| magnificent bird is out of focus and you have to | | | | should not fall into the trap of going for as high as |
| adjust the focus. As a matter of fact, you have to | | | | magnification as possible, as some uninformed people |
| keep on doing that or forget about enjoying viewing | | | | tend to do. A safari binocular with magnification of 8x |
| it at all. This is a typical situation illustrating the "depth | | | | is close to ideal. A binocular with a very high |
| of field" of your safari binocular. | | | | magnification will have virtually no depth of field at all, |
| The "depth of field" of a safari binocular refers to its | | | | which means that only the object you're focusing on |
| ability to keep objects further towards the | | | | will be in focus. These type of binoculars can only be |
| background and closer towards the foreground in | | | | operated from a tripod, since the high magnification |
| focus without you having to adjust the focus. Stated | | | | makes viewing very difficult in any case: Small |
| in another way: Once you've focused on an object in | | | | movements by the viewer are magnified. Even the |
| the distance, how far behind this object (in other | | | | slightest motions like normal hand tremors associated |
| words, further away into the background) and how | | | | with holding binoculars up to your eyes ("binocular |
| far in front of the object (in other words, closer to | | | | shakes") become a huge problem. On top of this, |
| you, the viewer) is still in focus, without you having | | | | you're stuck with a considerably smaller field of view |
| to adjust the focus. Even yet another way: Once | | | | as well. |
| you've focused on an object some distance away, | | | | A special category of binoculars, known as "auto |
| how far will this object remain in focus if it either | | | | focus" or "fixed focus" binoculars have very deep |
| moves further away from you, or closer towards | | | | depth of field. Their focus has been set at the |
| you. This is what is meant by the "depth of field" | | | | factory, so they stay in focus from about 15 meters |
| (DOF) of your safari binocular. The DOF also changes | | | | to infinity, which makes them ideal for certain |
| the closer the object you're focusing on, decreasing | | | | situation in which depth of field is important. Top of |
| the closer you get. | | | | the range in this category is the Steiner 10x50 Military |
| Few people ever think about this when considering | | | | Marine Binocular. |
| buying a binocular and they are seldom informed | | | | |