Welcome to The Far-Sighted Binocular Company

Based in West Yorkshire, the Far-Sighted Binocular Company retails a large range of binoculars & telescopes through our web shop and at public events throughout the UK.

You are sure to find a model appropriate to your needs and budget from our extensive range. If you know the model, just look it up in the relevant products section, but if you need guidance, go first to the Binocular Information or the Telescope Information pages.

Dedicated to Vision

We supply binoculars for walking, garden wildlife, sports, and security. Our stock lines include marine binoculars, and powerful observation binoculars, through to small concert binoculars or sports models. You will find Magnifiers, Monoculars, Mini-scopes, and Telescopes, as well as a host of accessories from tripods, and hide clamps, to digi-scoping accessories like camera adaptors, tripod adaptors, and T2 rings.

Understanding binoculars

Magnification - the first figure quoted when describing a binocular. For normal, hand-held instruments this will be in the range of 3x up to 12x, the figures being derived from a standard scale. Thinking in terms of being 3x to 12x closer to your subject should give you a handle on this.

Power - in binocular terminology, just another term for magnification.

Definition - the clarity with which the image is presented to your eyes.

Focal depth - the amount of your view in focus at one setting.

Focus point - the point at which an image is focussed exactly on your retina.

Light gathering - the amount of light initially collected by the instrument's objective lenses, and represented by the second figure quoted when describing a binocular. A binocular with 18mm diameter objectives would benefit from being very small and compact, but would be quite limited in light gathering. A traditional binocular, by contrast, would have 50mm objectives, gathering far more light. Light gathering depends on the area of the lens and is therefore proportional to the diameter.

Light transmission - The proportion of light collected which is actually delivered by the binocular or telescope to the user.

Detail - an all-encompassing word describing what you, the user, want from your instrument.

All these terms are used in describing binoculars (and telescopes), and are inter-linked, because detail depends on light, both in quantity, and quality. The less light you have to create your picture, the less its definition. Detail can also depend on image size, a derivative of magnification, but magnification has practical limitations, just as size of objective does for light gathering. The trick is to balance your requirements.

Here's how - first think about:

Function - have some idea What you want the instrument for. If you have different applications, think about more than one pair of binoculars. eg. It's no use regularly star-gazing with a pocket compact, however good its optics, but a good 7x 50 or 8x 56 star-gazing model would be a bit chunky to lug up Scafell Pike.

Frequency, or continuity of use - how much are you going to use it? The more you will use it, the better the instrument quality should be. It will be far easier on your eyes, and likely to be more robust, the better the spec., but if all you want is to look out of the lounge window for two minutes at the bird on the feeder, it isn't necessary to spend a fortune on naturephase multi-coated BAK4 waterproofs.

Circumstance - where will you use the instrument, work out the balance of your issues vis a vis weight or size against image quality. The bigger the instrument the better the picture for the same glass quality. Then if you can't decide, just go for one of the compromise sizes, they work surprisingly well. A twitcher's basic instrument of choice will invariably be an 8x 40, or 8x 42 - not full sized, but big enough to gather a lot of light, not enormously powerful, but easy to target quickly.

Returning to "Definition"...

Good definition is a product of lots of light from the image reaching the eye in good condition. The larger the instrument, the more light you start with. The better the optical path, the more light will reach the user's eyes, and the less it will distort or degrade the image. The more definition you achieve, the less magnification you will require - give your brain the detail and it will form the picture!

Returning to "Magnification"...

The more you magnify your subject, the less of it you will see (think of a camera zooming in to it's subject). The less of the subject you see, the greater your hand movement will be in proportion, ie your image will wobble more, becoming progressively more uncomfortable. For this reason you are unlikely to want an instrument of greater than 12x magnification hand held. The more you magnify your subject the less light you have to see it with, ie you lose definition, and end up chasing your tail trying to get that extra detail.

Choosing a power

7x and 8x binoculars will give you a wide, comfortable, steady view.

10x binoculars are much more powerful, but still relatively comfortable and very popular.

12x binoculars give a lot of power, but are starting to suffer from shake (doubly so in a pocket compact format, where the grip is also often by fingertip), and loss of light.

Binoculars are a great asset to enjoying life. As tools, they can facilitate daily life, from deciding on a roof repair to checking if a cow is in labour, from seeing if a boat is in trouble to seeing what that guy with a bag marked "swag" is up to, from checking the weather up the valley to finding a lost pony. As assets they truly extend your experience of the nature around you. If you think you know the birds in your garden but have never watched them through binoculars, you have a treat in store, and as for lapwings or sparrowhawks displaying, well....

Telescopes are an extension of facility over binoculars. They may not be as quick and convenient to use, but a tripod-mounted telescope can deliver a practical image at much higher powers than binoculars. The tripod takes away hand shake, and allows for a larger instrument, giving greater light gathering to compensate for light lost in achieving that higher power. Additionally, the value of the instrument can be concentrated into one light path, improving its optical value for money.

Need to know more - go to our Binocular or Telescope Information pages.

Digiscoping

Digiscoping - a new phenomenon amongst wildlife enthusiasts, but easy for anyone to achieve with most of our telescopes. Digi-scoping is the art of photography through your telescope, often using the telescope as the actual camera lens. Given a relatively good telescope, the right adaptors, and a digital camera, it will revolutionise your ideas on photography, at much lower cost than using telephoto lenses. Adaptors for SLR cameras connect the camera body direct to the telescope, for other cameras there are support brackets available to position your camera at the eyepiece, giving it the view that you would see.

Binocular Manufacturers

We hope that you will find instruments to match all your requirements from the large stocks available here on our website. These include products from Far-Sighted, First, Hama, Illusion, Lander, Magnaloux, Olivon, Optical Hardware, and Visionary, as well as unbranded items, accessories, and other suppliers.