THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING OPTICS

1. Assess your birding focus or needs to help narrow your search. Are you looking for an instrument to be used primarily for hawk watching or pelagic birding? Woodland or rain forest birding? All around birding? Will the glass also be used for butterfly watching? Hunting? Boating?

2. Compare several makes and models of binoculars. See what feels good in your hands and fits your face. Just because a glass works for your birding friends (or your spouse) doesn’t mean they will work for you. If you are buying binoculars for someone else, it is important that they, too, test and find the instrument that is right for them.

3. Performance and quality vary between individual instruments of the same make and model – even in instruments retailing for over $1,000. Some are simply sharper, brighter, better balanced than others. More than a few instruments are defective right out of the box (e. g. have misaligned barrels, unacceptable field distortion, dust inside the barrels, defective focusing). We examine all instruments before they are sold.

4. Do not settle for a lower priced glass if what you really want is outside your budget. Tolerate the ones you own. Save for the ones you really want. If you buy half-step optics, you will only replace them later with the one you really wanted in the first place and that is money wasted.

5. Take your time and do not be shy about utilizing our time and expertise. Meeting the optics needs of birders ranks among the most important things we do. If you like, you can schedule an appointment.