When the brand new NL 10x and 14×52 mm binoculars have been introduced by Swarovski Optik, although I discover this collection a bit outsized for my tastes, I used to be nonetheless curious concerning the 10s. I imply, which birder makes use of 14s? Are you aware anybody utilizing such a excessive magnification? Precisely, neither do I.
But, my regional gross sales rep didn’t have any 10×52 for the time being and satisfied me to strive the 14s, saying they have been made with birders in thoughts. Yeah, proper, I used to be pondering, it’s only a gross sales pitch. I lived to vary my thoughts.
Round 6 am the following morning, I used to be nearing my native patch of Beljarica Floodplain to check the 14s at my regular stomping grounds the place I’m used to native species and panorama, at their regular distances from the observer, so I may instantly spot a distinct expertise. After a fortnight heatwave, the temperature was mercifully within the low 20s. But, as I used to be quickly to find, after the latest heavy showers, the mosquitoes have been rife. And hungry, too.
My first chook was a Black Stork, fairly shut by. And that was the second of reality: for the primary time, I reached for the NL 14x52s. It has been about 20 years since I used 50 mm lenses—I like smallish binoculars and usually use NL 10x32s. Though heavier than my normal bins, about 1 kg (1020 g/36.0 oz)—they didn’t strike me as hefty. They felt good. They felt proper. Expectedly, the views have been vibrant and crisp, centered edge to edge. The stork flew into the willow grove in entrance of me. I may hear the loud, rasping name of a Widespread Pheasant.
Their ergonomic wasp-waist actually does make them comfy to deal with. While you maintain them by the waist, you possibly can raise all 4 fingers and go away them solely in your thumbs – properly balanced, they continue to be horizontal, not falling ahead or backward. 14x52s are unexpectedly comfy to make use of for regular brief observations, 10 to twenty seconds, but I had a Wryneck preening itself proper in entrance of me, and I needed to watch its flying silhouette, so I waited for minutes for the chook to take flight. And that’s the place the distinction in weight turned pronounced. Used to about 0.6 kg (640 g/22.8 oz), after a number of minutes with 1 kg in my arms frozen of their place, I began to really feel drained, sufficient to place them down for a number of moments, and once I put them up once more, my woodpecker was gone.
Climbing the levee, I can see the flooded expanse on my left, and the grassland on my right-hand facet, the place younger Brown Hares are chasing one another. Little Egrets and Black-headed Gulls are flying above the flooded poplars. Used to 10s, I used to be afraid that 14s would really feel odd, even surprising to see the birds so confusingly giant. To my utter shock, the bins felt so pure as if I have been utilizing them for a very long time and never only for the final quarter-hour! The sector of view felt solely barely narrower, and the birds have been seen so properly and wealthy in particulars! Black-crowned Night time Herons, Nice White Egrets, all of them have been flying forwards and backwards, whereas Pygmy Cormorants have been going upriver, from their evening roost to unfold over the a lot wider feeding grounds. I may hear a metallic, insect-like music of a Savi’s Warbler.
A hunter-friend of mine commented that 14s can be utilized solely with a tripod. Although, birding from a automobile, I generally relaxation my elbow on an open window, but, very often I don’t. From my expertise, NL 14x52s don’t want further help. But if that’s what you want for, there’s a fast launch, agency and simple tripod adapter for NLs.
Watching distant birds with 14s is actually rewarding, however are you able to observe flying birds? Particularly close-by flying birds? The reply is each sure and no. When coping with birds with extra directional flight, like woodpeckers, you possibly can simply observe them, however having a close-by flock of swallows chasing bugs in madly erratic flight, the reply is generally (however not definitively) no.
A birding good friend requested me whether or not 14x has means an excessive amount of magnification for birding functions? I might have thought so too if I hadn’t tried them. 14s should not an excessive amount of in any respect, you see rather more element, a lot so that you simply normally don’t want a telescope! Usually, I carry a scope with me, however with 14s I intentionally left the scope behind, eager to see if this magnification can change the scope at shorter to average distances. And the reply is generally (however not definitively) sure.
One other query was: isn’t it unimaginable to your picture to not shake, to not have tremors with 14x, regardless of how regular your hand is??! Average weight and good stability make it potential. “You’re utterly defeating the aim of a scope!” Ought to I drag over 2 kg of optics, or just one kg? I vote for 1 kg.
I ought to add, I did use it with a brow relaxation, a snug third level of help, notably helpful with bigger magnifications equivalent to 12s and 14s, however a good friend of mine fortunately makes use of the brow relaxation on his 8s and has solely superlatives for it.
With NLs, select your mannequin after the dominant habitat kind you normally chook. With 14s, steer clear of forests or woodland-savannas, for which the FOV will not be huge, nor deep sufficient, and it turns into arduous to find the chook earlier than it flies off, or to focus it in time. NL Pure 14×52s come as a powerful, specialised beast, nice for bigger however distant waterbirds and raptors, but in addition small, but nearer larks and pipits, and for open habitats equivalent to grasslands, open savannas, deserts, lakes and marshes, cliffs, scree and mountain-tops above the tree-line, and shore-to-sea watching.
Lastly, one insider information: many Swarovski customers have been complaining concerning the high quality of their rubber-armouring. Apparently, the difficulty is solved and sooner or later it shouldn’t occur.
