Binoculars
Shop binoculars at West Marine
Binoculars enable you to see distant objects clearly. On a boat, binoculars are useful for navigation, racing safety and enjoying nature. Unlike telescopes which are used for one-eyed viewing, binoculars have two complete sets of optics, one for each eye. This allows your brain to perceive depth and to discern the relative distance to objects, in the same way that you normally view objects through two eyes.
In addition to our quality line of West Marine brand binoculars, West Marine offers highly respected Steiner and Fujinon binoculars.
Binocular Prisms, Lenses and Magnification
Binoculars have three main parts: The objective lenses, prisms and the ocular lenses. The objective lenses are the big lenses at the front of the binocular. The ocular lenses are the small lenses where you place your eyes. Prisms rectify the object you are looking at so it does not appear upside down. Another function of prisms is to shorten the optical path of the image which helps to limit the size of the binoculars.
Magnification
While many binoculars designed for land use offer 8x, 10x, or even 12x magnification, for non-stabilized binoculars, 7x magnification is the most practical for use on a boat. The reason for this is that the more an image is magnified, the harder it is to keep an object in view—especially on a pitching and rolling boat.
What do those numbers mean?
The magnification and objective lens diameters of binoculars are specified with a set of numbers. The small number is the magnification and the large number is the diameter of the objective lens in millimeters. For example, 7 x 50 binoculars magnify objects seven times and have a 50 millimeter objective lens. Similarly, 8 x 42 binoculars magnify objects eight times and have a 42 millimeter objective lens.
What are image stabilized binoculars?
As mentioned, viewing objects with binoculars from a pitching boat can be difficult at best. As a boat moves, so does the viewed object which can bounce in and out of the viewing area. Image stabilized binoculars such as Fujinon’s Techno-Stabi line of binoculars correct for this problem for problem-free viewing of objects from a moving boat.
Check our Buyer’s Guide to Binoculars
To learn more about binoculars, we suggest you read our Buyer's Guide to Marine Binoculars, which discusses important features to consider, such as prism type, field of view, center versus individual focus, light gathering ability, coated optics; and in general the features you should expect when purchasing quality binoculars.