I agree with Bruce. My personal opinion is that image stabilization binoculars are a pure marketing gimmick. I tried a pair of
these, and the image, prior to pressing the image stabiliser button, was much more unstable than any pair of binoculars I have ever
used in over 30 years of birding. The image in any normal pair of binoculars don't look anything like that.

It seemed to me that it was made like this on purpose so that pressing the button gave much more of a visual impact....like
"Wow...this really works!" It takes you from a lousy image to a good image, so you think it is doing something, when any decent pair
of binoculars will give you a good image all the time.

Also don't forget that more features means more things that can go wrong and more things that may need fixing years down the road.

Regards,
Daniel Bastaja
dan at calivita.com


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu [mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Bruce Moorhead
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 9:13 AM
To: Kathleen Marie Dowd-Gailey; 'Tweeters'
Subject: Re: Stabilizing Binoc comments

For whatever it's worth, I birded for 3 weeks in Bhutan several years ago
with a woman who had a new pair of stabilizing binocs. I remember trying
them for awhile and getting the sense that they were probably OK, but more
of a gimmick perhaps than durably practical so far in the needs and
dependabilities of a day-to-day binoc. If you're birding in the tropics or
wet parts of this country I'd also be wary about something this complicated
being adequately sealed and waterproofed. Other birders with more experience
with them may have differing comments on their utility, etc.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathleen Marie Dowd-Gailey" <kdowdgailey at yahoo.com>
To: "'Tweeters'" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 10:27 AM
Subject: RE: Binocular recommendations


> I too have read the binocular suggestions with great interest, as I am
> hoping to upgrade/replace mine sometime this year.
> One option I was considering was the Canon with the Image Stabalizing
> technology, but so far no one has even mentioned Canon or this type.
> Additionally, I had not really thought about the waterproof factor. Has
> anyone had experience with these or know about their waterproofability?
> Thanks!
>
> -Kathleen Dowd-Gailey
>
>
>
>
>