March 4, 2013 binoculars
This evening I decided to compare some binoculars at sunset. It was the end of a beautiful cloudless day about 60* and I didn’t get out to enjoy it until after dinner. The object on which I compared them is a fork antler 131 yards away in the woods. Four brands of different magnifications included Bushnell Legend Ultra HD ED2 8X42 (roof prism), Vortex Raptor 6.5X32 (porroprism), Nikon Action Extreme ATB 7X35 waterproof/fogproof (porroprism), and Alpen wings ED 8X20 pocket model (roof prism). These last one are in a pouch on my belt. I started about 5:45 PM. At first I was switching back and forth but realized the Nikons and the Bushnells were definitely better than the other two for the lower light, I limited my switching to the Vortex and Alpens.
When I could no longer distinguish the antlers well enough to shoot the deer carrying them I noted the time. A very disturbing observation was that I could not discern the antlers in the woods hand holding them. The sand bag was necessary.
I thought the Alpens might be the first to go because of the small objective, but wondered because it is 8X. I have discovered from comparing scopes when it is too dark to see the antlers I just turn up the magnification setting. It lasted as long as the Vortex till 5:57; despite the Vortex having about 2 1/2X more objective area. The Nikons went to 6:07 and the Bushnell took me to 6:13.
