Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Auto Focus Binocs

My best friend claims he can't use regular binocs very well.

His family has a history of bad vision anyway.

That said he was telling me what to tell his wife for him for Christmas...

Says he read an article that bushnell binocs are better than Zeiss Terra and so on... I question that BUT I have no proof.

My auto focus are old Z 10x40 glass.

So any comments from actual users on auto focus brands and quality? Looking for 8X according to him.

Money is an issue at some point obviously for most folks. Same here.

Just looking for some actual user input.

He did look at one pair this weekend that was not auto focus and he said amazing he could see through them well and they were really clear to him... some brand I've never heard of... Vanguard Endeavor 8x42... I'm thinking not much quality there really...

Of course he alwasy said my Zeiss were not clear to him, but I always know all the extra points and such on deer, and I know good and well why I see them and he doesn't...

I know this is a can of worms but I"ll sort through the comments.

Thanks.

I've tried Zeiss Terra once, they were great as for me. Everything was quite clear...

Are Terra auto focus?

There wasn't autofocus in the one I tried, Zeiss Terra 3x 3-9×42. It had only 2 controls: magnification and fast-focus eyepiece.

rost, I owned the 8x32 Terra binocular. No, it is not "auto focus", but they are surprisingly clear, sharp, and crisp once you find the sweet spot. Build quality is what you'd expect from a Chinese binocular. It would probably do all a guy needs to do for big game hunting.

I've never heard of an 'auto focus' binoc.....

The only "auto focus" binoculars that I am aware of, are Steiners. They use auto focus in their marine/military line. I didn't care for the porro prism style bulk. I am not sure if they have the auto focus feature in their hunting line of binoculars or not.

To use their binoculars you focus each diopter for your eyes and then it is supposedly set for your eyes from then on. I did notice that anything closer than 15-20 yards seemed blurry. I am sure there are some trade offs with this system.

Rost, I am not insulting your buddy but does he know how to focus a pair of binoculars? I am always amazed at how many people buy binoculars but have no clue how to focus the diopter ring. Or they are trying out binoculars and never bother to adjust or set the diopter ring for their eyes.

There are no auto focus binoculars. There have been some low end binoculars with a fixed focus marketed as autofocus. Both of my son-in-laws had them. The autofocus binoculars are simply binoculars set to give the largest depth of field available to render a reasonably sharp image across the greatest range of distance.
I was able to give one a pentax 8x42 wp and the other an 8x42 olympus magellan a few years ago. HUGE upgrade for each of them.
IMHO, if you want a binocular you can set at a fixed focus and have fantastic depth of field the Steiner military marine series is hard to beat. Set the individual ocular lenses once, mark the setting and go. Even the Yosemite 6x30's can be used in a similar way. I've never handled them, but I'm guessing the old minox 6.5x32's with IF would be good, too.
Good luck to him. Any of the above will greatly improve anyone's view through binoculars over any fixed focus I know of.

I see that Steiner has the Navigator 7x30 with the oculars marked as "autofocus!" So the myth continues. These would be a good candidate for your friend.

Ahhhhhhh...


So it is what I thought...a matter of semantics....

Aint no such thing as a bino that automatically focuses itself....


Seen the cheapies, used to sell them but we referred to it as Perma Focus...



Kinda like some scope manufacturers are still trying to sell "light gathering" scopes.....

Those were the Jason Perma Focus binoculars, introduced around 1990. I remember because I was asked to be a member of the "Jason Outdoor Council," and one fo the perks was paying for my annual trip to the SHOT Show. At the Council's first meeting at SHOT, it turned out we were meant to promote the Perma Focus line (of course), plus some other stuff like Jason "hunting" backpacks made out of the noisiest waterproof-coated Cordura they could find.

I only lasted for that one SHOT Show, partly because I was a little too honest in my opinions at the meeting. But I was astonished to find a few of my fellow Council members (some of whom hunted quite a bit) thought the Perma Focus binoculars were GREAT, apparently because they'd never learned how to focus binoculars.

The Jasons actually worked OK if your eyesight was around 20/20 (average) and both of your eyes had about the same vision. But if not, glassing for more than a few seconds made your eyeballs feel like they were being pulled out of your head. Oh, and the glass wasn't great (surprise), but they were pretty "affordable."

That's it JB! Jason Permafocus. I couldn't remember the exact model so I didn't say. The part that always makes me smile is that both of the boys just didn't use their 7x35 perma focus binoculars. They are both pretty darn good game spotters with the naked eye, but after they got decent binoculars they are constantly using them. Gotta have good glass!
Really, I know we all need to make a buck, but anyone who would endorse those binoculars should have their judgement seriously called into question.

Typically auto focus binoculars are pretty cheap, useless binoculars. They have exactly no ability to focus anything. Your eyes get to do all of that. They seldom cost over $50 and aren't worth that. I see them time to time on the mountain deer hunting and the users are all of some vein of thought that they can't use a good binocular. They have pretty well managed to convince themselves of that fact. Many times I think it is just because they never took the time to figure out proper setup of a binocular, or never had someone explain it to them. At any rate they are convinced they have the greatest thing since sliced bread, since they don't have to do anything but look through them.

Steiner's "Sports Auto Focus" has been mentioned, but it it simply a marketing term to cover the fact they are individual focus binoculars. Satisfactory use of those depend a lot on individual eye accommodation. An increased depth of focus from a lesser magnification and improved 3-D of a porro will help these. Close focus use is difficult to impossible, say under 40-50 yards or so, but a lot of hunters simply don't use binoculars under that distance, so that may not be an issue. A good 7x50 Individual Focus porro will usually have enough depth of focus to be pretty focus free from 50 yards on out to infinity. They will be big and usually will have a pretty narrow field of view. These are miles ahead of the Auto focus as they can be set up for each eye. You actually have to set up a center focus for each eye, and this is where the "binoculars just don't work for me" thing comes out, they never knew how.

Figure out which type of focus your friend is thinking about.

I witnessed an example of that a couple of years ago at our local Bird show (just a good place to see optics). I was helping run a booth for another manufacturer, but I was right beside the Swarovski booth. A lady came up and handed Swaro rep Clay Taylor a Habicht 7x42. She asked how much money she had to spend to get a decent view out of both eyes. Clay took the binocular, looked at it, and twisted the diopter to zero and asked her if that was better. Her jaw nearly hit the floor. "What was that thing you turned?" He told her and took her through the setup process and she left happy as could be. She had had that for nearly twenty years. She just turned the diopter all the way over so it wouldn't move. There are lots of hunters in this boat too I'd bet.

You might see how either entrenched or re-trainable your friend is. A good 7x50 porro might be big, but certainly better than something he can't use.

Man I appreciate all the comments. Things make a lot more sense to me now.

I've had the individual(auto) focus Zeiss 10x40 since the early 80s.

They worked really great. I was 20. With so so vision.

Now I"m 51... and I have to spin the diopter a tiny bit back and forth.

Danny's vision has always sucked and getting worse... likely why many things don't work as well as they used to.

Funny you say Jason, as he had one years ago I recall.

He looked through a non "auto" focus Vanguard Endeavor this weekend and liked it quite a bit. I had to google, had never heard of them.

May well be that instead of trying steiners at a high cost, his wife will get the Vanguards and just see what happens. He liked them more than a Vortex pair. And then called my Zeiss dull dark looking junk. LOL. Never mind I can see and identify targets 10 minutes before he can every morning. LOL.

I'm now considering buying these ATN Night Scout VX-2: http://www.atncorp.com/atn-nightscout-vx-2-night-vision-binocular. They have a very clear vision as for me.