Why no zoom binoculars?
Question to Knivesandtools:
Almost all cameras have a zoom lens. Why do your binoculars have no zoom function?
Answer of Knivesandtools:
There are a number of reasons why our binoculars have no zoom function. It is mainly a case of optical quality.
- Binoculars have two viewing tubes. If you would integrate a zoom mechanism here the left and right zoom would have to be equal. That is very difficult to achieve and impossible in an affordable price category.
- The number of moving parts makes it really difficult to keep the outline of both view tubes equal during zooming. The users would soon become cross eyed.
- It is impossible to make binoculars that combine zoom and wide angle and still have a reasonable size and weight. The existing zoom binoculars have a very narrow field of vision.
- Binoculars are usually not used with a tripod. Enlargements of more than 10x are therefore not practical. Small enlargements are not interesting because you might just as well not use binoculars. It therefore is usually not very practical to install a zoom function on binoculars.
N.B.
Zoom binoculars are produced, but mainly in the low price range. The zoom is then used as a sales argument and badly affects the optical features. Our advice: don't buy binoculars with a variable enlargement factor!
