What should I look for in hiking binoculars

reno_queen

I'd like a pair of binoculars for hiking. I don't have a specific use other than for looking off of overlooks, at animals, etc. What are the important things to look for in a good set of binoculars? There appears to be a very wide range of price and features to choose from.

Originally asked by Russell Steen on Stack Exchange (outdoors) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

I researched this and there are a few factors Aperture - This is the diameter of the objective (or front) lens and affects the amount of light taken in. Aperture is very important for low light situations. If you plan on using your binoculars near dawn or dusk, or under canopy, then you want a larger aperture. This is the second number used to describe binoculars. So 4x30 binoculars would have a 30mm aperture. Aperture unfortunately tends to linearly correlate with weight. Magnification - Simple zoom. The first number and indicates the zoom factor. So 4 in our 4x30 example magnifies by 4 times. 9 should be more than sufficient for most hiking. Mountain hikes with long open lookouts may call...

Full answer by Russell Steen: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/3813 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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