Canon 18x50 binos?

[jeephunter]

Todd: Have you used the 10x30 IS model? That's what I have now. Around $450 and the 18x50 is $1150-1400. How much of an upgrade would it be from 10x30 to 18x50? The 18x50 also has a tripod mount it.

 

[toddc]

Todd: Have you used the 10x30 IS model? That's what I have now. Around $450 and the 18x50 is $1150-1400. How much of an upgrade would it be from 10x30 to 18x50? The 18x50 also has a tripod mount it.

The 18x50 is substantially better for longer distance. The glass on the newer ones is a little better as well.

 

[toddc]

And I haven't used the 10x much. A few times customers had them. With IS I go for all the mag I can get since it's actually usable.

 

[yobuck]

People have hunted LR longer in PA than he west? Laughable. Most of the hunters in the west are from PA.....even more laughable.
If you can't hold a set of 18x50 IS without your arms burning out in 5 minutes, you might want to look into a gym membership.
This kind of attitude is comparable to the election we just had. Everyone back east thinks they KNOW IT ALL and are gonna pick for us unwashed heathens in the fly over state.

ONE MORE TIME.....do ya own a pair?

I would suggest you take more time to read and digest what I actually said.
And no I don't own a set of I S glasses. Note I didn't say I haven't used them.
You have to try to understand something bub, what we do in PA is certainly something
anyone anywhere can do. We do it the way we do because we have no options as those in western states do for spot and stalk type hunting. Would the methods we use also benefit western hunters? Absolutly they would, and slowly, more hunters there are adapting to them. Mainly because theyve encountered eastern hunters glassing.
As for the glasses you prefer to use compared to ones found in PA?
Well yours are absolute junk in comparison for that particular purpose.
And if you had an open mind you could be shown that.
Look, ill try to help you here some, are you very far from Garden City?

 

[toddc]

Lets just leave it at you have no real experience with the product the OP asked about or its capabilities and we will call it good. I have used practically every bino, spotter or bigeye setup ever made by man. Anything you would show me I saw years ago. I did this for a living my friend, I used what worked because I didn't eat if I couldn't put people from PA on big deer.
Thanks for the offer.

 

[jeephunter]

Just for the record I really appreciate Todd's comments since he's used the product. I also really like the IS. I see a lot of guys use regular optics and tripods and they know more than me I'm sure but if they haven't used both side by side and money wasn't the issue then it's not really a good comparison...

 

[toddc]

Just for the record I really appreciate Todd's comments since he's used the product. I also really like the IS. I see a lot of guys use regular optics and tripods and they know more than me I'm sure but if they haven't used both side by side and money wasn't the issue then it's not really a good comparison...

Thanks you sir, As I stated there is better glass out there. The Canon glass is still quite respectable as Canon is responsible for much of the movies we watch and photography we look at. The IS feature just makes them more user friendly than anything else out there.
My hunting style made them the go to glass for me. If I was static hunting a couple thousand acres I might run some German non IS glass. However I glassed probably 30+ SECTIONS a day and often put over 250 miles a day on my truck. Drive to a high spot and glass from a county road. Repeat. All day for months on end. The speed with which you can glass using IS in that scenario is unbeatable. By the time my customer had his Leica, Zeiss or Kowas on the window mount or tripod, I was already sticking the truck in gear and heading to the next high point.
The original question was if you could see a deers head in shade at 1.5 miles and would the IS 18x50 be capable. Since I have done this hundreds of times I answered yes.
I have probably not seen tens of thousands of deer that were bedded in the shade in areas I glassed. Whether you see something or not doesn't mean it wasn't there.
Seeing anything n the shade at 1.5 miles is going to be very dependent on THOUSANDS of factors.
How clear is the air? After a good rain and with no mirage it can more than DOUBLE glassing efficiency no matter the glass used.
How big is the rack and what color is it?
What color is the background?
Is the head moving at all?
Is the mirage like the Sahara desert?
Lots of factors effect how well you can glass and whether you will see something.
To me 1.5 miles is CLOSE RANGE glassing. I regularly glass up to 10 miles away or more on wheat fields. It is very important for me to be able to cover MASSIVE amounts of ground. IS is superior to any tripod mounted system on the planet for that job.
Most of what you can see at over 1 mile is more affected by atmospheric conditions than whether your glass is German, Japanese or even from the Phillipines.
A set of German high power binos or slaved spotters will be CLEARER than the Canons. 50% of the time you won't be able to use the increased German clarity due to atmospherics. The other 50% of the time you will still see more game with the Canons because of the speed of the system.
Just my real world experience using hundreds of different high end glassing systems for a living. They are not the standard choice for most guides as they aren't 100% waterproof and aren't as bulletproof as a set of Leicas. Put two guys on a high point with a set of IS and tripod mounted stuff and the IS guy will do just fine.
All glass is a COMPROMISE. Canons IS were just the best compromise for me. I ran them most of the time but had a set of German 8-15 binos at all times, as well as various spotters and several sets of bigeye binos and slaved spotters.
Most of the time if you couldn't see it with the Canons, the conditions weren't good enough to see it with anything.

 

[jeephunter]

Toddc: Thanks again for your insight. Clearly you are a master at glassing and a weekend warrior like me will never compare but having good equipment makes it a lot more enjoyable (eg you think you have a chance).

This is somewhat off topic but have you ever glassed with a thermal scope? I have been thinking about using a 640x480 thermal with 100mm lens which gives around 5x zoom. This allows heat signatures to be picked up from 1.5 miles away apparently according to FLIRs website. Many states this is legal and would be interesting.

After I glassed with my guide then either he has way better eye sight than me or it will take me many many more years before I can tell the difference between a deer's ear and a tree branch but thermal may even out the field a little bit.

Thanks you sir, As I stated there is better glass out there. The Canon glass is still quite respectable as Canon is responsible for much of the movies we watch and photography we look at. The IS feature just makes them more user friendly than anything else out there.
My hunting style made them the go to glass for me. If I was static hunting a couple thousand acres I might run some German non IS glass. However I glassed probably 30+ SECTIONS a day and often put over 250 miles a day on my truck. Drive to a high spot and glass from a county road. Repeat. All day for months on end. The speed with which you can glass using IS in that scenario is unbeatable. By the time my customer had his Leica, Zeiss or Kowas on the window mount or tripod, I was already sticking the truck in gear and heading to the next high point.
The original question was if you could see a deers head in shade at 1.5 miles and would the IS 18x50 be capable. Since I have done this hundreds of times I answered yes.
I have probably not seen tens of thousands of deer that were bedded in the shade in areas I glassed. Whether you see something or not doesn't mean it wasn't there.
Seeing anything n the shade at 1.5 miles is going to be very dependent on THOUSANDS of factors.
How clear is the air? After a good rain and with no mirage it can more than DOUBLE glassing efficiency no matter the glass used.
How big is the rack and what color is it?
What color is the background?
Is the head moving at all?
Is the mirage like the Sahara desert?
Lots of factors effect how well you can glass and whether you will see something.
To me 1.5 miles is CLOSE RANGE glassing. I regularly glass up to 10 miles away or more on wheat fields. It is very important for me to be able to cover MASSIVE amounts of ground. IS is superior to any tripod mounted system on the planet for that job.
Most of what you can see at over 1 mile is more affected by atmospheric conditions than whether your glass is German, Japanese or even from the Phillipines.
A set of German high power binos or slaved spotters will be CLEARER than the Canons. 50% of the time you won't be able to use the increased German clarity due to atmospherics. The other 50% of the time you will still see more game with the Canons because of the speed of the system.
Just my real world experience using hundreds of different high end glassing systems for a living. They are not the standard choice for most guides as they aren't 100% waterproof and aren't as bulletproof as a set of Leicas. Put two guys on a high point with a set of IS and tripod mounted stuff and the IS guy will do just fine.
All glass is a COMPROMISE. Canons IS were just the best compromise for me. I ran them most of the time but had a set of German 8-15 binos at all times, as well as various spotters and several sets of bigeye binos and slaved spotters.
Most of the time if you couldn't see it with the Canons, the conditions weren't good enough to see it with anything.

 

[toddc]

Toddc: Thanks again for your insight. Clearly you are a master at glassing and a weekend warrior like me will never compare but having good equipment makes it a lot more enjoyable (eg you think you have a chance).

This is somewhat off topic but have you ever glassed with a thermal scope? I have been thinking about using a 640x480 thermal with 100mm lens which gives around 5x zoom. This allows heat signatures to be picked up from 1.5 miles away apparently according to FLIRs website. Many states this is legal and would be interesting.

After I glassed with my guide then either he has way better eye sight than me or it will take me many many more years before I can tell the difference between a deer's ear and a tree branch but thermal may even out the field a little bit.

Never used them but lots of guys in TX night hunt with them and say they rock. New technology is always coming up. I spent 2 weeks in glass stores deciding to buy my 1st set of Canons over all of the German stuff. They were new on the market and a big decision for me. I would use anything that works though so I wouldn't be afraid of IR tech.
Funny you mentioned that your guide could see things you couldn't . Glassing is a SKILL and takes time to develop. The reason I have seen a lot of bedded deer at long range is because I spent a lot of time doing it, knew WHERE to look and what I was actually seeing. GLASS cant do that for you. It helps but its hard to trump thousands of hrs behind the glass. Where I hunted I used my bare eyes maybe 5% of the time. I had customers all the time who couldn't see what I was seeing. When you aren't used to glassing 2 miles away all day its hard. I had a lot of customers from places where you can't glass LR a lot who had the best equipment on the planet and they couldn't see a blaze orange elephant at 1 mile.