Bins there, done that!

So, I was tidying up my office and came across some of these pix from days gone by. Have a laugh on me!

Mum and me, Groudle Glen, Isle of Man, age 8 c.1976

Are those really bell-bottoms???? I am sporting my first pair of binoculars, a whopping, neck-breaking pair of Helios 7×50 Binoculars..the best gift ever given to me by my parents. The other “best gift” they gave me was in 1985 when my mum told me they wouldn’t let me go to Scilly since I had my “A” levels coming up (the following June!!!). Of course, that was one of the most memorable years on Scilly. Thanks Mum!!

They opened up a world of free entertainment for me. I used them for more than 11 years, whereby the sheer physical daily abuse they were given rendered them battered and beaten.

Chris Fogg, Barry Worsick and yours truly, Santa Ana, Texas, April 1987

Eleven years on, many rare british birds later and the bins are now worn, but have gone transatlantic! They are held up by a guitar strap to replace the razor-blade like strap that was forming a groove in my neck!. First trip to the US, we had just lucked into the first Crane Hawk for the US and had just found a Clay-colored Robin in the tree above where this shot was taken!

The same fall, I headed out for my first sojourn to Cape May, New Jersey with Paul Holt and Richard Crossley, the first year of nine spectacular summers and falls here.

Me, Cape May Hawkwatch, Cape May, NJ, September 1987, age 19.

What’s with the Kim Kardashian sunglasses!!!?? How the hell did we identify warblers in flight with bins like that??

And finally, a moment of silence for a pair of bins that have served me well. Faced with owning a pair of Zeiss Dialyt’s as reward for participating in what was one of the first surveys to document the “morning flight” spectacle at Higbee’s Beach, I had no option but to retire my trusted bins.

My trusted 7×50 Helios..beaten by time, c.2009, age 33!

I had worn out the metal slots to which the guitar strap attached and resorted for somereason, to using a hankerchief as a strap..don’t ask me why!  I couldn’t bear to part with them, so I kept them like some dead lover, hidden away in the glove compartment of my car. At this point, I was getting headaches trying to look through them and eventually gave them a viking burial and despatched them on their way. Farewell my beloved!

NEW EDG VR Fieldscope

 I wanted to pass this blog post along to you. Bill Schmoker (a Nikon Prostaffer) and Mike Freiberg spent a morning in the field with the new EDG VR Fieldscope. They were extremely successful with our images and videos. Here is a blog written on the fast growing American Birding Association blog. Thanks to Bill Schmoker for providing some great information for Nikon’s latest and greatest.

 

http://blog.aba.org/2012/01/whole-lot-of-shakin-not-going-on.html

Nikon introduces 85mm EDG scope with Vibration Reduction Technology

Nikon just announced an 85mm EDG scope containing the VR technology they use in their camera lenses.  For further details see here:
http://www.nikon.com/news/2011/1006_edg_01.htm
Nikon Vision Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, is pleased to announce the release of its EDG Fieldscopes 85 VR and 85-A VR, new models in the Nikon Sport Optics flagship EDG series.

These new EDG VR Fieldscope models are the world’s first*1 fieldscopes to incorporate the lens-shift type VR function. The vibration reduction algorithm, based on Nikon’s sophisticated VR mechanism used in NIKKOR VR lenses, has been optimized for these scopes.

The VR function accurately compensates external vibrations caused by wind and operations such as focusing, panning and tilting. The VR function makes composition easy by reducing vibrations to approximately 1/8*2 of image blur caused by vibrations during normal observation. This also enhances focusing accuracy even when manual focus is used during super-telephoto digiscoping. The system provides an effective equivalent to a shutter speed approximately two stops*2 faster and is especially effective when digiscoping in bad conditions such as windy weather.