15x56 vs 18x56 Binoculars - Which is Best for High Power Long Distance

15 by 56 or 18 by 56. in this video i'm gonna help you choose between these two high-powered long-range beasts based on your specific needs and requirements and we're going to start right now [Music] hello and welcome to bespoke reviews my name is jason based on the number of visitors it gets one of the most popular sections on the bbl website is my guide to choosing the best high-powered long-range binoculars based on your specific needs and requirements and thus i thought it was high time to delve just a little bit deeper and take the two configurations that i get asked the most questions about so in this video i'm going to be taking a look at a typical high end 15 by 56 binocular versus an 18 by 56 one and just taking a close look at the physical differences as well as the optical differences and similarities between the two thus by the end of it you should be able to select which one is most suitable for your specific needs and requirements before we begin it's important for you to understand exactly what i mean when i refer to a by 56 or an 18 by 56 binocular or indeed any other combination if you're not 100 sure please just take a moment to watch my video on what the numbers on a binocular mean link up above or down in the description below if you take an 18 by 56 and a 15 by 56 from the same manufacturer and indeed in the same series they are most likely going to be exactly same in terms of their dimensions this is because they will they invariably use the same chassis as well as the same exterior components on them however as you can see from these four examples that i have here in front of me things start to get a lot more interesting once you start looking at 56 millimeter binoculars from varying manufacturers or indeed from the same manufacturer but within a different series while some of this discrepancy can be attributed to pure aesthetics the main reason to the differences in size is largely down to the design of the prism that is used inside of them so for example the breser push ed8x56 on the left has the most compact and widely used smit peak and roof prisms inside them whilst these maven b5 18x56 binoculars use the longer but more efficient ape-coding roof prisms whilst on the other extreme these steiner knight hunter 8x56 binoculars on the right use very efficient but wider poro prism designs inside them on the bbr website i go into great detail in discussing the main relative strengths and weaknesses between these different prism types link down in the description below but here i think the most important point to take away is that if size is important to you this is certainly something that you want to keep an eye on and also just remember an 8 by 56 has as equally just much chance to be larger than 18 by 56 or vice versa in terms of their weights the story is very similar to that of the dimensions in that if you're comparing binoculars from the same manufacturer and within the same series their their weights tend to be almost identical i mean apart from very minor differences in the thicknesses of the lenses they pretty much will be identical however once you start comparing binoculars from different manufacturers and even from the same manufacturer and different series the fact that they start using different components can alter their weights quite considerably so for example um different prisms once again can can make a difference and then on top of that just be aware that in general higher end optics tend to use things like more metal parts on them so metal focus wheels or they will have magnesium chassis for example these are fire far higher quality and tend to be stronger but they also tend to be a lot heavier than cheaper binoculars that often use polycarbonate plastics for their parts and indeed the chassis here again though i think the most important point to take away is that a 15x56 is just as likely to be more heavier or indeed more lightweight than an 18x56 you just need to make sure that you're comparing like for like in terms of the level and quality of components that they are using as a binoculars main point of existence is to provide you with a more detailed view of something in the distance it can be perfectly reasonable to assume that the more powerful a binocular is just the better it's going to be however this is most certainly not always the case and it and and with more powerful magnifications come a number of disadvantages that are really important to understand so in theory the higher 18 times magnification on these maven b5 18 by 56 binoculars should provide you with greater image detail at the same distance or indeed allow you to see just that little bit further than the 15 times magnification on these steiner hx 15x56 binoculars however when holding them from the hand any single tiny movement that you make gets magnified by the magnification and thus with higher magnification binoculars like these even the tiniest movements make quite a big difference when you're looking through the binoculars so in reality when using these with an unsteady base like from your hands it actually can turn out that a lower powered binocular you can actually see more with a lower powered binocular than a higher powered one so if using your binoculars from your hands is is something that you want to do this is definitely something to keep in mind and in general the advice is anything above 12 times you should start then thinking about stabilizing your blockers either using a tripod monopod or indeed getting yourself mechanically or optically image stabilized binoculars so from the hands it's not always a great idea to go to higher power now from based on my experience i am just about able to hold the view steady enough to get a reasonably good view through these maven 8 18 by 56 binoculars however it must be said that i cannot do this for a long period of time um and even when trying my hardest and there is a slight you know there's a movement so whilst you can see quite a lot of detail you know it's not completely pin shot because there's always this just this tiny little movement which is you know you cannot get rid of just by holding it in your hands um sometimes it can help if like you rest your elbows on something but even then you're still going to get some sort of movement from your hands comparing them to a 15 by 56 you definitely can see that um you there's a little bit more shakiness to an image this is based on my hands and my personal experience obviously different people will be have different experiences but in in general i'm going by now i think with higher powered binoculars like these the advice is to basically get make sure that you can stabilize it in some way and put it on a tripod for the best results so if we assume that you're going to be using these binoculars mounted onto a tripod then the higher magnification will provide you with greater detail assuming that the level of the optics is the same that's a very important distinction to make because if you take a high-end binocular with very high quality optics and compared to something of low quality um obviously the the quality of the view is going to make a huge difference but assuming that the level of the optics is similar as with these two then you can assume that as long as the image is stable and steady via a tripod or a monopod or something like that then the 18x56 is going to provide you with just a little bit more image detail and also or allow you to see a bit further or some image detail at further distances okay so to sum up and just confirming with looking right at this moment um i've past the camera and out the window into the distance in the fields behind you there if you are going to occasionally use your binoculars from the hands my advice in general would be rather lean towards the 15 by 56 over the 18 by 56 as i find it's just that little bit easier to keep the image steady enough to get a quite good image detail for short periods of time however as i mentioned earlier for best results for both of these binoculars i really do suggest that you would mount them on a tripod and that way it stays perfectly still and you can then actually take advantage of what the higher power brings you in giving you greater image detail at distance i use versions of this image quite often on bbr because i think it clearly illustrates how a higher magnification brings you closer into the action for a more detailed zoomed in view but at the same time you also lose out on what else is happening all around the area at closer ranges especially a very zoomed in image can be a major problem especially if you are trying to quickly locate and then follow a small fast-moving object or animal at longer distances a narrower field of view is generally not as much of a problem but a narrow field of view still makes it more difficult if you're scanning large areas looking for something so whilst it is true that both 15 by 56 and 18 by 56 binoculars are essentially designed for long distance observation you still need to factor into your decision making just how far into that distance you're going to be mostly using them and indeed just how often you may be using them at slightly closer ranges this is especially the case if you're going to be trying to pick up and follow small fast moving objects assuming that things like the quality of the glass and the coatings used are equal and because they use the same size 56 millimeter objective lenses it is true that in terms of the capability of being able to capture light as it were and let it into the binocular both the 15 by 56 and these 18 by 56 binoculars would be about equal and thus you may assume that in terms of image brightness they would be about equal as well but this is not always the case having compared the views many times in good average and reasonably poor light conditions to my eyes in terms of brightness these 15 by 56 and these 18 by 56 binoculars are very close and it's very hard if not impossible to tell the difference between the two in fact i'd even go as far as to say that in good light conditions in terms of brightness it's quite hard to tell the difference between even these eight by 56 and these 15 or 18 by 56 binoculars however once the ambient light levels drop like that you would experience just before or just after sunrise or just before or just after sunset or indeed in a thick forest or woodland then you start to notice some differences a lot of this can be explained by the relationship between the size of the pupils in your eyes and the size of the shafts of light exiting the ocular lenses known as the exopupil of the binocular so these 15 by 56 binoculars create a extra pupil that is 3.7 millimeters in diameter whilst 18 by 56 binoculars creates slightly smaller 3.1 millimeter extra pupils now as you probably know the pupils of your eyes change in size depending on how much light is available during the day and out in the open most people's pupils will probably be less than four millimeters in diameter and thus both the 18 by 56 and 15 by 56 binoculars are able to pass on enough light for you to perceive a bright image under these conditions it is often impossible to notice the difference in brightness between these two and indeed many other configurations of equal quality however it is in very low like conditions where some people's eyes can expand to up to seven millimeters in diameter that binoculars with larger extra pupils certainly have the advantage as they are able to live deliver larger cones of light onto your eyes indeed this is where binoculars like these steiner night hunters eight by fifty sixes where their massive seven millimeter exo pupils certainly have an advantage as along with very good optics and a very high transmission rate the the shaft of light coming out the binocular will match that of your your pupils and thus they perform far better in low light than binoculars like these two for example that have a much smaller extra pupil so going back to these two examples the first thing to point out that neither the 15 by 56 nor the 18 by 56 is particularly good in or particularly strong in low light conditions thus if this is going to be something that you're going to be under these conditions you're going to be using binoculars frequently my advice would be to either tone down the magnification a little or go the other direction and get binoculars with even larger objective lenses and thus you would increase the size of the exo pupil the next thing to point out is uh the quality of the optics make a massive difference here and the quality of the coatings so if you not all 18 by 56s or 15 by 56s are equal and the quality of the optics used and the coatings make a huge amount of difference in the amount of light that they get transferred through the binocular and in low light conditions this is where quality certainly makes it shows up as it were next to point out yes the 15x56 does perform slightly better than the 18x56 in very low light but as the exit pupils are quite similar in size there's only you know a few points of a millimeter difference and the difference is quite small and quite often um it's the terms of the quality of the optics can make up for that in some ways so but if you're going back to the pair of binoculars with equal level of optics then if um low light performance is something you're thinking about the 15x56 certainly has a very slight advantage here in general higher powered binoculars tend to be a little more expensive than the equivalent model but with a lower magnification from the same series and manufacturer in the case of something like a 10 by 42 versus a 15 by 56 for example this difference in price is easily understandable as larger binoculars require more material to make and have larger lenses that use more glass however as we have already seen 15x56 and 18x56 binoculars are pretty much the same size and often use exactly the same bodies and components so why the discrepancy in the case of 8 by 42 versus 10 by 42 binoculars for example this is down to the economies of scale as manufacturers will usually sell far more of the less powerful models than the more extreme ones and thus are able to make more lenses more efficiently i can only assume that this is also the case in this example as it is true 18x56 binoculars tend to be a little more expensive than the 15x56 version so once again when it comes to comparing two different binocular configurations there really is no smoking gun answer as to which is best rather it boils down to your specific needs and requirements so in general a 15 by 56 binocular will have a wider field of view a slightly improved low light performance and will be fractionally easier to use from the hands when needed whilst on the other hand 18 by 56 binoculars get you even closer to the action and provide you with just that little bit more image detail and i think they make a good alternative to a spotting scope for those looking for the more immersive experience that you gain by using two eyes rather than one so there you have it i do hope that this video has been both useful and informative if it has i would really appreciate a thumbs up and if possible please do subscribe to this channel as this really does help me continue on with this project and bring you more and more content in the future so once again thank you very much for watching and i'll see you again next time cheers for now [Music]

Channel: Best Binocular Reviews

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Id: qOpwX31kF9U

Length: 16min 17sec (977 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2020