10 Best Binoculars in the Philippines 2025 | Nikon, Pentax, and More

You can choose to have binoculars with 5x, 7x, 8x, 10x, or 12x magnification power, depending on your purpose. If you plan on using the binoculars for outdoor activities and general use, you can get one with 7x or 8x magnification power. For bird watching, you can go with 10x or 12x magnification power to see the smaller details.

The size of the objective lens is also important when choosing binoculars. The objective lenses are the large lenses at the opposite end of the binoculars. You can identify their size by looking at the second number indicated in the binoculars. For example, if the binoculars have numbers such as 7x42, then the number 42 is the size of the objective lens.

The size of the objective lens determines how much light the binoculars can obtain for effective viewing, so the higher the number, the larger the lens. This gives a brighter and clearer image. However, binoculars with large lenses tend to be big and heavy, so you might want to settle with smaller ones that are compact and portable.

The prisms are located inside the binoculars, and they act as mirrors. Thus, the prism affects the appearance and size of the binocular. The prism also corrects the orientation of the view horizontally and vertically. Without it, the view will be in an upside-down orientation. The two principal types of prisms are roof and Porro.

The exit pupil is the measurement of the focused light that hits the eye while holding the binoculars at a short distance away from your eyes. You can see small dots of light in the center of the eyepiece. The eye pupil can determine how well the binoculars can perform in dim light.

You can get the exact size by dividing the size of the objective lens by the magnification power. For example, 7x42 binoculars will have an exit pupil of 6. It is important that the exit pupil of binoculars is larger than the pupil of your eyes. If it is smaller than your pupil, you might feel like you are looking through a peep hole.

To put it simply, the field of view is the size of the area that can be viewed using a binocular, and it is expressed in feet or meters at a distance of 1,000 yards or 1,000 meters. If the binoculars have a higher magnification power and a smaller objective lens, the field of view will be narrower. The opposite is true for lower-powered binoculars.

Moreover, if the binoculars have a degree specification with a lower number, it represents the actual angle of view, while a higher number represents the apparent angle of view. For example, a 10x42 binocular with 6.3 AoV has an apparent angle of view of 63. Therefore, the larger the apparent field of view, the wider the field of view you can see.

It is important that the binoculars have lens coatings to remove any glare and allow as much light as possible to enter the optics. If the reflections are eliminated, the image seen will be brighter and sharper. Do not buy binoculars with cheap lens coating since it does not improve the quality of the image.

There are four levels of lens coatings, such as coated, fully-coated, multi-coated, and fully multi-coated. Coated lenses are the most basic, and the fully multi-coated lenses means the inner and outer surfaces of all lenses have multiple coatings applied to them. Binoculars with fully multi-coated lenses have the best image quality.