Date: 7/15/26 11:26 pm From: Michael Price via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Monopod and head
Hi tweets
Scott Richardson writes:
<and I have sometimes wished for greater stability. Seawatching on a gusty
day can be a real challenge.>
Scott, I've done about a dozen metric tonnes of seawatches and double that
for shorebirds. What I did was turn my conventionally tripod-supported
telescope athwart, then rested my bins on the barrel and use the panning
arm for side-to-side scans. Instant stability, works a charm on a seawatch
or shorebird survey. And it saved me some coin—more for beer, yay—since now
I didn't need a monopod.
The added stability confers another benefit: at 10X40, hand tremor robs the
far end of binoculars' field of view of up to 10 to 15 meters; this
stability often restores that lost distance in the bins' FOV, really useful
when birds you're scanning at distance are distributed horizontally, as
with gulls and shorebirds.
And because bins allow stereoscopic vision, the added stability allows an
observer to see—holistically— fine-point plumage and structural details out
to surprising distances.
best wishes, m
Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
<loblollyboy...>
