Binocular lenses/camera lenses

[Janice]

When I look through my £120 Olympus binoculars at the birds in the garden/trees the image is pin sharp and nice and big.

WHy cant they make a camera lens that brings them that big and that sharp for £120?? Why do they cost hundreds and hundreds?

[Joe T]

AFAIK binoculars have an effective aperture of f8. f8 is not really fast enough for a camera lens.

Theres probably a lot more to it than that! :p

[IanC_UK]

I think its because binoculars dont need aperture control and our eyes are far better than any cmos/ccd/film at resolving image detail. Which is why all Camera lenses are usually much bigger in diameter than binocular ones.


I may be talking rubbish here though ;)