Out with the old in with the new: optics expert Pete Dunne describes how to tell if you are living with the wrong binocular.

The woman was petite. Standing among the other members of her birding tour group, she looked like a child in the company of adults. But what made her really stand out was the brand-new and very expensive Zeiss Night Owl 10x56 binocular hanging around her neck. It was so incongruously large that she resembled a binocular with arms and legs.

Without asking, I knew exactly how the mismatch occurred. She was a new birder. She needed binoculars. She went online or looked at an ad for some mail-order house. Then she ordered the most expensive binocular she could find, assuming, as consumers the world over do, that throwing more money at a problem would compensate for a lack of understanding. It doesn't. And in this case, it resulted in Ms. Mismatch's having a miserable birding experience instead of an exhilarating one--not to mention an expensive binocular that she couldn't use.

"But I'm too smart for that," you're thinking. And this may be so. But unless you've purchased binoculars recently, or unless you purchased binoculars from an outlet that both understands birding and took time to assess your particular needs and constraints, chances are there are instruments that will work better for you than the one you are using now. And this means that every time you go birding, you are being short-changed in terms of finding, identifying, and appreciating birds. Here's how you went wrong. Or perhaps I should say, when. Way back when.

How Deep Is Your Love?

I know people who are on their third marriage and their fourth house and are still using the binocular they bought when the Bee Gees were at the top of the charts. Let me ask you: Where was it ever decreed that owning a binocular with a lifetime warranty meant that you had to use it until the lid was closed on your coffin? And do you really think that just because your binocular still functions that it performs as well now as it did the day you bought it?

For argument's sake, let's assume it does. One of my hobbies is snuggling up to owners of vintage Leitz Trinovids and venerable old Zeiss 10x40 binoculars and begging a look. The owners cheerfully oblige, turning over…