Small Powerful Binoculars

More about our range of small & powerful binoculars

What are small and powerful binoculars?

Our customers usually look for small powerful binoculars for wildlife viewing. Specifically for hiking and travelling where the size is as important as magnification. 

What makes binoculars small and powerful?

Power tends to increase the size and weight of binoculars. This is because of the larger lenses used. For binoculars to deliver high magnification and remain compact the lenses will be smaller. 

All binoculars have two numbers in their name. The first is the magnification, expressed as 10X, 20X, 50X and so on. This is the magnification beyond what your naked eye provides. The larger the magnification, the more powerful the binoculars. 

The second number is the objective lens diameter, which expresses the size of the lens. 

We class binoculars as ‘small’ and ‘powerful’ when they provide a magnification of 12x or higher and a lens diameter less than 25mm. 

Do I need small powerful binoculars?

Binoculars with high magnification whilst remaining compact are great for carrying around in your hand, or rucksack whilst still being able to view smaller objects ‘on the fly’.

Smaller bodies however mean that the lenses can’t increase in size. This means that the field of view and the amount of light entering the binoculars cannot increase in line with the magnification. 

For a better field of view consider a powerful binocular whilst accepting a larger overall size.

Browse Binoculars by Size

When buying a pair of binoculars you will soon notice that each pair has a set of two numbers following their name, such as “7x50” or “8x32”. The first figure is the magnification, which indicates the number of times larger an object will appear when viewed. The second figure indicates the size of the object lens in mm; the larger it is, the brighter the images will seem. View our Binoculars Buying Guide for more information »