My husband bought me a really great pair of binoculars, but whenever I try to look through them, everything sort of blacks out and I can’t see a thing. How can I adjust them?
A. Considering how expensive binoculars can be, it’s odd that most companies don’t include operating instructions in the package. Using binoculars is like riding a bike —wonderfully easy, once you have the hang of it. Before you try to see birds through your binoculars, you need to make a few adjustments. Virtually all binoculars have several helpful features that allow them to be tailored to different users. The eyecups hold the ocular lenses (the lenses you look through) exactly the right distance from your eyes (this distance is called eye relief), to optimize magnification and cut out peripheral light, making the image clearer and brighter. Extend the eyecups if you don’t wear eyeglasses. Since eyeglasses hold binoculars away from the eyes and let in peripheral light anyway, retract the eyecups if you do wear glasses. Next, set the barrels of the binoculars to match the distance between your eyes. Looking through them, adjust the barrels until you have a solid image through both ey
