Whether you are shopping online or in store, you will probably have a list of things you want your binoculars to do. Write this list out and number your priorities, then take the advice of the salesperson or the specifications of the website.

Most people decide to buy a pair of binoculars because they want to use them for a specific purpose. They may have taken up an interest in birds or they may have been bitten by the hiking or hunting bug. Bear in mind that once you purchase binoculars, your priorities may change.

For example, you may decide that they will be valuable for that cottage that you rent once a year. If the cottage is on the water and you plan to use your binoculars to watch water birds (and you have kids), then a feature like waterproofing might become suddenly more important to you.

Here are some basic uses for binoculars and some of the considerations that may go into purchasing binoculars for any of these uses.

Hikers and Hunters, while perhaps opposed in their views of nature, will have many of the same needs when it comes to an ideal set of binoculars:

• They both want something that allows them to spy at a reasonable distance.
• They may also want image intensification, since a lot of wildlife comes out at dusk or after dark.
• Finally, for long days outdoors, the light weight of compact binoculars will be more highly valued.

Boaters will want waterproof binoculars, of course. Boaters may want to exclude features such as image intensification, but they may want to consider binoculars with built in compasses and other gizmos.

Golfers will use rangefinders to find out just how long their drive really is.

Birders generally favor compact binoculars for the steady view they offer. The diminished clarity here will not be a big factor for most birding expeditions. You will still be able to identify birds and you should be able to get within a reasonable distance of that ivory-billed woodpecker or Bachman’s warbler.

Astronomers will really appreciate the wide aperture of giant binoculars, as long as they can mount the binoculars somewhere, in order to steady them. If you’re forced to go out to the country where you cannot fix your binoculars to something, then consider image stabilized binoculars. These are far more expensive but have other applications as well.

Other factors:

• Price: pay for the features you get and don’t pay for the ones you don’t want
• Coatings: reduce glare, and protect against water and other potential damage
• Quality of construction: the grade of glass, the quality of the prisms and the material used in the barrel are just a few of the factors to be mindful of. BK-7’s are lower quality; for optimal optics, make sure you have BaK-4 prisms
• Long eye relief is a worthwhile feature for eyeglass wearers.