Theatre Binoculars Options

[Barbara]

Thought I would report back that yesterday I purchased the binoculars that I previously asked your help in selecting. I visited B&H Photo in NYC armed with my research from BalletTalk! I tried the Zeiss 8x20 BT Classic Pocket priced at $290. They were incredibly small and light (maybe even too small) with excellent clarity. I do have a shaky hand problem and the Zeiss didn't have an image stabilizing feature so I then tried the Canon 8x25 at $250 that does have this feature. They were considerably larger but not too heavy. I actually didn't feel that the image stabilizer helped all that much and it's necessary to keep compressing the button in order to use the feature. The sales associate told me that an automatic image stabilizer typically comes on only larger binocs. He was immensley helpful, by the way, and I was glad I hadn't purchased anything online. (I had nothing but trouble trying to open the binoculars.com website.) He even showed me the proper way to hold the binocs for maximum steadiness - who knew I'd been holding them incorrectly all these years! Then he asked me to try another pair - a 6x30 "wide" Leupold Yosemite coming in at 17 oz for $85. I felt the clarity was very very good, it was light enough to hold, and the price was right - sold! The first time I'll give them a good try will be when the Kirov performs at City Center in April - I'll be in the nosebleed section with my new binocs at the ready!

[JMcN]

Does someone have opera glasses that are sold at Royal Opera's shop ? If yes, are you happy with them ?

http://rohshop.org/?SubNavMenu=10

Thank you

The glasses in the picture look like mine, which were a gift to me about 20 years ago. They have got 2.5 magnification.

(I had previously bought some Pentax binoculars which I think were 7x25. They were brilliant - adjustable eye and small and lightweight - but I found them too powerful for most of the theatres I go to (I think our theatres are smaller than the ones in the US)).

I have found these opera glasses ideal for me, although as I tend to sit on the front row of the stalls these days I very rarely use them. The one thing they do not have is an adjustably eye but it didn't seem to matter as much possibly because of the lower magnification.

[iwatchthecorps]

These look interesting. I have purchased a pair and look forward to trying them out at the ballet.
Sharper Image 10-30x21 Compact Zoom Binocular

[SandyMcKean]

Barbara, I'm glad you found the binos you like. Looks like you made an excellent choice at an excellent price (I notice that they list for $115 and are usually sold for $99, so $85 is a sweet deal -- likely hard to get outside of NYC). You were likely able to keep the price down and the quality up by buying a quality brand (Leupold) at a lower power that uses porro prisms (give the binos that traditional "shouldered" look) instead of roof prisms (straight look), and you probably gave up fancy lens coatings (which you don't need anyway in a dark setting with a well lit subject).

I sometimes watch half a ballet thu my binos. Since I see each performance more than once, I can indulge my bino-habit on the 2nd or 3rd performance without missing the overall ballet. A good pair can open up a whole other way to "watch" a ballet rather than just using them to occasionally glance thru to check something out. Sometimes if I watch an entire PdD thru the binos for example, I feel like I'm on the floor next to them, in a studio, like a ballet master might be.

Have fun!

[zerbinetta]

He was immensley helpful, by the way, He even showed me the proper way to hold the binocs for maximum steadiness - who knew I'd been holding them incorrectly all these years!

Barbara: could you tell us the "correct" way to hold the binocs? Perhaps more than one of us has been doing it wrong for years.

[Barbara]

Certainly! I was basically holding them with my fingertips. He told me to hold them with the palms of the hands, resting the index fingers against (or near) your eyebrows and resting the thumbs against (or near) your cheekbones. Also keep your elbows in toward the chest. This method seemed to give me much more control over my shakiness.

[carbro]

Who knew? (IMG:http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/style_emoticons/default/dunno.gif) Thanks, Barbara, and thanks to the helpful salesman at B&H.

[zerbinetta]

Well, this makes sense, Barbara. It also frees that index finger at the eyebrow to fiddle with the wheel in the middle.

Thank you!

[SanderO]

On the broader topic of the use of binocs, what are other "looking at" with the increased magnification of vision?

Do you look at faces, feet, hands... costume details.. all of the above.

Does the stage make look odd under such magnification?

I find that without binocs and sitting back, I cannot read facial expressions and this is something I realize I don't want to miss in some ballets... such as Manon or R+J... other ballets the binocs provide way too narrow a view and I feel you miss the big picture like the wonderful corps work in Giselle or Swan Lake.

Which ballets do you feel binocs make a real difference to the experience and which ones can you do without them?

[Quiggin]

On the broader topic of the use of binocs, what are other "looking at" with the increased magnification of vision?

Inspired by this thread, I just ordered a pair of Russian 5x30 wide angle binoculars--one of the hunting or butterfly (like Nabokov at the Ballet Russes) types--and hopefully they'll arrive in time for the San Francisco Ballet Gala next week.

That said, I do have some reservations about using them. Binoculars tend to compress everything, and pull everything into one plane. And the interaction bewtween dancers gets left out.

Also I feel that when I put them to my eyes, I'm leaving the communal experience of watching ballet and am watching television instead, or jumping into my car while others are riding the bus.

From what I've observed of the actions of most binoculars people, they occasioally check up on what the soloists are up to, or on some member of the corps whose identity they are not sure of, and after this they pass them over to a companion. Or--most discreetly, as if in a 19c novel--on some member of the audience across the way.

[bart]

I find that without binocs and sitting back, I cannot read facial expressions and this is something I realize I don't want to miss in some ballets... such as Manon or R+J... other ballets the binocs provide way too narrow a view and I feel you miss the big picture like the wonderful corps work in Giselle or Swan Lake.

Which ballets do you feel binocs make a real difference to the experience and which ones can you do without them?

A good point. Facial expression (and its relation to upper body generally) has become more and more important to me -- especially since it seems that so many dancers don't seem to have a clue about how to integrate it into a sustained performance. I've just observed an Act III Aurora who never similed (and who, indeed, wore a kind of tragic mask during the pas de deux and finale) -- and whose facial expression was actually mirrored in a certain tension and over-control in her upper body which worked against the choreography and music.

I pick up the binoculars (cheapos) selectively throughout almost every performance. I'm now in the middle of watching a run of La Valse. With the three Fate-like women at the start, I really resist the temptation to look at an individual -- it's the interaction of the three, their strange port de bras, that are important. Same with the corp's frenzied circling of the dead girl at the end. With the brief individual pas's, however -- and with those frequent dartings of individuals across the stage -- I enjoy focusing on detail, even if it means cutting something else out.

It helps, of course, to go to multiple performances if at all possible, so that -- eventually -- you get to see the whole thing, piecing it together in your visual memory later on.

Edited to add: With much contemporary choreography, there is really no sense of "ensemble" patterning in the Petipa or Balanchine sense. Individuals, couples, etc., tend to doodle around the stage doing their own thing. That's a great time to take out the binocs. And, when you're really bored, it's amazing how concentrating on a hair style, a body part, or a costume detail makes the time fly.

[Barbara]

Sometimes I like to take time out from the overall scene to look at the stage business on the sidelines with binocs. Last ABT Met season I had fun watching David Hallberg in Swan Lake interacting with the Princesses as each national dance was underway. I don't know if it's particular to him but I enjoyed the way he seemed to be realistically engaging in conversation with the Princess of the moment. In the past I've been riveted watching Nureyev on the sidelines thru binocs - a show of it's own! I also like to look at costume details. Now that I have my new binocs with a wide view I wonder if I'll watch more of the performance through them. Sandy, I'll try watching a full PdD through them and see how that is.

[printscess]

Sometimes I like to take time out from the overall scene to look at the stage business on the sidelines with binocs. Last ABT Met season I had fun watching David Hallberg in Swan Lake interacting with the Princesses as each national dance was underway. I don't know if it's particular to him but I enjoyed the way he seemed to be realistically engaging in conversation with the Princess of the moment. In the past I've been riveted watching Nureyev on the sidelines thru binocs - a show of it's own! I also like to look at costume details. Now that I have my new binocs with a wide view I wonder if I'll watch more of the performance through them. Sandy, I'll try watching a full PdD through them and see how that is.

Usually the dancers are on stage making dinner plans, gossiping and having a grand ole time (IMG:http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/style_emoticons/default/smilie_mondieu.gif)

[SanderO]

Usually the dancers are on stage making dinner plans, gossiping and having a grand ole time (IMG:http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/style_emoticons/default/smilie_mondieu.gif)

That's an uninspiring thought. You want to believe that they are really into the emotion of what they are doing... even it is very esoteric movement aesthetics... and not characters interacting.

[zerbinetta]

I have often pondered the implications of a dinner reservation held by a NYCB conductor when taking the evening's tempi.