Bausch & Lomb Binoculars for Birdwatching

Below is a question that I was recently asked regarding a pair of 10x42 Bausch & Lomb binoculars and their potential suitability as birding binoculars:

Many thanks for the question and I will try my best to answer it for you starting with the brand of binocular that you already have:

Bausch and Lomb

As you may or may not know, after selling their binocular business to Bushnell, Bausch & Lomb binoculars were for many years produced by Bushnell. Now all Bausch & Lomb Binoculars carry the Bushnell brand name and to my knowledge you cannot buy a brand new pair of B&L bins. You can read more about it here: Bausch and Lomb Binoculars.

That is not to say that what you have is now redundant. Indeed Bausch & Lomb produced some excellent pairs of binoculars that when looked after could easily producing a high quality image for many, many years.

You did not mention the actual model that you have and so I can’t really comment any further on their glass quality, type and amount of coatings and generally what end of the scale they sit on.

But I can offer some advice as to their configuration:

10x42 Binoculars with a 341 field of view (FOV)

You mention that you do much of your birding in open areas like at the shore and open fields, this is exactly where a slightly more powerful binocular may be more suitable than with a wider FOV. For more take a look at my article on 10x42 Binoculars for Bird Watching and why for some this configuration may be the ideal choice.

However in a forest where you are likely to be looking at birds from closer ranges, many of which will be small, fast and erratic, there is no doubt that a wide field of view would be advantageous. But this in no way means that your 10x42’s will be useless.

With a FOV of 341ft at 1000 yards your Bausch and Lombs rank right up there with the better 10x42s and are better than some 8x42s and so they may actually be a really good compromise between getting a little more detail with the 10x power, but still a reasonably good FOV.

So my advice would probably be to stick with your current binoculars if you are happy and like them because with the info you have given me there is no reason why they wont, in my opinion perform perfectly well for you and your needs.

I hope that at least some of this information helps and I am sorry that I cannot be of more assistance. If you have any more questions, or if anyone else has some more to add please feel free to use the comment section below.