Concerts can be crowded and sometimes you may find yourself in the back and not be able to see the stage very clearly. It is situations like these that call for a pair of binoculars at such concerts. You will be able to get a better view of the performers, their facial expressions, instruments and so on.
Now, it doesn’t make sense to bring along full-sized outdoor or marine binoculars for these occasions – they’re overkill and you’ll just end up looking stupid. There are few things that you should be looking for in binoculars if you are planning to use them indoor events such as concerts, musicals or sports games:
- Compact size: you don’t want to drag giant binoculars with you to an indoors event, for obvious reasons.
- Relatively small magnification: you’re not looking at Jupiter in the starlit sky, but at a stage only some yards away.
- Light weight: holding binoculars in front of your eyes is tiring, so you want to reduce your effort so you can use them longer.
Here are some good binoculars for indoor concerts that will bring you closer to the stage while looking stylish:
Now these binoculars were designed for looking at butterflies, but that’s not the only thing they are good for. They have a relatively small magnification of 6.5x, which is a good thing. They are very compact, very light and easy to use. They’re not waterproof, but you’re going to be using them mainly indoors or at least in good weather, right? These features are basically what you want from binoculars for indoor use, plus they look super stylish, definitely not your “woodlands/safari/seafaring” variety.
This is another great model that has been designed specifically for spectator sports, which of course makes them great for other cultural events as well. Like the Papilio ones above, these look very hip and will have people sitting next to you begging to let them have a look as well. They provide only 4x magnification, which should be enough to get closer to the concert performance and yet still have a good view of the entire stage (this is called a wide field-of-view in more technical terms). There’s no messing around with focus with these optics: they’re always in focus. They are somewhat heavier than the Pentax model above though.
Want something cheaper and even smaller? Try these ultra compact binoculars from Ade Advanced Optics. They’ll fit in your pocket and look like a space widget from the future. But remember, you get what you pay for. Don’t expect brilliant bright images with these: they’re objective lens are tiny, meaning little light coming in, meaning little light for your eyes. But if you think the Pentax and Bushnells above are too much for you, these might as well do the job.