How a steadier view can improve your game.

While the technology that enables image stabilization is complicated—think gyroscopes, prisms, and lots of math—the concept of image stabilization is about as simple as it gets: Rangefinders that include this technology keep your in-optic view steady. But how can that help you lower your golf scores?

Here are three reasons image stabilization can help.

Image stabilization does draw more battery than a golf rangefinder without that tech. The Vortex® Anarch™ is built around a bigger, more powerful battery for just that reason.

1. Ranging at long distance.

You might think you have steady hands, but if you’ve ever used a golf rangefinder at long distances, you know the challenge of keeping the flag steady in the view finder. That’s because the longer you range, the more those minor movements and shakes in your hands are amplified. While you can reduce much of that movement by bracing against your cart or a nearby tree, it’s almost impossible to eliminate on your own.

Image stabilization solves this problem by steadying those shakes. The result is confidence: You can be sure you’re ranging the exact target you intend because your view is not distorted by movement.

2. Ranging in the wind.

Wind, especially gusty winds, adds a whole new element of instability to your game. Not only will the wind affect your ball flight, it will make it even harder to get a range you can trust.

On average in the US, you can expect eight to twelve miles per hour of wind on any given day. That’s roughly enough to make smaller flags stand, and it’s more than enough to push your rangefinder around, especially at longer distances. The same technology that works to still those tiny movements in your hands also stabilizes larger pushes from wind gusts. Your view still moves, but far less and far less suddenly.

Despite its dependence on more electronic components than a rangefinder without image stabilization, the Anarch™ passed Vortex® vibration and drop testing with flying colors.

3. Ranging small and narrow targets.

Golf rangefinders can be game changers for helping you read the course. You can range trees near dog legs for accurate feedback on which club to pull and get ranges to traps to keep you out of the sand. But, of course, the most important range is the distance to the pin.

While the specific rules surrounding pin width are more complicated and varied than you might expect, the net result is that most golf pins are a half-inch or less thick. Especially at distances over 100 yards, that’s an incredibly small target. Even the flag on a golf pin is rarely large enough to provide a large target.

Image stabilization not only steadies your view, it gives you the confidence to know that you’re ranging the flag or the pin, not the trees behind it. It’s easier to both find the flag, and to keep it steady as the range finder works.

It all comes down to confidence. With a steadier view of the flag despite shaking hands and wind gusts, you can more confidently attack the green.

Learn more about the Vortex Anarch™ Golf Laser Rangefinder.

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