The magnification of a binocular describes how many times closer an object appears through the binocular than with the naked eye. An 8×21 mm binocular magnifies the image to eight times its normal size. Typical binocular magnifications range from powers of 7x to 10x; however, they are also available in much higher magnifications. Keep in mind that binoculars with higher power gather less light, and the viewing field will be reduced, as well. It is also very difficult to keep an image steady at very high magnifications using a handheld binocular. A tripod is usually necessary to steady an image at higher magnifications.