diff --git oak-doc/src/site/markdown/nodestore/segment/overview.md oak-doc/src/site/markdown/nodestore/segment/overview.md
index ecb6526..81631f6 100644
--- oak-doc/src/site/markdown/nodestore/segment/overview.md
+++ oak-doc/src/site/markdown/nodestore/segment/overview.md
@@ -548,9 +548,9 @@ If not specified, progress information messages will be disabled.
 If `SECS` equals `0`, every progress information message is printed.
 
 If the `--bin` option is specified, the tool will scan the content of binary properties, up to the specified length `LENGTH`.
-The default value for `LENGTH` is `0`, effectively disabling the traversal of binary properties.
+The default value for `LENGTH` is `-1`, effectively enabling the full traversal of binary properties.
 If `LENGTH` is set to a value greater than `0`, only the initial `LENGTH` bytes of binary properties are traversed.
-If `LENGTH` is set to `-1`, binary properties are fully traversed.
+If `LENGTH` is set to `0`, the traversal is disabled.
 The `--bin` property has no effect on binary properties stored in an external Blob Store.
 
 ### <a name="compact"/> Compact
diff --git oak-run/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/run/CheckCommand.java oak-run/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/run/CheckCommand.java
index 62523dc..6c3bb4f 100644
--- oak-run/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/run/CheckCommand.java
+++ oak-run/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/run/CheckCommand.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class CheckCommand implements Command {
                 .withRequiredArg().ofType(Long.class).defaultsTo(Long.MAX_VALUE);
         ArgumentAcceptingOptionSpec<Long> bin = parser.accepts(
                 "bin", "read the n first bytes from binary properties. -1 for all bytes.")
-                .withOptionalArg().ofType(Long.class).defaultsTo(0L);
+                .withOptionalArg().ofType(Long.class).defaultsTo(-1L);
         OptionSpec segment = parser.accepts("segment", "Use oak-segment instead of oak-segment-tar");
 
         OptionSet options = parser.parse(args);