Which Bins for young birders?

[sasi_yaad]

Hi all,

The ideal Bins for a child would be ...
a 7X30,robust ,water proof ,lite, have wide FOV , minimal IPD of 54mm,
Sharp as the nikon E2 and cost about 200$.

Well,I haven't found that Bin yet.
I have thought about three Bins that looks interesting ,
all are fairly sharp and lite and have minimal IPD of 55mm or less, but have some weakness.

Leopold wind river katmai 6X32
Nikon E2 8X30
Zeiss conquest 8X30

Would appreciate your opinion and suggestions

Sassi

[Otto McDiesel]

Hi all,

The ideal Bins for a child would be ...
a 7X30,robust ,water proof ,lite, have wide FOV , minimal IPD of 54mm,
Sharp as the nikon E2 and cost about 200$.

Well,I haven't found that Bin yet.
I have thought about three Bins that looks interesting ,
all are fairly sharp and lite and have minimal IPD of 55mm or less, but have some weakness.

Leopold wind river katmai 6X32
Nikon E2 8X30
Zeiss conquest 8X30

Would appreciate your opinion and suggestions

Sassi

My 6 year old daugther uses the Nikon E2 8X30, and she would not trade for anything.

[Keith Dickinson]

As a former group leader with the Wildlife Explorer and Phoenix sections of the RSPB I found that monoculars were the easiest for young children, 5-8yr old, moving to low mag 7x or 8x compacts as they got older. Normal porro prisms tend to be too big for them to grasp properly until about 11yr or more.
We never gave any of the groups magnification greater than 8x, the field of view with the higher mags too narrow so a lot of the kids could find the birds easily.

[Otto McDiesel]

monoculars were the easiest for young children,

As in handheld monoculars? We tried that, and none of us could really hold them steady. As far as porro prisms being to large up to the age of 11, that is relative.
Regardless of age or of binoculars, it takes a bit of practice tolearn how to use them. I guess small binoculars, 7x are the best.

[Tero]

Seems like Barska should have some fairly inexpensive 7x and 8x models, porros.

I have a pair of their 10x I am quite happy with.

[Keith Dickinson]

The monoculars used by the RSPB were small about 7x mag with no focussing needed. The young kids just had to put them to their eye, most of the kids could use these with very minimal tuition. As to porro prisms, with the younger kids normal size porro prisms almost always have the focus wheel set so the bins are unbalanced in their hands. With the older kids this could still happen. The compacts worked well as most of the birdwatching was done during sunny days.

[Atomic Chicken]

Greetings!

I've copied this post of mine from another thread, on a similar topic:


Greetings!

I would be inclined to choose something INEXPENSIVE, fairly SMALL/LIGHTWEIGHT, as RUGGED as possible, and definitely WATERPROOF. Think to yourself "he/she is going to drop them, abuse them, leave them outside the rain some night, and probably lose them eventually..." making Leica and Zeiss options the domain of millionaire parents. I would further suggest a low-power (8x or under) model, due to ease of handholding... 10x or greater require a bit of control to stabilize which many children don't seem to have developed the motor skills for yet.

HOWEVER, I would DEFINITELY recommend that the optics be as HIGH QUALITY as possible... you don't want to discourage your children or turn them off to optics completely buy buying $19 "fog-in-a-tube" cheap-o model blister packed garbage at your local save-o-rama.

Given all these factors, the possible contenders make a VERY short list:

Brunton Echo 8x25 - Approx. $80

Best wishes,
Bawko

[sasi_yaad]

Thanks all for your reply,

Bawko,
with a compact Bin even high quality one, view is not achieved easily, especially for young children.
Also, the small exit pupil is a waste on children.
As for The brunton 8X25 echo it is very nice and is a good option for some.

Sassi