Beginner Binocular suggestions!

[BrianInnes]

Hello.

I'm looking to invest in my first "decent" pair of binoculars. (By "decent" I mean as good as I can get for around £150 - £180 max)

I've had a look around and managed to get a few catalogues:

Bins which have caught my eye so far:

RSPB Waterproof Binocular 8x42 £160

Viking Vistron 8x42 £160

Bushnell H20 8x42 £125

I can also get these binoculars in 10x42 size for not much more , would this be a better idea?

I should also mention I'm a spectacle wearer (short sighted) so anything else I should consider?

Thanks in advance

--
Brian

[Peter_Perfect]

With 10x the effects of hand tremor are more exagerated, also the FOV gets smaller as well as eye relief. That is the reason 7x and 8x are so popular. My "bogstandard" 8x42 are the viking vistron. Chinese engineering a but on the "rough and ready" side, the optics are good for my puposes. The CA on the vistron is almost impercetable, for a roof prism I was very impressed.

[BrianInnes]

With 10x the effects of hand tremor are more exagerated, also the FOV gets smaller as well as eye relief. That is the reason 7x and 8x are so popular. My "bogstandard" 8x42 are the viking vistron. Chinese engineering a but on the "rough and ready" side, the optics are good for my puposes. The CA on the vistron is almost impercetable, for a roof prism I was very impressed.

I had been looking at those Viking Vistron bins - they seem to have the largest "eye relief" which I assume is a benefit for spectacle wearers?

Good to hear from a happy user.

cheers

--
Brian

[FrankD]

The only one of the binoculars you listed that I have experience with are the Bushnells. They are "ok" for the price but there are better options out there. I am not sure how your currency values translates into ours but assuming it means up to abouty $300 US then I would suggest either Bushnell Legends, Nikon Monarchs or Leupold WindRiver Cascades (roof or porro). All of these bins offer excellent image quality for the price...are phase coated (except the porro) and fully multicoated, waterproof, nitrogen purged, have relatively close focusing capabilities, etc...

If your price range is less than the $300 US that I listed then I would suggest something along the lines of the Nikon Sporter I or the Nikon Action EX models. Both have very good optical quality are waterproof and fairly durable overall.

Hope this helps.

[normjackson]

Assume you know, but just in case, there's an optics day at Vane Farm next weekend :
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/v/vanefarm/events.asp

[Barry Long]

Assume you know, but just in case, there's an optics day at Vane Farm next weekend :
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/v/vanefarm/events.asp
Certainly try before you buy if you can. A friend of mine went to the Birdfair and ended up buying quite a different pair from what she had seen in the catalogues.

[alan_rymer]

Hello.

I'm looking to invest in my first "decent" pair of binoculars. (By "decent" I mean as good as I can get for around £150 - £180 max)

I've had a look around and managed to get a few catalogues:

Bins which have caught my eye so far:

RSPB Waterproof Binocular 8x42 £160

Viking Vistron 8x42 £160

Bushnell H20 8x42 £125

I can also get these binoculars in 10x42 size for not much more , would this be a better idea?

I should also mention I'm a spectacle wearer (short sighted) so anything else I should consider?

Thanks in advance

--
Brian
Not tried them, but people rave about the Nikon 8x36 DCF Sporter £99 from Warehouse express!.

[BrianInnes]

Assume you know, but just in case, there's an optics day at Vane Farm next weekend :
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/v/vanefarm/events.asp

I was planning on going to the optics day at Vane Farm, unfortunately I have to work that weekend. And the weekend of the Optics day on Nov 11/12th falls on my weekend working too :C

However before buying I'll be sure to try the bins out.

cheers

--
Brian

[BrianInnes]

The only one of the binoculars you listed that I have experience with are the Bushnells. They are "ok" for the price but there are better options out there. I am not sure how your currency values translates into ours but assuming it means up to abouty $300 US then I would suggest either Bushnell Legends, Nikon Monarchs or Leupold WindRiver Cascades (roof or porro). All of these bins offer excellent image quality for the price...are phase coated (except the porro) and fully multicoated, waterproof, nitrogen purged, have relatively close focusing capabilities, etc...

If your price range is less than the $300 US that I listed then I would suggest something along the lines of the Nikon Sporter I or the Nikon Action EX models. Both have very good optical quality are waterproof and fairly durable overall.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. I'll see if I can find somewhere locally which has these bins for me to have a look at.

cheers

--
Brian

[BrianInnes]

Not tried them, but people rave about the Nikon 8x36 DCF Sporter £99 from Warehouse express!.

Thanks for the info. I'll add these to my growing list of bins to try and have a look at before purchasing.

Cheers
--

[MacGee]

Hello.

I'm looking to invest in my first "decent" pair of binoculars. (By "decent" I mean as good as I can get for around £150 - £180 max)

I've had a look around and managed to get a few catalogues:

Bins which have caught my eye so far:

RSPB Waterproof Binocular 8x42 £160

Viking Vistron 8x42 £160

Bushnell H20 8x42 £125

I can also get these binoculars in 10x42 size for not much more , would this be a better idea?

I should also mention I'm a spectacle wearer (short sighted) so anything else I should consider?

Thanks in advance

--
BrianI'm also looking for my first pair of decent binoculars, but my choice is complicated by the fact that I have a narrow interpupillary distance. Before I discovered that, I had more or less settled on the RSPB 8x32 BG.PC (http://www.rspboptics.com/rspb/rspb/bg.htm) at £299. However, I believe that the Helios AM-6 DCF 8x32 (http://www.warehouseexpress.com/index.cfm?binsandscopes/binoculars/helios.html?cd=1061810) are essentially the same binocular and are available from here (http://www.warehouseexpress.com/specials/binosMO.html#heliosbins)as a Mail Order return for £160. These are really good quality and I think they actually look better than the RSPB ones.

Shame you have to miss Vane Farm; I'm planning to be there and we could have compared notes.

Added note: I've tried the Vistron and it's not in the same league as the RSPB/Helios.

Michael.

[Tero]

I can't pick from those, other than the Bushnell H2O may not be that good. But these are porros, so possibly useable. You need to try them all. With winter coming up, pick the brightest one!

The Bushnell H2O 8x25 Roof Prisms are definitely poor, but they are not related, only the name.

[BrianInnes]

Tero, thats what I plan on doing, trying to get somewhere which will let me try the bins out.

Thanks again for all the replies.

--
Brian

[richo]

I'm going to piggyback on this thread. As another relative beginner, I'm looking for new binocs and am willing to spend up to about $250. Currently, I have a pair of 20 X 50 which I bought for about $40. I need some education as well, including what the figures mean (e.g. 8 X 20, 20 X 50 etc), what are “porros” etc. I'm looking for better quality to see birds both far away and close up (my binocs do not do either very well).

Thanks,

Rich

[Otto McDiesel]

the best binoculars under 250 for birds are Nikon Action EX 8x40 or 7x35.
porro means that the binoculars look like two dog legs, roof prism means that binoculars look like two straight tubes Nikon Action is porro, Nikon Monarch is roof prism
8x40: 8x it magnifies or "brings" things 8x closer; 40 means the large lenses are 40mm in diameter.
for anything less than $250-300, get a porro prism design.

[MacGee]

Welcome to the Bird Forum. You've come to the right place to educate yourself; I've been doing the same thing for a few weeks now and have learned so much I sometimes feel like an expert - until I talk to the real experts. The real experts will be along soon to give you more in depth answers, but in the meantime, I'll just offer a couple of points.

The first number in the 7x35 pattern is the magnification; the second is the diameter of the objective (the bit of glass at the front) in mm. If you divide the second number by the first, you get a number called the Exit Pupil Diameter. The bigger this is, the more light you get coming into your eye. Your binocs give you an EPD of 2.5, whereas my example would give one of 5. That's probably one reason why your binocs aren't doing well. The other reason is that the magnification is too high for handheld binocs. Remember that every movement you make is magnified 20 times; so a slight 1mm movement will be seen as a 20mm movement of the image. The most common magnification now seems to be 8x, though I think I prefer 7x. Most people wouldn't go bigger than 10x.

I'll leave the actual recommendations and definitions to others, except to say that we should write the word Porro with a capital P, in honour of Signor Porro, the inventor, after whom they're named.

Good luck in your quest.

Michael.

[Tero]

For the really far away birds you will need a scope. That is actually a much more difficult item to get for under 600. For nearby, 8x40 porros are standard. All brands are mostly OK except the ones sold in plastic packages in discount stores. I suggest you start with porros, then move to roof prisms which you can get an OK pair for 250-300 if you really shop. Try to get 25 year warranty on those. I have NIkons but many others are OK in porros.

[scampo]

Hello.

I'm looking to invest in my first "decent" pair of binoculars. (By "decent" I mean as good as I can get for around £150 - £180 max)

I've had a look around and managed to get a few catalogues:

Bins which have caught my eye so far:

RSPB Waterproof Binocular 8x42 £160

Viking Vistron 8x42 £160

Bushnell H20 8x42 £125

I can also get these binoculars in 10x42 size for not much more , would this be a better idea?

I should also mention I'm a spectacle wearer (short sighted) so anything else I should consider?

Thanks in advance

--
Brian
You can still get the Nikon Sporters from Warehouse Express for £99-00. They have amazingly long "eye relief" which makes them very easy to use whatever specs you wear. They are compact and well made - many people here have them and have written in with positive comments. Quite a bargain at this price.

[BrianInnes]

You can still get the Nikon Sporters from Warehouse Express for £99-00. They have amazingly long "eye relief" which makes them very easy to use whatever specs you wear. They are compact and well made - many people here have them and have written in with positive comments. Quite a bargain at this price.

Those do look quite a good bargain, however I'd like to try them somewhere rather than risk ordering binoculars online and finding out I don't get on with them.

I have a six day weekend this weekend ;), one of my plans for this is to get a pair of binoculars. Poor weather forecast for my area tomorrow, so might be a plan to have a look at the shops tomorrow.

cheers

--
Brian

[scampo]

Those do look quite a good bargain, however I'd like to try them somewhere rather than risk ordering binoculars online and finding out I don't get on with them.

I have a six day weekend this weekend ;), one of my plans for this is to get a pair of binoculars. Poor weather forecast for my area tomorrow, so might be a plan to have a look at the shops tomorrow.

cheers

--
Brian
You'll have no problems - Warehouse Express will allow you to test them and return them if you don't like them. Give them a ring!

[richo]

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep reading on other forums as well to see what people are saying.