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Trophy 8x42 roof - any good ? (1 Viewer)

g8ina

g8ina

He's pining for the Fjords !
Trophy 8x42 roof - no good !

I am about to upgrade from my little Olympus DPC-1 8x21s and am considering the Bushnell Trophy 8x42 roof prisms. These can be picked up at a certain auction site for around GBP60 ish.

I took a view of the Legend 8x42 at Jessops today and was well impressed. Just wondering how much better these are likely to be than the Trophys - anyone offer a direct comparison please, or comments on the Trophys ?

TIA
 
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g8ina said:
I am about to upgrade from my little Olympus DPC-1 8x21s and am considering the Bushnell Trophy 8x42 roof prisms. These can be picked up at a certain auction site for around GBP60 ish.

I took a view of the Legend 8x42 at Jessops today and was well impressed. Just wondering how much better these are likely to be than the Trophys - anyone offer a direct comparison please, or comments on the Trophys ?

TIA
Click to expand...

I don't own the 8x42, but use the 8x25's as a carry in-case pair which aren't bad for the money I paid (around £30). I tried the 8x42's and would say they're probably as good as you're going to get for roofs under £80, but the Nikon Sporter 8x32's are noticeably sharper, quicker to re-focus and despite the smaller objective as bright (but only water resistant). Personally I'd spend the extra on the Sporters at £99 but the Trophy's aren't at all bad.
 
g8ina said:
I am about to upgrade from my little Olympus DPC-1 8x21s and am considering the Bushnell Trophy 8x42 roof prisms. These can be picked up at a certain auction site for around GBP60 ish.

I took a view of the Legend 8x42 at Jessops today and was well impressed. Just wondering how much better these are likely to be than the Trophys - anyone offer a direct comparison please, or comments on the Trophys ?

TIA
Click to expand...
Hi, I actually own a pair of trophy 10x42's and am very impressed with their optical performance, delivering a crisp image through the whole field of view and retaining a good colour rendition and detail. You'll notice a great build quality in the trophy's and they feel like they can take a lot of knocks thanks to their rubber armour, complete with optical and objective lens covers that secure themselves nicely. If you're thinking of buying some 8x42's for 60 quid, i would say go for it! For that kind of cash you won't get any better for a proper birding bino. If anything, their image will be brighter than my 10x42's due to their larger 'exit pupil' of 5.3, compared to the 10x42's 4.2. And don't disregard the trophy's fully multi lens coatings which aid the binos light transmission capabilities. At £60, you'll be saving about £250 on the high-street price of the Legends, the only difference being they have phase-coated lenses, which deliver an even brighter image. Overall, the trophy's tick all the boxes for nature observation; semi-compact, tough, bak-4 prisms, fully-multi lens coatings, o-ring sealed waterproofing etc, etc. I seriously don't think you'll be disappointed.
Hope this helps!
But don't just take my word for it, see if you can try out a pair, then take advantage of that bargain!
 
Thanks for that. My wife is buying them for an early birthday present :)

It will make my Father In Law's day too, as he has been a bit under the weather lately (!!) with oesophgeal cancer, but is pulling thru nicely, and giving him my old Olympus will help him with the birds in his garden.

Will report back after a weeks test run.
 
They arrived this morning and initially I am not really very happy !!

Spec states 12ft close focus (not brilliant but I can live with that), however, the model I have received has a "close" focus of 40 feet !! :eek!:

Suffice to say, they are being returned.

Other than that, first glance says they are pretty fine for £60. More to come as the saga continues.

On a different note, my bank made a BIG mess of transferring the money (e**y purchase), and managed to do it THREE times !! I'm just waiting for the recipient to be a very nice person and refund it. If they don't I will be taking my bank to small claims court unless THEY refund me. :C

Nothing is ever easy is it ?
 
HI David

For that sort of money you'll struggle to get a really good pair of new roof prism bins, you'd be better off looking at either porros or secondhand roofs. As has already been suggested the Nikon Sporters that were on offer a few places at £99 are a very good buy, much better optically than the Bushnells.

If you can stretch your budget even further than check out the Opticron HR WP porro prisms, optically there is probably not a better binocular for under £250 and another member is selling a nearly new pair for £120 - a real bargain - http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=55930
 
Terrible !!

OK after a few days playing, these flaws meant that I had to send them back :

Close Focus is about 35 ft, NOT the 12ft their weebsite claims. The ebay seller also checked another 10 off samples from her stock and they all had the same problem.

That was the biggie, but I doubt whether Id have kept them as the view seemed very soft, and there was a very weird feel to the right EP view, almost like astigmatism !

The ebay seller was superb, gave a full refund, and sorted out some overpayment problems caused by Barclays bank !! Her communications were top rate too. A rare bird indeed !

I now have the option on a pair of Opticron TGA 8x42 for £70 which do look a bit better on paper, and the owner assures me that close focus is not a problem :) More later.
 
g8ina said:
Close Focus is about 35 ft, NOT the 12ft their weebsite claims. The ebay seller also checked another 10 off samples from her stock and they all had the same problem.
I have just received my Trophy 8x50's, same site, different seller. After reading the above, I was quite expecting to pack them back up for immediate return. I am glad to say though that they will actually focus closer than the claimed 12ft. Looks like the others were a badly assembled batch.

I don’t have much experience with quality bins at all so I am not in a position to make any great claims for the trophy’s. I have quite a lot of experience with cheap bins though (sometimes unusable, sometimes surprisingly good) and can confidently recommend them to anyone looking for the best they can get for around £60.

Optically, they are a great improvement over the varied selection of budget porros and compact roofs I have previously used. They certainly appear to be rugged and have the advantage of being water and fogproof. There is an annoying stiff point right in the middle of the focus range on mine but this seems to be easing with use.

I would be very surprised to find anything better than this for the price, if I did, I would buy them immediately. Failing that, I think I will wait till I feel the need and can afford the price to make a genuinely quantifiable upgrade.

Hope you get sorted soon David.
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Thats good news for you :)

My Imagic TGAs arrive about Wednesday/Thursday... Fongers crissed !
 
Bushnell

rozinante said:
g8ina said:
Close Focus is about 35 ft, NOT the 12ft their weebsite claims. The ebay seller also checked another 10 off samples from her stock and they all had the same problem.
I have just received my Trophy 8x50's, same site, different seller. After reading the above, I was quite expecting to pack them back up for immediate return. I am glad to say though that they will actually focus closer than the claimed 12ft. Looks like the others were a badly assembled batch.

.
Click to expand...
Hi - I just got a pair of 10X42 from Longview and I am more than happy; particularly as I got them at a good price. Yes 12'-00" is near focus as specified in the Bushnell spec sheet but other than that I am well pleased and with the service. Also bought a pair of 8X42 Powerview as a present [for general use]. I noted that Bushnell do not recommend the Powerviews for birding.
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Trophys are good

Hi,

I too a pair of 10x42 Trophys, and I am very impressed by them. They are kind of heavy, but the image is bright and crisp. It says on the cover that Trophys are "hunting" binos, but Natureviews are "birding" binos. Apart from a small difference in the field-of-view, whats the difference?

Anyway, I am very pleased with the Trophys.

Regards
Padmanabhan
 
I know it's nearly a year on, but i'm...

g8ina said:
On a different note, my bank made a BIG mess of transferring the money (e**y purchase), and managed to do it THREE times !! I'm just waiting for the recipient to be a very nice person and refund it. If they don't I will be taking my bank to small claims court unless THEY refund me. :C

Nothing is ever easy is it ?
Click to expand...

That's the same kind of luck i tend to get. :-C


g8ina said:
My Imagic TGAs arrive about Wednesday/Thursday... Fongers crissed !
Click to expand...

Hi David, :hi:

I got to the bottom of the thread you had started, after reading the problems you had... sent bins back, money refunded etc...Waiting for Imagic TGAs to arrive...Fongers crissed...Then nothing??? :h?:

Did you keep them? If you did, you have had them for nearly a year, so you must know now, what you like or dislike about them.
So how did you find them?
 
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I have the 8x42 and the 10x42 both bought from Ebay. The 8x42 are slightly brighter and sharper than the 10's but these are not the best pair of bins for the price.
 
ebay Bushnell Trophy copies?

I have noticed quite a few bins on ebay lately that look like copies of Bushnell Trophys. Seems odd to copy what is already a budget line but I think they were selling very well.

The ones that look like copies don't have "BUSHNELL" recessed into the rubber armour on the bridge. They were are also displayed with the brand name on the boxes carefully covered up by a cleaning cloth.

I also notice that the more recent listings don't even mention Bushnell and don't show the boxes in the pics.
 
Well I bought a pair that where as you described. The photo showed no sign of Bushnell embossed into the housing and the lens cloth carfully covering the name on the box.
When I emailed the seller to ask him what make they where, he told me Bushnel Trophys! And thats what it says stamped on my binoculars?

rozinante said:
I have noticed quite a few bins on ebay lately that look like copies of Bushnell Trophys. Seems odd to copy what is already a budget line but I think they were selling very well.

The ones that look like copies don't have "BUSHNELL" recessed into the rubber armour on the bridge. They were are also displayed with the brand name on the boxes carefully covered up by a cleaning cloth.

I also notice that the more recent listings don't even mention Bushnell and don't show the boxes in the pics.
Click to expand...
 
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I would go for the Opticrons personally. A friend has them at work and there great. The Trophys are nowhere near as sharp. I think the model is imagic and they where around £150, what you would expect to pay in the shops for the Trophys.
This is my opinion only, I would go to an optics fair and do a comparison.
mrlimbo said:
What bins would you say are the best for that price then ?
Click to expand...
 
Simon S said:
I would go for the Opticrons personally. A friend has them at work and there great. The Trophys are nowhere near as sharp. I think the model is imagic and they where around £150, what you would expect to pay in the shops for the Trophys.
This is my opinion only, I would go to an optics fair and do a comparison.
Click to expand...

Thanks , i'll check them out , along with the Nikon monarch's , as im looking to replace my Trophy's , which is fine & the optics are pretty good , but everything else about them im beginning to hate , nothing ever stays setup on them ? and very heavy and rather cumbersome !!!
 
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