Bushnell 8x42 Natureview Porro or Bushnell 8x42 H2O Roof prism (1 Viewer)

Bushnell 8x42 Natureview Porro and Bushnell 8x42 H2O Roof prism are in a similar price range. I know that posts on this forum say to go for the porro over the roof prism at budget price ranges. I really like the feel of the roof prism model, but will this be significantly worse in the field?

Thanks for any advice,
Tim

I have the H2O roof prism set and am very pleased with them.

Cannot comment on the Nature View porro-prism set.

However I also have the Natureview in roof prism also and I find that these are slightly better then the H2O's. Not by a lot but are I find better optically.

Have fun choosing:-O

SG6 said:

I have the H2O roof prism set and am very pleased with them.

Cannot comment on the Nature View porro-prism set.

However I also have the Natureview in roof prism also and I find that these are slightly better then the H2O's. Not by a lot but are I find better optically.

Have fun choosing:-O

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I'm also a fan of the Natureview roofs - if they are in your price range you should give them a try if you can. From what I understand, as well as having the edge optically, they are of a better build quality and were built in a factory with better quality control. I think they might be lighter as well - SG6 might be able to comment on that?

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. Going by what you say, I think I will try one of the roof prism pairs. I'll shop around and see if the natureview comes in at the right price. Do you use 8x or 10x magnification?
One of my ideas was to keep the binocular price down as low as possible and perhaps be able to purchase an intro level spotting scope as well, but maybe that is a false economy. Does a scope become a fairly important piece of kit very early on?

thanks,
tim

tm2383 said:

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. Going by what you say, I think I will try one of the roof prism pairs. I'll shop around and see if the natureview comes in at the right price. Do you use 8x or 10x magnification?
One of my ideas was to keep the binocular price down as low as possible and perhaps be able to purchase an intro level spotting scope as well, but maybe that is a false economy. Does a scope become a fairly important piece of kit very early on?

thanks,
tim

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For entry level I'd stick with porros assuming they're weatherproof.

I'm finding with my four bin review (see the binocular forum) that below $200 (or £200) porros are where the best value is. I've not looked at these models yo are considering but the good $100 porro will beat a $200 roof (still, I would have though roofs were doing better these days ... but my experience is they aren't quite good enough and given some of the tolerances required with roofs they may never be).

The need for a scope all depends what you look at. If you want to spend fall/autumn watching shorebirds, ducks or distant (from you) migrants or migrating hawks then you are going to be frustrated with x8 bins. But you need the x8 bins first even with a scope. So perhaps the focus first should be on porros for this season and a scope next season?

That said scope are even more price sensitive than bins (that low magnification of bins covers a multitude of sins!). Still you can get useful low (fixed) magnification scopes.

In the mean time if you are going for shorebirds/ducks why not find some other better equipped birders willing to share their knowledge and their views!

The Natureview's are slightly heavier then the H2O's, but feel lighter in the hand, they are longer.

For all I have both I use the H20's nearly all the time, bit smaller and they are wrapped in rubber. The Natureview's do not have a not very good set of front lens covers (minor niggle), but some people dislike the rubber ones on the H2O's. So you take your choice.

I purchased mine via binoculars.com, a U.S based company and I was very pleased. H2O's and Natureviews came to £163 after shipping and duty. After the binoculars I purchased the Bushnell mini spotting scope from them. Quite good, perhaps better if I/it had fixed focal length eyepieces not the zoom. It might have some fixed focal length eyepieces just I haven't looked in the case to check.:-O

I think that your post said you were in Edinburgh, otherwise I would suggest a visit to the Rutland Water Bird Fair this weekend. You can try out a couple of hundred binoculars and scopes made by most manufacturers there and see what you thought.

Oops, I see you are in N. Ireland.
Wonder whose post I saw that said Edingburgh.

I just noticed that Eagle Optics (a well regarded US distributor but they don't ship to Norn Iron) has the Bushnell Natureview 8x40 Birder Binocular as their low end recommended birder bin.

http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=4905
Field of View 365 ft./1000 yds.
Eye Relief 14 mm
Close Focus 14 ft.
Weight 24.8 oz.
Dimensions (HxW) 6.2 x 7.0 in.
Weatherproofing Weather-resistant

Those specs are rather good for a cheap porro (especially the weight). OK FOV, close focus and ER (not quite good enough for glasses).

$46 in the US so probably £46 or so in the UK.

I would think this would be worth a look. I suspect it will beat the roof.

All good points. My best porros were too heavy, at 8x. The 10x model was a brick. Thus I went for 8x for the porros.

In the end I went ahead and purchased a pair of Bushnell H2O roof prism 8x42. Image seems very bright and sharp compared to my current bins (8 years old now) and close focus is fantastic. I am really pleased with them. They are just in a different league!
Just in case anyone in the UK is interested, I did a bit of searching and found a Jessop discount code that gives 10% discount on binoculars. This can be used mail order , or reserve and collect.

Thanks for all of the advice,
Tim

tm2383 said:

In the end I went ahead and purchased a pair of Bushnell H2O roof prism 8x42. Image seems very bright and sharp compared to my current bins (8 years old now) and close focus is fantastic. I am really pleased with them. They are just in a different league!

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This was my recent experience too with both porros and roofs. The brightness, sharpness and AFOV have all improved. Low cost optics have come a long way in the past decade. And China is making optics that are rather good.

Hope you enjoy your new bins!

Kevin