extra WA bins? (1 Viewer)

When I say extra Wide Angle (WA) bins I mean 70 to 75 deg AFOV, such bins are no longer made. These are bins of yesteryeas and to buy one, one has to go to ebay, so what good ones you suggest me to look for and which ones to overlook.

Regards.

buff said:

When I say extra Wide Angle (WA) bins I mean 70 to 75 deg AFOV, such bins are no longer made. These are bins of yesteryeas and to buy one, one has to go to ebay, so what good ones you suggest me to look for and which ones to overlook.

Regards.

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I recently bought Nikon EII 10x36 bins new from a supplier in the UK. Over 7 degrees FOV. I was so impressed, I bought the Nikon EII 8x36 new from the same supplier. 8.8 degrees FOV, razor-sharp, bright as any others. Stunning bins, ´cos I love wide FOV. Porros, not waterproof, "old-fashioned", but very light and a joy to use. They may be difficult to source but they are out there, and apparently still sold widely in Japan.

My first two binocular purchases were a Swift Nighthawk and a Nighthawk Mark I, both 8x40. Both have 499'FOV. The Nighthawk 7x35 is 578'. I still have and use the Nighthawks. Frankly what you get in extra FOV will not be as pleasing as Sanchos Nikon EII, and certainly not as good as the current Swift Audubon 8.5x44. What you get, in all of the older extra wide binoculars is eye relief that is unsuitable if you wear glasses. The wide FOV has zones in it. Center field is about 50%, then about the next 40% shows a little softness and the outer 10% shows quite a lot of softness. They are also not as bright as todays fully multi coated optics. Neither Swift can begin to hold its own with a Yosemite in image quality. My Swifts are good for the purpose they served, but you will be dealing with yesterday's technology. Those two Swifts are the only extra wide angle binoculars I have enough experience with to comment on.

Swift Audubons, see the Audubon Survey in the Swift section for (nearly) all models produced since late 1950's.
Doesn't mention the Audubon 10x50 aka Kestrel however, while it's my favorite wide angle 10 for birding purposes. Great AFoV, very easy on the eyes and steady as a rock (for some unknown reason it's the only 10 my eyes (hands?) don't object to).
For a moment I thought our friend Stuart C. Smith was still selling his Fully Multi Coated, vintage 2000 pair on eBay but on checking they appeared gone. See, that's what happens to rare quality items like this. But you can still try to contact Stuart, maybe he retracted them out of regret. Because that's what happens to Audubon owners.

Renze

How wide do you want the view to be, and do you care if the binocular is cheap? See link below: You will probably want to "overlook" them! As stated above,the now hard to find Nikon 8 x 30 EII and the Swift Model 804 Audubon 8.5 x 44 are probably your best bets. The new Vortex 6.5 x 32 Fury also has about the same FOV as the Nikon and Swift mentioned above.


http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=5135

Bob

Renze de Vries said:

Swift Audubons, see the Audubon Survey in the Swift section for (nearly) all models produced since late 1950's.
Doesn't mention the Audubon 10x50 aka Kestrel however, while it's my favorite wide angle 10 for birding purposes. Great AFoV, very easy on the eyes and steady as a rock (for some unknown reason it's the only 10 my eyes (hands?) don't object to).
For a moment I thought our friend Stuart C. Smith was still selling his Fully Multi Coated, vintage 2000 pair on eBay but on checking they appeared gone. See, that's what happens to rare quality items like this. But you can still try to contact Stuart, maybe he retracted them out of regret. Because that's what happens to Audubon owners.

Renze

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i have put them back up for sale to fund my flaks. many thanks stuart.

As I said I want a bin that has no less than 70 deg. AFoV. Nikon EII did cross my mind but I wear eyeglasses and when I pay more than few hundred bucks I want something that works great with my glasses. It is the reason why I want to buy something cheap on ebay for less than $100. Only fully coated lensses don't bother me so much neither will short eye-relief (ER) if I pay less than $100.
I see some brands that I know nothing about: Jason, Strafe and Sons, Optex, Sears?? Which ones are good which are bad. Is there a benchmark in this category of bins like Zeiss Classic 7x42 is in modern binoculars.

I have seen some modern offerings from Swift: aerolite and relient series, but I am not sure if they are mechanicly sound; will they fall apart after one month of non-intensive use like bushnell instafocus?