Bins and spectacles (1 Viewer)

I'm thinking of looking for a good second hand pair of bins - I've never had anything but cheap ones, and have a limited budget. I have seen several pairs of Zeiss Jenoptems 10x50 on eBay at what seems like a reasonable price - one pair went this evening for 94GBP. But these days I tend to keep my spectacles on when birding. I saw a review of the Zeiss Jenoptems that suggested they were not good for use with specs.

Any thoughts?

Paul

Paul,

The only problem you should have when using glasses is eye relief. If the pair does not have enough eye relief, your glasses will prevent you from getting close enough to see the entire field. How much eye relief you need depends on your glasses. My older, large framed pair required 19/20mm of eye relief. My newer, smaller pair, requires 16/17mm of eye relief. You can get some idea of eye relief from the specifications given by the maker, but, in many cases, the only sure way to see if a pair has enough for you is to try them in person.

Clear skies, Alan

Hi Paul,

Older binoculars tended to have relatively short eye relief. Often the higher the magnification, the shorter the eye relief for a given aperture binocular.

The new "house brand" mid range roof prism binoculars that have come out in the last few years usually have very good eye relief and are in the $300 USD to $450 USD price range.

I suggest you try differnet binoculars so that you will know exactly what you are buying.

The Nikon SEs have good eye relief. Maybe a used one wouldn't wouldn't be too pricy.

Good luck,
Rich

Paul_Gower said:

I saw a review of the Zeiss Jenoptems that suggested they were not good for use with specs.
Paul

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I'm guessing you're referring to Holger Merlitz' review? Have seen other sources corroborating that view (shucks have turned into Karl Popper).

Unfortunately over here Rich's suggestion would probably set you back in region of £200-250 (saw a 8x32 SE go for that on Ebay round last Christmas). Can't quite tell from your post exactly whether you're after 10x50 porros like those Jenoptems or whether £100 is the budget you're looking at. For £100 it seems quite a few BirdForum members have been relieving www.warehouseexpress.com of their stocks of Nikon 8x36 Sporter binoculars and been very pleased with what they've received.

Just been looking at the "About Binoculars" link at the www.monkoptics.co.uk site (they're based in the Wye Valley which would probably be within reach of you). If you're really interested in a 10x50 porro for ca £100 though, not sure they seem to stock one. Be good if you could find a way to get to try the Japanese Helios HR range, new Nikon Extremes and Opticrons and other more modern designs available in £100-150 range. These should be fine with specs.

Thanks for all the helpful comments - I'm on a bit of a steep learning curve here - probably ought to post in the Newcomers thread! I have had cheap bins for a long time, but am begining to think its time to get something better. Budget is a bit limited, although if I am patient I could probably aim for the £250-£300 bracket in a few months. Being impatient and greedy I am looking for a quick bargain, and seeing all those Zeiss on eBay I thought I might be on to a good thing!

In terms of 8x or 10x, of course I want both! I spend time in hides at places like Llanelli and Slimbridge, but also walk in the woods and fields where I live. I guess the sensible thing would be to go for the best 8x I can, so Rich may be right, but x32 seems awfully small...

Trouble is - there are just too many variables to compute! :h?:

Paul
ps I used to be a keen cyclist - we always reckoned the minimum number of bikes anyone could make do with was seven!

It should be easy enough to try out in a store. I shop in a camera store for camera stuff, and they never mind me checking the binoculars, though I never buy them there.

In my case, with my eye glass frames, it cuts down field of view quite a bit. I rarely use the binoculars with glasses.

Another option is contact lenses.

Tero said:

Another option is contact lenses.

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Not if you have astigmatism, that requires that glasses are worn at a specified angle, i.e. it's clearly defined which part is up.

Robert