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Looking for a pair of Bins, need some Help. (1 Viewer)

M

Mostyn

Well-known member
Hi All,
I'm new to the bird forum; but really pleased to have found it.

I'm looking for a pair of Binoculars; but not really sure what I need for watching Garden birds on the feeders, also for use while out walking in the hills and woodlands. I'd like a lightweight pair of good quality; but not too expensive! hoping to keep the cost to below £100 . Les, suggested (very kindly) to look at the Leupold 8x30 or the Barr & Stroud Sierra 8x32. Would value some opinions and suggestions; and maybe the od link to something special. Thanks, your help appreciated.
 
Hi Mostyn,

If you look around you might be able to find this binocular close to your price range. Optically it meets and exceeds all of your wishes. It has a great following on this website and is worthy of serious consideration even if it is a bit above your price range. :t: Read the review of it in the link below by a member of Bird Forum. This is your "odd link to something special!"

http://info.sightron.com/Binoculars/SII-Blue-Sky-Series-/SIIBL832/

Someone else would have recommended it so I thought you should get it out of the way early if you aren't interested in it.;)

Bob
 
Last edited:
Mostyn,

I think Les has made some good suggestions.The Leupold BX-1 Yosemite, Kowa YF and Opticron Savanna, Vortex Raptor and probably others are essentially the same optically. They are small. lightweight and good fun to use. Like many here I feel the 6(6.5)x30 are more satisfactory overall than the higher powers. I think the Nikon Action EX 7x30 would be a better option still but it is probably heavier than you had in mind.

The B&S Sierra is a rare example of a phase coated roof prism design that sells for less than £100. The couple of samples I've tried I thought surprisingly good for the money with a pretty sharp with a smallish sweet spot compared to some. The 8x42 would be more useful in the winter months. The Viking MD 6.5x32 has been a top recommendation at the sell off price of £100 for a couple of years now but appears to be currently out of stock at Viking and others are showing higher prices. They have "sold out" before only to restock again so watch out for that one.

David
 
Mostyn, the Sightron Bob mentions is indeed very well regarded but very difficult to source over here. It could be ordered from the US but watch out for the VAT and collection fee. Pentax do the very closely related BC 9x32 which again is a fine binocular and normally sells for over £200 but is available from Microglobe for £150 at the moment.

David
 
Les, Bob and David have made some very good suggestions.

The Viking MD may be gone for good as they sold off their demos recently and the MD line as a whole is discontinued, but never say never and I for one would like to see that bino back on sale at a realistic and low price again.

David makes an important point about import charges. Imports from outside the EU are rarely economic for inexpensive items unless sent as a gift between private individuals and declared for value under £36.00.

Commercial items declared for value of £15.00 and over are subject to Customs charges ; import duty (if applicable), VAT and a handling fee. In addition VAT is chargeable on the shipping costs and postage for commercial items including samples.

The whole system is woefully out of date, completely uncompetitive compared to our world trading partners and really in need of serious reform. There was some talk from HMG a while ago about raising the import tax threshold to a more realistic level (let's grow up and make it a £1000.00) but so far nothing has been done about it.

Mostyn is looking for something upto a hundred quid and I guess the Amazon Warehouse Deals may be worth look, tomorrow, Black Friday, although there will be a lot of rubbish.

Sportsmangun have a lingering backlist of inexpensive deadstock, mostly Bushnells, have a quick look at their Clearance Outlet.

There might be something on the Sherwoods ex-demo list, they added some new material recently.

Or these from LCE : http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/Used/Opticron-7x42-BGA-WP_111634.html.

Good luck and enjoy your shopping !
 
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Wow, it's a mine-field of binoculars out there! I've looked at the sites suggested; and just not realised the amount of combinations available. couldn't find the Pentax BC 9x32 but lots of other Pentax Bins, hope to find something my Daughter can afford to get me as a Christmas Gift! I need some help. I noticed the bins with roof prism were a bit less money - Q- are they to be avoided or not? Please, if you notice something suitable that's smallish and light weight at a bargain £price.. Please let me know. your help appreciated.
 
Mostyn said:
Wow, it's a mine-field of binoculars out there! I've looked at the sites suggested; and just not realised the amount of combinations available. couldn't find the Pentax BC 9x32 but lots of other Pentax Bins, hope to find something my Daughter can afford to get me as a Christmas Gift! I need some help. I noticed the bins with roof prism were a bit less money - Q- are they to be avoided or not? Please, if you notice something suitable that's smallish and light weight at a bargain £price.. Please let me know. your help appreciated.
Click to expand...


Porro prism binoculars are actually much simpler designs optically and better value for money than similarly priced roof prism models. The cheapest roofs will usually lack phase coatings and only have basic mirror coatings and suffer in brightness and contrast compared to the porro designs and more expensive roofs.

Just looking at that Uttings list the Nikon Travelite 8x25 might be worth considering as well. It's compact enough to fit a larger pocket, waterproof and being a reverse porro optically quite good to the money. However, with a 3.1mm exit pupil it will struggle in low light.

The Pentax can be found here:
http://www.microglobe.co.uk/pentax-9x32-dcf-bc-waterproof-roof-prism-binoculars-p-9667.html

David
 
dipped said:
Uttings have these Opticron's on offer which may fit the bill. Others may be able to comment on the optical quality but they are PC and FMC so they should be decent. They also have a range of Nikon porros in the special offer optics section.

The opticrons are here http://www.uttings.co.uk/p116528-op...-wp-8x32-binoculars-green-30078/#.VHYEl9KsWyg
Click to expand...

Thank you,
I like these
http://www.uttings.co.uk/p115421-nikon-aculon-a211-7x35-binoculars-baa810sa/#.VHYMBYsRzVp
and just found the size; they're not much bigger than the bins I have ..

Would appreciate your thoughts on them.

I'm almost ready to get these?
 
Mostyn
Do you wear glasses? If you do you will most probably need bins with at least 16-17mm eye relief to see the full field of view. Just something to consider as I know that some of the bins I would like are ruled out by not enough ER.
 
typo said:
Mostyn,

I think Les has made some good suggestions.The Leupold BX-1 Yosemite, Kowa YF and Opticron Savanna, Vortex Raptor and probably others are essentially the same optically. They are small. lightweight and good fun to use. Like many here I feel the 6(6.5)x30 are more satisfactory overall than the higher powers. I think the Nikon Action EX 7x30 would be a better option still but it is probably heavier than you had in mind.

The B&S Sierra is a rare example of a phase coated roof prism design that sells for less than £100. The couple of samples I've tried I thought surprisingly good for the money with a pretty sharp with a smallish sweet spot compared to some. The 8x42 would be more useful in the winter months. The Viking MD 6.5x32 has been a top recommendation at the sell off price of £100 for a couple of years now but appears to be currently out of stock at Viking and others are showing higher prices. They have "sold out" before only to restock again so watch out for that one.

David
Click to expand...

I would caution against the Nikon Action EX 7x35. It has a wide field of view but the sweet spot is quite small. I compared it extensively against a Helios Naturesport Plus 8x40 and the Helios was sharper and brighter.

I think the Helios would be a good choice. It can be bought for about £75, has a very relaxing, sharp and bright image and a wide field of view.
 
Mostyn,

I'm not sure if the Aculon is waterproof which may well be a consideration in south Wales. It replaces the Action in the range that wasn't but they claim they "are built to handle virtually any environment you can bring them into." It would also be a problem with glasses as Les mentioned. This is why I mentioned the Action EX originally which has both long eye relief and is waterproof but is heavier.

David
 
Not only does the Nikon Aculon A211 7x35 have short eye relief but it's not waterproof or fog proof, so no nitrogen purged or sealed. As others have said most probably better to spend a little more for the better spec and weather sealing.
 
Samandag, thanks for that link; FLO have them in stock.

Thanks Petrus82, I like the look of them and they're small enough to go in a pocket.
 
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