Audubon Mini Binoculars (1 Viewer)

Anyone buy a pair of the Audubon mini's 7x18? They go for about $35 and look small enough to carry around just about anywhere, especially for those times when something is better than nothing.

I also like the monocular they offer; I think it's 6X16, goes for about $30 and comes in several colors including a neat yellow.

I know these aren't high optics by most people's standards, but if anyone has bought either of these optics, I'd love to hear about it.

Can't seem to find much info about either here or on the net other than several places that have them for sale.

Cheers!

74+ views and no comments; I guess I mistakenly thought these would be more popular items albeit low budget or possibly inferior quality. Thanks for the views, though.

Well at least people aren't just reading the subject and then ignoring the post

OK, a comment.

These are pretty low cost and we presume (though we may be wrong) that they are low quality bins. I do like it that they're 7x. But the exit pupil is small.

But these I suspect are in the much of a muchness category with all the other inexpensive bins made for a not very quality sensitive part of the market.

For $35 you are in a bit of a bind but for that and a little more I'd buy a discounted sightly bigger bin (say an Eagle Optics hot deal). For example, the Vortex Typhoon for that price or the Stoke Meadowlark for $20 more.

You might also search for the many threads on the Holy Grail of small bins (search for compact or 8x25) and the many, many failed quests for that Grail. There's three parameters: size, quality and low-cost. They're at three corners of a triangle with the bins scattered inside the triangle. But you don't get all three at the same time. And at the low end you tend not to get any quality either.

Of course if I'm totally wrong and these are good but unknown. Now that we can see that no-one else has tried them a true binouholic would get a pair and try them. After all that's how people find the good inexpensive bins. But until someone tries them we'll never know.

Are the Sportoculars 7x18 (bins with college logos) on the Eagle Optics site the same OEM? If so, I bought some for a gag gift at a retirement party (budget birding friend). They haven't arrived yet, but will comment when they do. I don't expect much from them or the college they represent.

They get the Eagle Optics "seal of approval": http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=3721

So I assume they are not complete junk. Eagle Optics recommends them for spectator use though, and it is hard to imagine such an inexpensive roof prism would be much use for birding. And with only 8 mm of eye relief they would likely be useless with glasses.

Best,
Jim

I thought these might be the same as the ones with sport team logos, but I noticed the weight varies between the two. It looks like a copy/clone of the audubon's.

Lifetime guarantee and the "seal" of approval sound good. Price is low, but not as low as say comparable size Tasco, Simmons or Busnell compacts.

As for the triangle and how it relates to these, size and cost (good) but quality undetermined at this point.

Don't know if it matters, but they have a lifetime guarantee and I presume some of the cost goes to support the audubon. I'm not sure if their name on them is of any consequence, but I doubt they would want to put their name on totally junky bins; however, stranger things have happened.

Thanks for the input.

Some of the most awful binoculars I have seen had the name Eddie Bauer on them.

I say, take your chance and buy them where you can return them. I think there is some 50/50 chance you will keep them.

danben said:

Don't know if it matters, but they have a lifetime guarantee and I presume some of the cost goes to support the audubon. I'm not sure if their name on them is of any consequence, but I doubt they would want to put their name on totally junky bins; however, stranger things have happened.

Click to expand...

IMHO that's the sort of assumption that the people who named the brand "Audubon" hoped you make.

They have nothing to do with the the "Audubon Society(tm)". That's a different mark. Along with their Heron logo trademark.

http://www.audubon.org/

There was a lawsuit over this in the past (1970s? early 1980s?) between The Audubon Society(tm) and Swift for their use of the word on their bins. Swift won. A Swift historian might help out here.

And after that quite a few people started sticking "Audubon" in the name up to and including the Eagle Optics/Vortex optical conglomerate using it on their low end brand so as not to contaminate the other brands with cheap junk

Actually, I went to the link and found the mini's on the website. So if they did lose the lawsuit, the seem okay with promoting and selling the bins anyway. By the way, I typed binoculars in the search, or just go to the marketplace. Again, knowing this, I wonder if they get any proceeds from the sales.

My word. I take some of it back excluding loosing the lawsuit ... they did.

http://www.audubon.org/market/licensed/
http://www.audubon.org/market/licensed/binoculars.html

These Audubon bins (from the massive Sheltered Wings USA (Eagle Optics/Vortex conglomerate ) are Audubon Society licensed products complete with Heron logo. So they certainly get money from this licensing deal. I'm happy to hear this (and perhaps a little less cynical now!).

Note this isn't true of Swift bins with Audubon in the name (the roofs or the porros). And there was another bin maker that had Audubon in the name using the same trick.

Audobon have also put their recommendation behind other bins in the past like the Bushnell Natureview 8x30.

IIRC initial the Audobon Society did license their mark to Swift. But they had a falling out. Swift continued to use the word "Audubon" in their model names but not the logo. In the lawsuit the Society laid claim to the term "Audubon" on binoculars designed for birding but Swift argued that it was just associated with the famous birding person not the society (wink wink) and was a generic mark that no one owned unlike, say, "Audubon Society" which was a registered trademark of the Society (a bit like Microsoft failed to get a mark on Windows as too generic but do own the mark "Microsoft Windows"). The judge agreed. Swift still has an Audubon range and a search of the website shows no mention of the Society. Unlike Vortex which does mention the licensing agreement but have now split off the Audubon brand onto it's own website.

http://www.swift-sportoptics.com/products/binoculars.html
http://www.audubonbinoculars.com/

Apologies for any confusion that may have been caused.

I had 7x18 for about 4 days and its dimmnes and lack of sharpness and clarity made me return it and exchange it for bushnell 8x21, which is better.
It also suffers from same problems but to a lesser degree and on suny day its image is okay especialy at close range.

Now that we have determined it is junk, and just barely better than the plain eye, why carry all that bulk with you, you can have a 7x18mm monocular, still fills the same need: it is better than nothing.
http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=5319
or if you want to waste 50 bucks, a slight improvement
http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=4457

I agree. I had some Bushnell 10x25 powerview compacts that worked well for my needs for a few years. I think I paid about $15 then. I ended up giving them away to someone who needed a pair, but I later found out they were to difficult for him to hold steady due to the 10x (not a problem I ever had).

To replace them I found another cheap pair of Bushnell's. These were 8x21. I bought them on a whim because they were only $12 at a local sporting goods store. The build was not as good as my old 10x25's, and one of the fold down eye cups would not stay put so I returned them. Optically, for my eyes, they were okay, though.

Upon returning them, I came across the Brunton's Tero linked. So far so good. They have a high cool factor, are extremely portable, and cost $20. I like these a lot. Bak-4 prism is a plus in my book. Looks like these will work well for backyard bird spotting and those few concerts/shows that I attend per year. I also like the close focus, about 14 inches; it's almost like having a magnifying glass - really great for butterflies.

I know Brunton offers a couple of other affordable pocket scopes, an 8x22 and a 10-30x25. I got to try out the 10-30x25, but it was to difficult to hold steady at high power, and the image was too dim at zoom focus. I haven't tried an 8x22, but it's on my list. If it's anything like the 7x18, I'll soon be an owner. I like the slightly higher power (8x); plus, it's waterproof. If anyone has one of these, I'd like to hear about it.

That's why I also asked about the Audubon monocular in my original post - this seems to be the direction I'm currently taking. While others may not share my view (pun intended), I'm more into the high portability, low price (read acceptable optics for me at this price point).

Thanks for reading my rather long winded post, and thanks to all who have read/chimed in their views.

Not familiar with the pocket scopes. Do not spend too much money on them. I think a beginner scope is fine, a 20-60x in whatever size you can find, there are several brands.

pinsonp2 said:

Are the Sportoculars 7x18 (bins with college logos) on the Eagle Optics site the same OEM? If so, I bought some for a gag gift at a retirement party (budget birding friend). They haven't arrived yet, but will comment when they do. I don't expect much from them or the college they represent.

Click to expand...

Good point!

Maybe that's why you can't get a Penn State version!

Go Lions!

Bob