Hello everyone. I have joined this community seeking advice regarding small, lightweight, entry level binoculars. It is my friends birthday coming up and he has recently shown a lot of interest in bird watching. He travels and lives out of a backpack a lot so I would like something quite small. My budget is around $200. Having very little knowledge about binoculars or bird watching I am getting quite overwhelmed by the variety, brands, sizes, language etc Can anyone offer any suggestions on what might be a suitable purchase that meets my requirements?
I have been looking at these: CELESTRON NATURE DX 10X25
and Nikon 8218 Trailblazer 10X25 Hunting Binoculars and Nikon Prostaff 7S 8 x 42
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
First of all, welcome to the forum. Good to see another Aussie checking in.
One thing to note for anyone here in Oz is that you'll be
much better off, financially, ordering from overseas than paying local rip-off prices for binoculars, especially at the lower end of the market. Another thing to note is that, of the binoculars you've listed, only the two 10x25 models could be considered "small" - I think you'd find those 8x42s you mentioned quite sizeable in the hand (or in the backpack). And, personally, I'd not much favour the 10x25 format as a 2.5mm exit pupil, along with 10x to magnify the jitters, would I think make the view quite uncomfortable.
I'll make some suggestions from binoculars I have and use. My first one is the
Vortex Diamondback 8x28 which is quite compact, is optically decent and gives nice views, and can be obtained from B&H, shipped to Oz, for around your $200 price:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1200174-REG/vortex_db_200_8x28_diamondback_binocular.html
My second suggestion may be beyond your price range (under US$200 but closer to AUD$300 in South-Pacific pesos) - the
Sightron SII Blue Sky 8x32. While more expensive, and larger, they give a better and more comfortable view than the 8x28 Diamondbacks. If you could stretch, and if small size isn't an absolute priority, then I think they'd be worth those extras. You can pick them up from eBay, for example:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/172379886073?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
Or, through Amazon, you can get the same binoculars in Kenko guise, with slightly different externals but pretty much the same binocular:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DYQRME/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
As a slightly off-the-wall alternative, and if small size
is an absolute priority, these little (I mean
little) Carsons might be worth thinking about:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/437168-REG/Carson_JD_718_7x18_Mini_Scout_Binocular.html
Optically, they're 2 or 3 grades down from the others I've mentioned but they are
very small (did I mention that?) and give a useful view. They're also quite inexpensive, even factoring in that shipping to Oz is about the same price as the binoculars themselves.
Hope that hasn't added to your confusion...
...Mike
