Budget £400-£500 - what brands...? (1 Viewer)

Hiya all

I'm looking to purchase some new bins and am wondering what brands I should be looking at for the budget that I've set myself.

I'm ok with what to look for once I have a pair of bins in my hands and to test to see if there's any collimation and anything else that might be wrong, and I have an idea of what type of glass I'm after (probaby 8x40/42, but may go down to 8x30ish), and would probably go with roof rather that porro prisms.

But just to get me started, for a budget of up to 500 quid (at the most), what sort of bins should I at least be looking at? Which brands and models would fit into that price range?

Many thanks

Top of my list would be Opticrons 8x42/7x42 Imagic SE at around £340ish depending on where you shop, great optics with sound build quality and customer service you can trust. Nodoubt someone soon will suggest the Hawke ED 8x43 Frontier but the focus is too slow for my liking...nice optics though with a wide field of view.

RSPB have just upgraded and tweaked their top of the range HD models which I've always been impressed by, these are priced just under £500.

Failing that you could always try and track down a secondhand Leica or Swarovski etc, though prices (along with new models) for even grubby used specimans seems to have increased significiently recently.

Matt

Zen Ed 2 8x43 or 7x36, surely best for that kind of money, and maybe even one of the best bins out there if it proves to be as good as I think.

kristoffer said:

Zen Ed 2 8x43 or 7x36, surely best for that kind of money, and maybe even one of the best bins out there if it proves to be as good as I think.

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Maybe, but those Zen things are a bit tricky to demo and get hold of in the UK?

Forgot to mention Hawke have also introduced an 8x36 version of their popular Frontier ED model....

Matt

True,
they are no go if you need to try them first. Hawkes are probably a good choice then.

matt green said:

Maybe, but those Zen things are a bit tricky to demo and get hold of in the UK?

Forgot to mention Hawke have also introduced an 8x36 version of their popular Frontier ED model....

Matt

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If you wear glasses the Opticron Imagic would have better eye relief and it is a good binocular
Comparing it to my Nikon Monarchs it seemed better all round .
Cant say about the Hawke as i only tried it in a shop which was not really the ideal place .
H

Thanks for your replies so far.

Matt - I was looking at the RSPB ones initially, and noticed the new HD range are out soon. I asked the question as I wanted to know what else was out there at a similar price range.

Thanks again.

Hi Stoggler,

I bought a pair of Meopta Meostar 8x32s recently and I am very, very pleased with them. If you search for them on the forums you'll see that others are impressed by them too. They cost £550. I bought them because I wanted a lighter bin than my Vortex Razor 8x42 (very good bins if you don't mind 850g or there abouts).
I thought the Meoptas were much better than Swaro SLC 8x30 (£750), Opticron DBA Oasis 8x42 (£500), Leica BA or BN (used), Vortex Viper 8x32, and some others that I can't remember now, all of which I compared side by side.
I think the only reason you may not like them is if you definitely want 40/42 mm. I intend to buy a cheaper back up pair in 40 or 42 mm if I find I need more light gathering (I am going to sell the Razors.). So far though I have used the Meoptas in dark woodland and at dawn and dusk and not had a problem yet. I guess winter will be the true test but I suspect that I wont buy any 40/42s in the end.
If I were you I would not decide until I had tried these out.
Good luck in your search.
Martin.