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OK you 8x guys, I give in (1 Viewer)

Tero

Tero

Retired
United States
I have not given up on 10x. But I now have a decent pair of 8x40s, porros. The porros turned out to be very bright. I will not mention the brand, but real binoculars, not Barskas or Bushnells.

I have been having trouble with the eye cups and glasses business of my regular pair. So I looked at what worked with glasses on AND off for me. These new ones are very easy to use. There is less adjustment, things are in focus for a longer range and I have wider field of view. I end up adjusting the diopter more with the the 10x. These 8x will be used in the woods for most of my birding all year.

The 10x are good for some ducks on the river and such. But since I also carry a scope to those sites, it really makes no difference if I bring 8x or 10x. If I do not bring the scope, then the 10x will always be in my car.

Field guides, glasses, binoculars, why mess with too much work in the woods? I am certainly going with this 8x pair for the next few months. The model I bought is a bit heavy, as these are not any fancy binoculars. They are rugged and water proof. I expect these to be fine for several years. And not too many worries, they are not Swarovskis.
 
Tero said:
I have not given up on 10x. But I now have a decent pair of 8x40s, porros. The porros turned out to be very bright. I will not mention the brand, but real binoculars, not Barskas or Bushnells.

I have been having trouble with the eye cups and glasses business of my regular pair. So I looked at what worked with glasses on AND off for me. These new ones are very easy to use. There is less adjustment, things are in focus for a longer range and I have wider field of view. I end up adjusting the diopter more with the the 10x. These 8x will be used in the woods for most of my birding all year.

The 10x are good for some ducks on the river and such. But since I also carry a scope to those sites, it really makes no difference if I bring 8x or 10x. If I do not bring the scope, then the 10x will always be in my car.

Field guides, glasses, binoculars, why mess with too much work in the woods? I am certainly going with this 8x pair for the next few months. The model I bought is a bit heavy, as these are not any fancy binoculars. They are rugged and water proof. I expect these to be fine for several years. And not too many worries, they are not Swarovskis.
Click to expand...

Regarding the eyecups and glasses problem, here´s a piece of advice: don´t change your bins, change your glasses. Get a pair of small, round framed glasses, John Lennon type. I fished out an old pair of National Health Service issue frames of this type I had years ago, like the ones Radar wore in "M.A.S.H.". I had the lenses updated, and find that because they sit further back in my eye sockets, I can use almost any pair of bins with them. (This advice I got originally from a book by Bill Oddie.) On the 8x or 10x issue, I like both, and like you use the 10x for more open or distant work like marshes or seawatching, the 8x for the woods and the garden. All a matter of taste, really. I don´t understand the controversies that arise over "which bins, which mag.", we all have different eyes, just like we all have different feet. I wouldn´t expect disputes over who has the best shoe size. Happy birding with your new bins!
 
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wait till you see what quality 7mag bins can do,you will never want to use those 10's again.take a look through 7+42 trinovid,ultravid,swarovaski slc etc.

matt :t:
 
7x....that would be an awful big jump...*faints*. Actually, I looked at the one 9x and did not like that model. I have tried them a few times. 8,5 might be ideal.

The eye cup business had to do with pulling them in and out. I have a hard time finding any eyeglass frames that fit and also work for bifocals. I have tried the small frames but they just don't fit my skull shape. Most of my birding is without glasses, but if I have them on, I want to be able to quickly take a look with the binoculars. The faster you can push the cups in the better.
 
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There were not that many species out in the park yesterday and it was a bit cold, but took the new pair for another spin.

Flocks of birds are easy to follow in the air. With some effort I was able to ID the black bird flock as Red Winged. Other common birds were easy to ID quite far. I may do better with 10x on a sunny summer day, but this was pretty good.

I have a question: why do my Goldfinches look so tiny now?
 
8X better than 10X?

I read somewhere that, because of the extra shake with 10X, you actually distinguish more detail with 8X.

I recently switched to 8X and I certainly find them clearer than the 10X I used for years.

Jeff
 
The 8x40s are holding out well in winter, and I had some fun watching flying Pileated Woodpeckers and two Belted Kingfishers today. However, I also have a pair of cheap 10x50s, Barskas, which are almost as good. They are better than my Nikon Sporters for birds in flight. The trouble with the Barskas is that they have limited close focus, so as a one pair alone, the 8x40s have been the best in winter.

This will give me some ideas on what to look for in my NEXT LEVEL binoculars one of these years. I will reconsider porros as long as they are light. The Barskas are surprisingl light but probably not very waterproof.

My water resistant Sporters do withstand some rain, have tried it.
 
Tero said:
my NEXT LEVEL binoculars one of these years. QUOTE]

Don't go to the next level, go all the way.
In 8x, there are many good ones (more than in 10x), but few offer the image of 8x32 SE, the handling of 8x32 Swaro EL, or the "overall good" of the Zeiss FL 8x42. It's a personal choice, so take yer time and try them.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks. I have plans to stop at some stores out of town, as all we have are some sports stores and a chain camera store. This is a several years project, up to 4.
 
I am still struggling with 8x. I thought I was pretty AC/DC kind of 8x/10x guy and was enjoying my birds in flight with the wide field. But then I got the 10x Monarchs and no longer suffer from 10x dimness. Now that I start dreaming of some lighter models, not that the Monarchs are heavy, but it is mostly these kinds that I have in my 5 year plan to look at:
http://www.opticsplanet.net/zeiss-victory-fl-10x32-binoculars.html
http://www.opticsplanet.net/leica-10x32-bn-black-binoculars.html
Seems I will now settle for less than 400ft FOV. I can only be cured of this if someone comes up with a 9x that is up there with those. 8,5x will not do, I decided. I tried it out, 9x is the minimum where I enjoy distant birds, even warblers in woods.
 
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No, the best I have is the 8x40 Actions, for wide field effects. I have never tried any 7x premium binoculars even in a store. The 8x32s I tried indoors.
 
I tested an 8x and 10x for looking across the Mississippi on a sunny day. The 8x focused fast, and in fact I never mess with the diopter on this pair. The birds, gulls, were in focus, and so was the shore behind.

The 10x, not a fancy one, required more precise focsing to get the same clear image. I also had to check the diopter. The dimmer the bin, the more often I adjust the diopter. The birds were in focus, but could see no additional detail. When they flew, either bin worked the same, they were Ring Billed Gulls.

For medium distance, I prefer 10x, there I see detail. For really close, it does not matter.
***

Regarding my 5 year plan above, the 10x32 now very much a maybe maybe not. 10x40 is more like the goal for the BIG ONE.
 
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I always think that 8x and 10x serve different purposes:

If you want to identify as many birds as possible, you choose 10x.

If you want to enjoy yourself more, you choose 8x.

As you can probably tell from that I'm one of the '8x guys'. Maybe I can't identify all the distant shorebirds with my 8x that I could have done with 10x, but I can identify between 95-99% of everything, and as compensation for that unidentified 1-5% I get to pick more birds up (wider field of view - so I probably DO end up identifying more) and I also enjoy beautiful, bright, art-gallery views rather than joylessly dull and narrow ones.

I'm a Nikon HGL (LXL) 8x32 owner. I *used* to be a 10x guy, because I thought that identifying as many birds as possible was synonymous with maximising my enjoyment. Then I realised that those were two different things.
 
I have the Eagle Optics Ranger SRT 8x32 now. This came about because I for some reason still prefer roofs to porros. I decided to keep both.

I was out this morning with the Nikon Action EX 8x40s and Eagle Optics Ranger SRT 8x32. They are very similar. It is really hard to decide which is brighter. 42mm roofs are certainly brighter than either.

On a cloudy morning I had no problem identifying the birds. The Nikons work well with glasses on, standard glasses, not the close to the eye kind. The EO was useable, but fov was cut down. Without glasses I could not tell the difference in the fov of the Nikon, advertised as over 400, and the EO at 393ft. Sharpness and sweet spot was similar. If I had to pick one on sharpness, the EO maybe, but the Nikon had slightly bigger area in focus in the middle. Both have typical edge softness. Depth of field was similar.

I have had some trouble staring at things close up witht the porros for a long time, and the EO is very comfortable here. I can even hold it one handed. I was looking at mail box numbers on our street. The last one I could read, both had to be held two handed.

The EO at 19.2 Oz weight allows me to bring along another pair. With the porros I tend to go with them alone. I had a third pair, ProStaff 9x25. It worked as well as these two, but did not allow me to ID more sparrows. It in fact was not dim either.

I was able to follow a Belted Kingfisher and a Pileated Woodpecker in flight with the EO.

Rolling ball effect? Well, if you see it and it bothers you in wide field binoculars, I guess it would be similar. I was able to pan with both with no sea sickness effects.

I measured the ipd on the EO, it is roughly 58mm-75mm.

Summary: E0 is like the Monarch 8x32 that they never made. ;) Main advantage is compactness, comfort and roof prism feel.
 
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Here are three 8x pairs, the 8x40 Nikon porros, Eagle Optics 8x32 and Minolta pocket 8x25. The Minoltas one of my best non phase coated binoculars, not sold anymore.
 

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Tero

I just bought myself the Nikon Monarch 8 x 36. It was a step up from my very cheap 10x42 chinese roofs which are quite sharp but not that bright.
The Nikons are a revalation, they are very bright and pin sharp, I love them already.
The image is flat and sharp from edge to edge.
Yesterday in a hide a new Swarovski 8x32 owner and I exchange glasses. She's disappointed that she spent that amount of money on a pair of heavier glasses that are not nearly so bright and clear.

My only reservations are that the twist-up eye cups twist themselves down ( for eyeglass wearers its not a problem ), and the eyepiece lenscap comes off by itself. Small things, and acceptable.
 
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