Birding equipment purchasing mistakes. (1 Viewer)

senatore · Mar 12, 2005

I have only been birding for 18 months so that is my excuse!! The big mistakes I have made in trying to build up my birding "equipment are as follows:-

1. A pair of zoom binoculars (Sunagor I think 20 - 100 magnification) turned out to be virtually unusable.

2. A hide clamp that was cheap but was so heavy you needed a tractor to carry it between hides.

3. The Collins Bird Guide by Mullarney,Svensson,Zetterstrom and Grant.Why you ask Well the reason is a couple of weeks after buying it I got a free copy from Birdwatcing magazine for taking out a subsription.That really p***ed me off.

I have made some good buys including a pair of Nikon 8 X 32 HG bins at the offer price.

Have you made any buying errors.Let me know so I can feel better.

MAX.

Gill Osborne · Mar 12, 2005

LOL These things happen

....I'm sure everybody will soon be along to add their expensive tales of woe

I once got a scope and tripod in Newcastle, about three years ago, and everything was fine for the first few weeks as my husband was with me on a few birding trips. But the first time i went out on my own :eek!: ....I was virtually buckling under the weight of my tripod!!! Hadn't realised just HOW heavy it was...had to keep transferring it from one shoulder to the next and both were really sore by the end of the day! Especially as it was summer and I wasn't as well padded-out with jumpers/fleeces/coats as I am in mid-winter LOL
Got a much lighter tripod now....Hubby is not too keen on it but TOUGH! I'm not changing it and getting one that I'll need to take steroids to carry!

As to the Collins guide.....I have a pristine copy in the house for reference and another (free with Birdwatching subs too) which I keep in my rucksack and has notes written in it, odd muddy spots where I've dropped it,bus times written in back etc LOL

GILL

AUDIE · Mar 12, 2005

should know better

senatore said:
I have only been birding for 18 months so that is my excuse!! The big mistakes I have made in trying to build up my birding "equipment are as follows:-

1. A pair of zoom binoculars (Sunagor I think 20 - 100 magnification) turned out to be virtually unusable.

2. A hide clamp that was cheap but was so heavy you needed a tractor to carry it between hides.

3. The Collins Bird Guide by Mullarney,Svensson,Zetterstrom and Grant.Why you ask Well the reason is a couple of weeks after buying it I got a free copy from Birdwatcing magazine for taking out a subsription.That really p***ed me off.

I have made some good buys including a pair of Nikon 8 X 32 HG bins at the offer price.

Have you made any buying errors.Let me know so I can feel better.

MAX.

Yes MAX, buying nikon and leica optics when after 50 years of birding I should know better. Zeiss, first and last.

weather · Mar 12, 2005

Oh Christ! Where to begin...The one lesson learned is to buy the best you can afford, even if that means putting off a purchase for awhile to save up. I started with a cheap pair of bins that would flare-up when the sun was on the horrizon...and would look through a cheap field guide to ID any birds I did happen to see through the cheap glass. (Frustrating) I finally purchased a decent pair of Eagle Optics and a Sibley guide. Next was a scope. I didn't learn a damn thing from the bins. I wanted a scope now, but at the time could only buy a cheap Bushnell. It works...if you look through it at just the right angle, and again if the sun isn't setting. I still haven't remedied the scope problem yet, instead I'm focusing on upgrading my camera. Again I didn't learn, and went and bought a Fuji s5000, because it was cheap. It was alright to start with I guess, but just isn't getting me where I want to go. Going to fix that problem this weekend by getting a Nikon D70 with 70-300mm lens. I think I finally learned and will save up for a good scope next...Moral of the story...you will always want to upgrade, so by quality now, instead of later...

Mike

Gill Osborne · Mar 12, 2005

Yeah...quality always comes first. My first pair of bins, the 8X30's were ok but a few months down the line I bought a pair of Carl Zeiss 10X50's that were fantastic! Had them for about ten years until my flat got broken into and they were stolen.
Nowadays I use Opticron 8X42's and find them ok...but I'll be treating myself to a better, brighter, scope in the next year or so. My Opicron scope is c**p! Let's hardly any light through and is Soooooo frustrating to use when I'm trying to suss out what something is a few hundred yards out to sea!!! Sure it's cost me a few new ticks!!!

GILL

Andy Bright · Mar 12, 2005

A Kenko 8x32 monocular (1999?) adapted to be attached to digital cameras, photos looked lovely on the website selling them ... I learned quickly that a good looking web photos can be very deceptive when your goal is a decent print.

Realtree 'beanie' hat on ebay... fell apart after two weeks (it was a sily price though).

AndyC · Mar 12, 2005

Buying a 400mm f5.6 lens for a 35mm camera. Complete waste of time/money/effort. Darn thing was so heavy,about the same size as an anti-tank gun, it was nearly impossible to use in the field.

AndyC

devon.birder · Mar 12, 2005

A couple of years ago I paid over £40 for the EagleEye Image Locating Sight. The second time I used it I left it on the scope whilst I walked to the next bird and the top half fell off. Whilst I retraced my steps I could not find it. After several E Mails EagleEye offered to sell me a completely new Sight for £25. I accepted the offer but now I find that my new Swarovski scope is too short and I cannot even use it now. I never found it much good for digiscoping although it was good when raptor watching. Roger

weather · Mar 12, 2005

Andy Bright said:
A Kenko 8x32 monocular (1999?) adapted to be attached to digital cameras, photos looked lovely on the website selling them ... I learned quickly that a good looking web photos can be very deceptive when your goal is a decent print.

Realtree 'beanie' hat on ebay... fell apart after two weeks (it was a sily price though).

Oh yeah! I forgot about my most recent purchase...A 3x power lens for the Fuji. It's great...if you like a blue aura around the birds. The pics on the web site looked real good too.

Mike

delia todd · Mar 12, 2005

I was on holiday and decided I MUST HAVE A SCOPE NOW! and bought one from the only shop in town!

Three months later I lost the scope in the heather and never found it. The tripod head leaked a dripped gunge all over the place!

D

salty · Mar 12, 2005

senatore said:
I have only been birding for 18 months so that is my excuse!! The big mistakes I have made in trying to build up my birding "equipment are as follows:-

1. A pair of zoom binoculars (Sunagor I think 20 - 100 magnification) turned out to be virtually unusable.

i had the sunagor 10-40 x 50 bins, and even on a tripod they were well dodgy!, i had them a few months and dropped them, but seeing as they were nearly brand new i got them fixed - it cost £125 for the bins, and around £100 to fix them :eek!: .

i also had a pair of tasco futura bins that were terrible to view with.

my only recent nightmare was a cheap tripod to use with my new APO 77, it was so light that i couldnt use my scope above 20x because of the shakes! - happily useing a manfrotto one now, so everything is fine.

wilder · Mar 12, 2005

My main mistake was ingoring a fellow birdforumer when he said not to take up the offer of the 38x lens when I bought my Nikon ED78A, but to pay the extra and get a lower mag instead ('cos I wanted it for digiscoping). After nearly a year of struggling to get decent photos with the 38x, I have now got a 25x, and I see what he meant!

So, what have I learnt from this? Listen to the people who know, even if what they are saying doesn't seem to make sense!

Chris

Gerry Hooper · Mar 12, 2005

I've had magnification problems too.
When I bought my first pair of bins I had no idea what I was doing and chose a pair of 20X50 things.....Great for spotting Battleships leaving the North coast of France but useless for finding anything in a bush.

paj · Mar 12, 2005

Gerry Hooper said:
I've had magnification problems too.
When I bought my first pair of bins I had no idea what I was doing and chose a pair of 20X50 things.....Great for spotting Battleships leaving the North coast of France but useless for finding anything in a bush.

LOL.! That's good one Gerry.

michaelboustead · Mar 13, 2005

May be off the subject, but the pair of Merrell Hiking Boots that nearly killed my feet.

Mike

Steve Babbs · Mar 14, 2005

senatore said:
I have only been birding for 18 months so that is my excuse!! The big mistakes I have made in trying to build up my birding "equipment are as follows:-

1. A pair of zoom binoculars (Sunagor I think 20 - 100 magnification) turned out to be virtually unusable.

2. A hide clamp that was cheap but was so heavy you needed a tractor to carry it between hides.

3. The Collins Bird Guide by Mullarney,Svensson,Zetterstrom and Grant.Why you ask Well the reason is a couple of weeks after buying it I got a free copy from Birdwatcing magazine for taking out a subsription.That really p***ed me off.

I have made some good buys including a pair of Nikon 8 X 32 HG bins at the offer price.

Have you made any buying errors.Let me know so I can feel better.

MAX.

I presume you bought the nikons from warehouse express. If you did they were such a bargain they more than make up for your other mistakes, they were a good buy at the original price let alone at sub £400. I always have a copy of Mullarney et al. (which I got when I rejoined the rspb after a break) in the boot of the car as well as one at home.

My worst buys are:

tamron x2 converter which cost about £200, if I remember right it was about 12 years ago. When I used it with my sigma 400mm I couldn't see properly through the view finder. I may have got 1 or 2 decent shots with it but that was about all. I was a very hard up at the time alternating between world birding and working for 'peanuts' for the rspb.

a bushnell discover scope which I got when I was about 16. Not actually a bad scope but very expensive and no better than the one I had. Managed to get most of the money back on insurance when it snapped in half on the scilly isles 2 years later

best bargains a pair of leitz bins (as leica were know then) £220 second hand sold 5 years later for £180; my nikons bins and zeiss scope which were both warehouse express offers and a pair of bushnells bought on martinique when i lost my bins, not much good and they only lasted a year but I never got a bill from the credit card company for them and 20 years later I feel safe I won't

Steve

Birding equipment purchasing mistakes. (1 Viewer)

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