Help much appreciated (1 Viewer)

Hey guys,
I hope someone can help me out their. I am a keen angler and am looking to purchase a pair of binoculars for both day use and night time use. Firstly i've seen a pair called sakura 20-180x70 that claim to be pretty good at night(with the right conditions) they are priced at £40. I would be willing to pay £60 max for the right pair, obviously you guys use more expensive gear than what i'm after. the lakes i fish i rarely need to observe the water at more than 50 meters. Would i be better off with a spotter/monocular???? Would night vision spot moving fish on the surface of a lake at night??? Do zoom binoculars at this price work well??

Any help on these queries would be very helpfull, as i would like to get it right first time without having to go through lots of pairs to find the right one.

many thanks Jake

Having had some experience with zoom binos, they are not as good as they sound. If you want something that will be good in low light then don't go for a zoom. The greater the magnification as you zoom in on something the darker the view reaching your eye. For low light use you need the pair of binos with at least a 40 mm objective lens (the bigger this lens the more light enters the binos). As for magification I would consider anything between 7 and 12 X.

So I would look at
8x40
7x50
10x50
12x50

You might also consider
20x60 (but these will be on the heavy side)

You could also get away with 16x50

Good advice from Andy. He is being too nice about the Zooms though.

It's a very good bet that any 20/180 x 70 Zoom is going to be lousy in the day time and even worse at night and it certainly will require a tripod. In fact, a tripod would be a good idea for use with any binocular with a magnification of greater than 10x.

Cordially,
Bob