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Kahles 8x32 vs top Japanese brands-others (1 Viewer)

D

DHB

Well-known member
Has anyone compared the Kahles 8x32 against others? I have seen some the 8x32's for the $400 range which is close to the same price you see the top Japanese brands. Just wondering if they are worth the other $75 or so. Or are you just paying for the Austrian name.
Thanks
Dave
 
DHB said:
Has anyone compared the Kahles 8x32 against others? I have seen some the 8x32's for the $400 range which is close to the same price you see the top Japanese brands. Just wondering if they are worth the other $75 or so. Or are you just paying for the Austrian name.
Thanks
Dave
Click to expand...

It seems that Kahles binoculars are produced in japan
but their riflescopes are still produced in Austria (according to a retailer) but I am not 100% sure...

Still they could be good value for money...

their riflescopes seems to be well respected, i have heard, though i am not into hunting..
 
Kahles has moved 100% of their bino production to Austria and I think they are worth the extra money. If you want to save a few bucks, Minox is ver close in overall quality.

ranburr
 
kahles is not right

i 've had experince with the kahles bins and i find them to be very second rate i almost bought them and then 2 fellow birders bought them and i was very dissapointed with the view of these bins. one fo them returned theirs. if you have everlooked through a pair of pentax dcf sp or the wonderful nikon HG or LX 8 x32 those are alot better choices and still in the price range. minox is a little better than kahles but not by much. the kahles bins are not good optics. go japanese you wont need the rest and and you can spend some more money on going birding.
 
kahles is not right

i 've had experince with the kahles bins and i find them to be very second rate i almost bought them and then 2 fellow birders bought them and i was very dissapointed with the view of these bins. one fo them returned theirs. if you have everlooked through a pair of pentax dcf sp or the wonderful nikon HG or LX 8 x32 those are alot better choices and still in the price range. minox is a little better than kahles but not by much. the kahles bins are not good optics. go japanese you wont need the rest and and you can spend some more money on going birding. try the pentax dcf sp 8 x 32. you can get them in the states for around $350 new on ebay or 17st. photo in NY. And yes i heard they are being produced in Austria now.
 
My husband bought a pair of the Kahles bins a couple of years ago,and he was very impressed.Said they were very good value.Okay,they may not match up to Lieca or the Swar optics,but for the price,he said they were excellent.
 
iambirding, I think you need to have your vision checked. Kahles is an excellent product for the money. 90% of the performance of Leica, Zeiss, and Swaro for 50% of the cost. I consider that a great deal.

ranburr
 
ranburr

hey ranburr- let me express my opinion and you express yours. okay?
there no reason to go after me. lets not make it personal and make it just about the bins.
 
iambirding, I am not attempting to make anything personal. I meant it in a jovial manner. But I still could not disagree with you more. In my experience, Kahles exceeds the performance of the Pentax SPs. I like the Pentax, but they do not offer the ruggedness or low-light capabilities of the Kahles. I would also suggest that you steer clear of any NY or NJ based camera shops that are selling optics. The BBB complaints against most of these stores would use up all of your hard drive space. The best that you can hope for is a gray market product.

ranburr
 
iambirding said:
i 've had experince with the kahles bins and i find them to be very second rate i almost bought them and then 2 fellow birders bought them and i was very dissapointed with the view of these bins. one fo them returned theirs. if you have everlooked through a pair of pentax dcf sp or the wonderful nikon HG or LX 8 x32 those are alot better choices and still in the price range. minox is a little better than kahles but not by much. the kahles bins are not good optics. go japanese you wont need the rest and and you can spend some more money on going birding. try the pentax dcf sp 8 x 32. you can get them in the states for around $350 new on ebay or 17st. photo in NY. And yes i heard they are being produced in Austria now.
Click to expand...

What didn't you like about the view? Was it excessive flare, or low contrast, or poor resolution, or poor field of view, or excessive edge softness or something else?
 
my kahles experience

the two models i've tried were the kahles 8 x42 and the 10x 42 both were bright, field of view was narrow and resolution and crispness were not impressive. i cannot tell if they were japanese made or austrian but those 2 models i found to be a bit cloudy as far as resolution goes.

and yes i just had my eyes checked. 20/ 25

i hate to be the voice of contradiction but that is what i saw in the kahles. my pentax resolution and clarity were there and i did not feel they were lacking. and i believe pentax to be some of the brightest bins out there, obviously zeiss victory knocks it out of the park. but remember my first choice for bins was kahles and i decicded to go with pentax and i could afford either.

i've now decided to take it up a notch and go with the nikon venturer LX. i am happy with my pentax bins. out in the field and in my circle of birders they all agree pentax is the best mid priced roof bin that gets you very close to the best- swarovski, zeiss and nikon.

final say kahles is good but not the best in this price range.
 
shopping for bins

i endorse only buying from B & H in NY they provide serious service. the stores i mentioned before were for price points and i know alot of people that by on ebay. i dont but...

another company that has the best customer service i've ever had is binoculars.com. they actually have gone out checked a few pairs of bins by side and called me and told what they thought and extremely courteous. only complaint is usually it takes a while to receive products from them. binoculars.com price matches any serious retailer on the web.

lets remember that there are some people that think that there is a such thing as the "best" bins and others that believe there is no such thing and its a personal opinion as usual. i cant imagine someone buying a 1500 dollar pair of bins and being unhappy with it but it happens.

*remember the old philosophical argument that says if we all call something "blue" how do we know if it is really blue that we all see. we've all called it "blue" since we came to this planet but i doubt we all see it "blue".
 
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