Hi,
I'm new to this forum. I'm a biologist, mostly entomologist, not a serious birder. I do my bird trips every now and then, and my old porro 10x50 Soligor are no longer usable (fungi allover the prisms and slacky, misaligned focusing mechanism).
I was about to order the Nikon Monarch 10x42 (£200/$400/€300) when I came across the new "Binox" BV 10x42 BR. Incredibly cheap (£115/$230/€170), good looks (they state it's a VW design) and also weather sealed, nitrogen-filled fogproof, multi-coated glass, phase-corrected and a limited lifetime warranty (don't know whether that is only for the US, I've seen 30 years instead in european sites).
Analyzing both bins (official sites), the ridiculously low price is perhaps reflected on its weight (780g/27.5oz against 610g/21oz). The Minox boasts a super-close focusing, 4ft/1.2m, against a normal 8ft/2.4m provided by the Nikon (perhaps the Minox will be better for entomology?
How about the optics? Will they reflect the £85/$170/€125 difference?
Is the Nikon perhaps more ruggedly built?
Need some help! Thanks. Kind regards.
Israel
PS- don't aim for high-end optics (Leica, Zeiss or Swaro are beyond my reach), don't want to spend more than $400=€300=£200. But I sure would like some big improvement over my old Soligor (they had BaK7 prisms, not that bad).
I'm new to this forum. I'm a biologist, mostly entomologist, not a serious birder. I do my bird trips every now and then, and my old porro 10x50 Soligor are no longer usable (fungi allover the prisms and slacky, misaligned focusing mechanism).
I was about to order the Nikon Monarch 10x42 (£200/$400/€300) when I came across the new "Binox" BV 10x42 BR. Incredibly cheap (£115/$230/€170), good looks (they state it's a VW design) and also weather sealed, nitrogen-filled fogproof, multi-coated glass, phase-corrected and a limited lifetime warranty (don't know whether that is only for the US, I've seen 30 years instead in european sites).
Analyzing both bins (official sites), the ridiculously low price is perhaps reflected on its weight (780g/27.5oz against 610g/21oz). The Minox boasts a super-close focusing, 4ft/1.2m, against a normal 8ft/2.4m provided by the Nikon (perhaps the Minox will be better for entomology?
How about the optics? Will they reflect the £85/$170/€125 difference?
Is the Nikon perhaps more ruggedly built?
Need some help! Thanks. Kind regards.
Israel
PS- don't aim for high-end optics (Leica, Zeiss or Swaro are beyond my reach), don't want to spend more than $400=€300=£200. But I sure would like some big improvement over my old Soligor (they had BaK7 prisms, not that bad).