Birding bins advice please? (1 Viewer)

Hi

I am about to purchase a new 8X42 birding binocular but I dont want to break the bank. :-C
I was going to spend up to £350 so any advice would be wecome.


Cheers

Try before you buy - as many as you can up to your max purchase price. Go for the ones that you like best over all - Simples!

Also check out the second hand bins on offer - I've just listed a pair!!!!!!! (not 8x42 tho')

Perry

If you can get to the Bird Fair at Rutland water next weekend there will be plenty of pairs to try.

David

I was looking at these this morning in London camera exchange.

Opticron 8X42 Verano BGA PC Oasis.

They look and feel very good but they only had the 10X42s in stock.

The Verano is a very reasonable pair, but an upgrade has been announced for this autumn so look out for discounts. Some others you might consider are the Nikon Monarch MkIII, Hawke Frontier ED, Bushnell Legend Ultra HD, (search the forum) and possibly Helios Nirvana. The latter is also sold as the Eden ED reviewed here:
http://www.birdforum.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/339/limit/recent

David

PS. Over budget but worth the extra ex-demo Minox HG:
http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/minox_bino/minox_bino_fs.html

My suggestions were going to mirror Typo's. I am usually not good with the exchange rate between our two countries but I do remember a previous post that listed the Hawke Frontier EDs as within your price range. And, since they are, then the Bushnell Legend Ultras must be as well. I have owned both and was very impressed by their performance in the center of the field. The edges leave a bit to be desired but are not distracting nor do they take away from the overall enjoyment of the view.

typo said:

The Verano is a very reasonable pair, but an upgrade has been announced for this autumn so look out for discounts. Some others you might consider are the Nikon Monarch MkIII, Hawke Frontier ED, Bushnell Legend Ultra HD, (search the forum) and possibly Helios Nirvana. The latter is also sold as the Eden ED reviewed here:
http://www.birdforum.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/339/limit/recent

David

PS. Over budget but worth the extra ex-demo Minox HG:
http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/minox_bino/minox_bino_fs.html

Click to expand...

David,

Renze, in his review, is referring to the Eden HD's, the Eden ED's are referred to by him in the link at the bottom. Did you mean these? That link goes to my review of the Eden 8x42 ED.

The Eden ED's I have no more, because of the flawed diopter ring, situated at the rear of the focus wheel. The plastic thing broke down after a week. The company I got them from, has offered to try the new Eden 8x42 XP, I expect to receive a sample tomorrow, or monday, and I'm looking forward to try these upgraded Edens. With diëlectric coatings the alledged light transmission of 90 % in the XP's outperforms the Eden HD as well as ED. We'll see, I'm quite impressed by the service the company has offered, by giving me the opportunity to renew my acquaintance with the Eden brand.

Best regards,

Ronald

As well as all the excellent foregoing advice, have a look at the classifieds, someone is selling a Hawke Frontier ED 8x36. Nice binos, and you'd have a lot of spare change from your budget.

Ronald,

Thanks for putting me straight.

David

Cashie said:

Hi

I am about to purchase a new 8X42 birding binocular but I dont want to break the bank. :-C
I was going to spend up to £350 so any advice would be wecome.


Cheers

Click to expand...

Is waterproofing a must? If not, someone posted a link not long ago to a store in the UK selling a Nikon 8x30 EII about about the same price as your budget. I doubt if any 8x42 roof at that price point can beat it optically.

As far as some of the roof recommendations... I did not like the 8x Hawke ED one bit. Neither did the salesperson who showed them to me - two samples. They could have been two bad samples, but the view through both were identical, so that seem unlikely.

The image was "hard to hold". Not sure what was wrong with them, didn't use them that long, just long enough to find out they were not for me. Something very unnatural about the view- perhaps excessive pincushion or not enough. Hard to get both bins focused properly, though they did not appear to be miscollimated. The image also seemed darker than the non-ED Frontier, which is counter intuitive.

The non-ED open bridge 8x42 Hawke model (which was selling for a hundred less than the ED - around 122 GBP) put up a better image. It was a bit shorter than the ED model and had longer ER. My one dislike is that the "open" bridge was partially occluded by "bumps" on either side of the bridige, which extended into the open space unlike the ED version, which was similar in design to the ZR ED2.

The 8x42 Monarch ATB (or III) was bright and sharp, but the FOV seemed cramped compared to the Hawke (6.3* vs. 7.7*).

I told the salesman that I had read reports of the Monarch's eyecups coming loose. He said his own pair had a loose eyecup, which he planned sending in for repairs.

If I had to choose btwn those three roofs, the non-ED Hawkes would be my pick, and its well within your budget.

The Hawke and the Monarch had sharp, bright, constrasty images with good color saturation. I'm impressed with what's possible at below $300 these days, thanks to cheap Chinese labor and improved lens and prism coatings.

The 8x30 EII has a wider FOV than either roof, larger "sweet spot," better contrast, and at least as good color saturation (didn't compare them side by side, I had my 10x42 SE with me). It's not full sized, but the brightness, at least on my unit, is surprisingly good. Think I got a "cherry".

Even as goo as the Monarch and Hawke were for their price point, you'd still have to pay three or four times as much to match the image quality of the 8x30 EII or 8x32 SE in a roof.

I haven't tried the Leupold Golden Ring 8x42, but the reviews have been very positive. They have been discontinued, but you might find some "old" new stock at a discounted price.

Check out the archives for reviews, the GRs got quite a "buzz" for a while on BF.

Brock

Thanks guys

I will check some of these recomendations out if they are all available localy, if not I might take a trip into London where there will be loads to choose from.



Regards

"...if not I might take a trip into London where there will be loads to choose from."

There aren't that many good optics specialists in London - LCE in the Strand and Widescreen Centre to the north are two that come to mind and there are a few Jacobs stores that have a selection of optics but it's not as good as heading for somewhere with a view. If you're going to travel, you might be better off heading to somewhere like In Focus near St Albans or at the WWT site at Barnes in south London.

Cheers, Pete

The Hawke Frontier ED have been mentioned a few times here and I can assure you they are right up there with the more expensive offerings. Sherwoods are doing a deal on them atm and the 10 X 43 (usually the most expensive of the set) are going for £250. In my opinion this will be hard to beat both in value and performance.

Thanks again for your help guys.

I have bought the Hawke 8X43 frontier HDs, they are so bright & sharp for the price, I've been in the garden testing them out & they realy impress.



Cheers

Well I have been out birding with a friend & the hawke 8X43 seem 10 times better than my old 7X35 pentax porro's.

My friend has a pair of Zen ray ED2 that he bought in the states that look almost identical , so I compared them with my Hakes, the only difference I could see was the colour, the Zens were slightly colder looking, so maybe that could be down to the coatings.
I'm very pleased with my hawkes & would recommend them very highly.


Cheers