Advice please...
A couple of years ago I was looking for binoculars for other half and self, and, having scoured online reviews and dealers in an attempt to keep the budget down finally went for a pair of Barr & Stroud 8x42 Sierras for her at around £80, and, that being the only 8x42 Sierra the supplier had, I opted for the 10x50 version.
Apart from being a very amateur but enthusiastic birdwatcher I’m an extremely amateur... er... skywatcher (why does that sound familiar?), so the 10x50s seemed to fit the bill in both camps.
Time moving on, and having in the interim also purchased a Canon Powershot SX40 HS, by use of which the quality of my bird photos has increased dramatically- inasmuch as I’m actually now able to zoom in and show detail rather than point to a fuzzy blob on my MacBook screen and say: “No, it really IS a green woodpecker...”, I feel I should also up the ante optics-wise. (I keep meaning to post photos on Birdforum by the way-including some taken on Lundy earlier this year, but apparently need to reduce their size. Is there an easy way of doing this?)
The Canon was a compromise between 1) getting high quality DSLR images using the relevant equivalent zoom lens or 2) being able to take reasonable quality pictures and still be able to afford to eat for the rest of the year. And the year after that.
My next set of binoculars would also have to follow the same criteria, and I’m thinking of somewhere in the lower region of £200- £300, obviously looking for bargains / best value in the process, and preferably something in the region of 8X40 (or 42 as in the case of my good lady’s Sierras), i.e. smaller. The image of the 8X42 is to my eyes that much brighter, and has about an 80 foot advantage, field-of-view-wise.
Back to optics. Having driven myself crazy once more in search of that ultimate bargain, I’m again finding that just as I think I’ve got somewhere, it only takes one odd remark in a forum to shoot my enthusiasm down in flames.
Things like (despite several people raving about a particular product): ‘I had two of these and they were both faulty’, ‘The eye relief is not long enough’, ‘I found too much chromatic aberration around the edge of the field of view’, ‘I would have expected better at this price level’.
The last one there being an opinion rather than a verifiable fact I guess, and I’m not sure what they’d be comparing it against in the first place (well, yes, binoculars obviously...).
I’m seeing some absolute bargains around- a couple of the best ones being in America, which sadly, for the purposes of this particular thread, is not where I am. Do they even SELL Zhumells or Zen-Rays over here in Blighty?
There’s also the nagging doubt that if something seems an absolute bargain, is it really such a bargain? Could it be an older or newer version of the bins everyone’s been raving about? And don't you hate it when there's often a crucial piece of information missing when you're comparing one pair with another, be it twilight rate or prism or lens quality?
I was also looking to not buy Chinese binoculars for a change, hoping to get something with Japanese or German optics- and now of course there’s the buzz about how good Chinese optics are getting, at a fraction of the cost of said Japanese and German optics- the Celestron Granite being a case in point. So, back to the drawing board on that line of thought...
To cut this shorter (an approach many of you reading this will by now be wishing I’d adopted at the beginning of this post), I’m currently hovering in the area of the following, based on such aspects as ED glass, generally favourable reviews and offers. The primary use will be birdwatching.
Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 8 x 42
Hawke Frontier ED 8 x 43 or 8 x 36
Eagle Optics 6 x 32 Ranger SRT
VANGUARD Spirit ED 8 x 42
Helios Aero ED 8 x 42
Steiner Skyhawk Pro 8 x 32
I’ve also been considering Vortex, Opticron and Nikon too.
And every so often up would pop something like the Hilkinson Hawk 7 x 42 Japanese optic-ed stalking binoculars. Are they any good?
The list above is a much reduced version of the possibles I’ve been mulling over. Are the choices I’ve made the right side of wise, or should I re-think? And is it better to get 8 X 42 or 8 X 32s or smaller? How do the smaller bins handle twilight?
There is also the matter of different brand names being applied to essentially the same binocular. Does anybody have any useful (money saving!) hints in that area? Is there a rough guide to this anywhere on Birdforum?
And should I be looking to the higher end of the £200- £300 scale- or is there adequate scope (no pun intended) at the lower end?
Sorry to have gone on, but I hope a healthy debate ensues- so perhaps even if there’s no definitive answer I may at least have an idea of what NOT to buy!
Cheers,
Peabee
A couple of years ago I was looking for binoculars for other half and self, and, having scoured online reviews and dealers in an attempt to keep the budget down finally went for a pair of Barr & Stroud 8x42 Sierras for her at around £80, and, that being the only 8x42 Sierra the supplier had, I opted for the 10x50 version.
Apart from being a very amateur but enthusiastic birdwatcher I’m an extremely amateur... er... skywatcher (why does that sound familiar?), so the 10x50s seemed to fit the bill in both camps.
Time moving on, and having in the interim also purchased a Canon Powershot SX40 HS, by use of which the quality of my bird photos has increased dramatically- inasmuch as I’m actually now able to zoom in and show detail rather than point to a fuzzy blob on my MacBook screen and say: “No, it really IS a green woodpecker...”, I feel I should also up the ante optics-wise. (I keep meaning to post photos on Birdforum by the way-including some taken on Lundy earlier this year, but apparently need to reduce their size. Is there an easy way of doing this?)
The Canon was a compromise between 1) getting high quality DSLR images using the relevant equivalent zoom lens or 2) being able to take reasonable quality pictures and still be able to afford to eat for the rest of the year. And the year after that.
My next set of binoculars would also have to follow the same criteria, and I’m thinking of somewhere in the lower region of £200- £300, obviously looking for bargains / best value in the process, and preferably something in the region of 8X40 (or 42 as in the case of my good lady’s Sierras), i.e. smaller. The image of the 8X42 is to my eyes that much brighter, and has about an 80 foot advantage, field-of-view-wise.
Back to optics. Having driven myself crazy once more in search of that ultimate bargain, I’m again finding that just as I think I’ve got somewhere, it only takes one odd remark in a forum to shoot my enthusiasm down in flames.
Things like (despite several people raving about a particular product): ‘I had two of these and they were both faulty’, ‘The eye relief is not long enough’, ‘I found too much chromatic aberration around the edge of the field of view’, ‘I would have expected better at this price level’.
The last one there being an opinion rather than a verifiable fact I guess, and I’m not sure what they’d be comparing it against in the first place (well, yes, binoculars obviously...).
I’m seeing some absolute bargains around- a couple of the best ones being in America, which sadly, for the purposes of this particular thread, is not where I am. Do they even SELL Zhumells or Zen-Rays over here in Blighty?
There’s also the nagging doubt that if something seems an absolute bargain, is it really such a bargain? Could it be an older or newer version of the bins everyone’s been raving about? And don't you hate it when there's often a crucial piece of information missing when you're comparing one pair with another, be it twilight rate or prism or lens quality?
I was also looking to not buy Chinese binoculars for a change, hoping to get something with Japanese or German optics- and now of course there’s the buzz about how good Chinese optics are getting, at a fraction of the cost of said Japanese and German optics- the Celestron Granite being a case in point. So, back to the drawing board on that line of thought...
To cut this shorter (an approach many of you reading this will by now be wishing I’d adopted at the beginning of this post), I’m currently hovering in the area of the following, based on such aspects as ED glass, generally favourable reviews and offers. The primary use will be birdwatching.
Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 8 x 42
Hawke Frontier ED 8 x 43 or 8 x 36
Eagle Optics 6 x 32 Ranger SRT
VANGUARD Spirit ED 8 x 42
Helios Aero ED 8 x 42
Steiner Skyhawk Pro 8 x 32
I’ve also been considering Vortex, Opticron and Nikon too.
And every so often up would pop something like the Hilkinson Hawk 7 x 42 Japanese optic-ed stalking binoculars. Are they any good?
The list above is a much reduced version of the possibles I’ve been mulling over. Are the choices I’ve made the right side of wise, or should I re-think? And is it better to get 8 X 42 or 8 X 32s or smaller? How do the smaller bins handle twilight?
There is also the matter of different brand names being applied to essentially the same binocular. Does anybody have any useful (money saving!) hints in that area? Is there a rough guide to this anywhere on Birdforum?
And should I be looking to the higher end of the £200- £300 scale- or is there adequate scope (no pun intended) at the lower end?
Sorry to have gone on, but I hope a healthy debate ensues- so perhaps even if there’s no definitive answer I may at least have an idea of what NOT to buy!
Cheers,
Peabee
Helios 7x50 Fieldmaster porro we keep at the kitchen window, which is OK. This roof prism bias has certainly influenced my short list choices.