Hawke Nature Trek 10x42 or Nikon aculon? (1 Viewer)

Hi, I'm very much a newbie and have a limited budget to get a pair of binoculars to start with. I'll upgrade when I can. I don't really know enough to know what matters, but they need to be able to be used with glasses and help me to see birds in trees and at a distance. I only really had about £50 to spend, but I am thinking I'll go up to £70 as maximum. I understand it's best to try lots, but I need to buy online. I am pretty sure I want 8-10 x 40-50

Top of my list at the moment are Hawke Nature Trek 10x42 which I've seen for a good price. Are they okay?

Then I saw Nikon Aculon but these only have 11mm eye relief which I think is not enough for glasses? Similar for the cheap Olympus I've seen. I was looking for Opticron, but looks like I'd need to spend at least £90 for a good pair of them.

Is there a pair I'm not aware of within this limited budget? I will upgrade in time, but for now I just want to see some birds

Thanks

Welcome Tuibird.
Do you actually need your glasses with a binocular?
If you only need the glasses for short or long sight and don't have much astigmatism, it may be O.K. to use the binocular without glasses. It depends how strong the glasses are.
If your glasses are small and thin frame, then they may work with binoculars.

Perhaps the Opticron can be found in budget?

If you have a charity shop nearby they may have something, but check carefully for alignment of the two barrels and use a torch to make sure there is no fungus or moisture inside the binocular. Many charity shop binoculars have faults. Some don't.
Boot fairs also bring surprising bargains, but time is needed and great care.

Old Soviet binoculars are often good, but may have short eye relief.

Regards,
B.

Binastro said:

Welcome Tuibird.
Do you actually need your glasses with a binocular?
If you only need the glasses for short or long sight and don't have much astigmatism, it may be O.K. to use the binocular without glasses. It depends how strong the glasses are.
If your glasses are small and thin frame, then they may work with binoculars.

Perhaps the Opticron can be found in budget?

If you have a charity shop nearby they may have something, but check carefully for alignment of the two barrels and use a torch to make sure there is no fungus or moisture inside the binocular. Many charity shop binoculars have faults. Some don't.
Boot fairs also bring surprising bargains, but time is needed and great care.

Old Soviet binoculars are often good, but may have short eye relief.

Regards,
B.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply Binastro. I have astigmatism so do need to wear my glasses while using binoculars.

Do you not think the Hawke ones are any good?

I don't think I have enough experience v with binoculars to properly assess used pairs. I have a battered pair of tiny nikons I got from ebay that aren't clear and strong enough, and a cheap pair I found at a car boot that are better but I struggle to focus them. I guess they're better than nothing but I wanted to upgrade a little bit then as I get a bit more experience save up for really good ones.

I don't have personal experience of the Hawke, so cannot comment.
I have the Aculon 10x42, which is good, at least the one I have. But I don't wear glasses.

Can you try the Hawke to see if it is suitable?

B.

Hi,

first of all, welcome to BF!

Nikon is known to have ok quality in all price ranges, the Aculons being no exceptions.

I can't really comment on the Hawke pair as I don't know it. The specs sound nice, phase coating is not sth usually found in $100 bins. The few reviews out there are also not bad. It's made in China, which is not necessarily a bad thing - nowadays you get pretty much the quality you specified and paid for from there...
Sample variation might exist (also in very expensive models), so buying in person or from a business with a good return policy is advised. If you get it, we might like a quick review...

Any specific reason why you want a 10x pair - usually 8x is used for general birding with 10x being for specialist use like seawatch or raptors. The instability of the image at 10x offsets the higher magnification for most users.

Joachim

Welcome to birdforum, hopefully you will find some good information on here.

I'm afraid I can't advise on either the hawke or nikon binoculars as I haven't used them, but broadly speaking, both companies make good optics over a diverse price range.

Here are some alternatives and considerations for you.

At the lower end of the price range, porro prism binoculars will always offer better value for money, as long as you can live with the shape and relative bulk of their design.
A key question is when are you likely to be using your binoculars? Unless you are birding around dawn and dusk, a 32mm binocular may be a better option.
There are a few new options just slightly over your budget, for example the Opticron Adventurer series (porro or roof) are both available for under £80 new and have 15mm eye relief and fov of 142m or 20mm eye relief and 108 fov respectively.

Another option would be to look at the used market, as long as you are buying from a reputable dealer who accepts returns, you should be fine and also be able to get even better value for money. Here are a pair of old fashioned but still competent performers for well inside your budget - I owned a pair as backup for a while and they worked well with my glasses. If you wanted something a bit more robust, perhaps have a look at these bushnell binoculars. A slightly higher spec pair of Opticron are available for £80 here. If you are birding in forest, you may want to consider lower magnification binoculars such as these.

Hope this helps and enjoy your birding!

I second swatsonbirder comment on size. IMHO, unless you are doing a lot of dusk/dawn birding, the 42 format will be pretty bulky, and x32 will offer most of the performance at a fraction of size and weight, usually giving a little more field of view.
A porro 8x30/32 can be bright and light to carry. There are some heavy discounts on discontinued Eagle Optics Kingbird 6.5 or 8.5 x 32 that can be had for nearly your budget. Otherwise, the Kowa 8x30 YF is a bit more expensive but I think it is 100 % worth saving for that. Nothing is more disencouraging than a bulky and unfriendly pair of binoculars that you just don't feel like carrying around; and nothing more rewarding than a pair of binoculars you feel confident with and that you just can't help grabbing (the Kowa YF 8x30 belong to this category in my experience). I have better binoculars, but whenever I grab these, I just have to smile. I had the Acculon (in 7x35, not 8x42) and the view was nice, but the eyecups where pretty shallow and they fogged up easily because the eyes were so close. Plus they're not waterproof, and they were a bit bulky.

In short: think about size. Is x42 really necessary? For maximizing value go down the porro road. Think about a little investment that will pay dividends in years and years of pleasure. Enjoy!

Tuibird,

You are getting lots of good advice here from others. Based on what you say, I agree, at 50 to 70 pound sterling an 8x30/32 porro prism would be a very good bet for you. Yarrellii makes a good recommendation above: I bought a Kowa YF 8x30 as gift for a friend and tested it a bit before gifting. It is an excellent bin for the price, USD $100. It has 15.5 to 16 ER (depending on where you read) which should be just enough for use with most glasses. In any case, don't get a bin with less than 15mm eye relief since you need to use glasses. The only downside to the YF is the close focus is only about 16 to 17 feet. But for the money it is a great starter binocular. Hope this helps.

Mike