curvecrazy
Well-known member
Hi everybody. Name is George from Buffalo NY. Just got into optics in the last few months. I briefly got into optics about 25 years ago when I was trying to buy a good set of binoculars as a late teenager. I had tried some binoculars which I found to be good [ I could see through them??? LOL ] and when I attempted to buy a pair of binoculars for myself I quickly found out that doing so was at that time out of my affordable price range.
So fast forward to the current and I have a set of Cabelas Alaskan Guide binoculars bought for me as a gift which had been working OK. I truely did not realize how bad the click detent focus design was = honest. Unfortunately, the giftee [ girlfriend ] has gotten into birding so that left me "going along" without binoculars cause we have different eyesights and I wear glasses her contacts. It was a hassle sharing and I was getting tired of standing there while she would Oooh and Ahhhh ba ha. I decided to get my own and ended up embarking on a journey.
So I poured through endless posts on various sites the majority on birdforum. A quick thank you to all of you for the help/direction that provided me!!! As I would have been clueless without the incites on here to buy good binoculars. I ended up with a nice set of Nikon SE's 8X32's from Angelo whom some of you may know [California member]. So these are very good for my uses and I am happy although it would be nice if they were waterproof. LOL Anyways. I've digressed.
Now, naturally, after obtaining skymaster 15X binoculars too - which I will probably return - due to not liking the cheapness of them[ eyepieces flex back and forth though my collimation is good ], I am in the market for a good spotting scope. Due to "our" inability to see far distant birds for identification and enjoyment. $3K ??? Wow!! Back to the old days of non-affordability I go. No, I can actually afford that now but what I can not do is to justify that. Especially considering she has a bad habit of getting into things and out of things on a whim but she has no patent on that. Just saying would like to minimize my cost exposure but get something decent for off overlooks and whatnot. So again, many hours or research. ie... I do like looking at birds, really, but I spend more time on the net reading reviews and not birding. ???
So here I am on the site now formally. I had/have been lurking for 5 weeks or more. I never really thought I would like birding but its been fun and gives "us" something we can do together outdoors that's exercise so its good.
So I will be posting shortly with questions and quandaries. Naturally, there are no dealers in Buffalo where I can go to handpick optics so its all via internet. You probably agree, not the best way to get good optics. Cause even once you get the optic you don't have anything to compare it to and so the difficulty in knowing you got a good one or something "good" as the case may be. I really only have the 8X32's to compare image quality to so at least that's something. My eyes are at 20/20 corrected as of this week so I can see. Can't say the same for her............ Anyways.
Glad to be here and hope to meet a few of you. George
So fast forward to the current and I have a set of Cabelas Alaskan Guide binoculars bought for me as a gift which had been working OK. I truely did not realize how bad the click detent focus design was = honest. Unfortunately, the giftee [ girlfriend ] has gotten into birding so that left me "going along" without binoculars cause we have different eyesights and I wear glasses her contacts. It was a hassle sharing and I was getting tired of standing there while she would Oooh and Ahhhh ba ha. I decided to get my own and ended up embarking on a journey.
So I poured through endless posts on various sites the majority on birdforum. A quick thank you to all of you for the help/direction that provided me!!! As I would have been clueless without the incites on here to buy good binoculars. I ended up with a nice set of Nikon SE's 8X32's from Angelo whom some of you may know [California member]. So these are very good for my uses and I am happy although it would be nice if they were waterproof. LOL Anyways. I've digressed.
Now, naturally, after obtaining skymaster 15X binoculars too - which I will probably return - due to not liking the cheapness of them[ eyepieces flex back and forth though my collimation is good ], I am in the market for a good spotting scope. Due to "our" inability to see far distant birds for identification and enjoyment. $3K ??? Wow!! Back to the old days of non-affordability I go. No, I can actually afford that now but what I can not do is to justify that. Especially considering she has a bad habit of getting into things and out of things on a whim but she has no patent on that. Just saying would like to minimize my cost exposure but get something decent for off overlooks and whatnot. So again, many hours or research. ie... I do like looking at birds, really, but I spend more time on the net reading reviews and not birding. ???
So here I am on the site now formally. I had/have been lurking for 5 weeks or more. I never really thought I would like birding but its been fun and gives "us" something we can do together outdoors that's exercise so its good.
So I will be posting shortly with questions and quandaries. Naturally, there are no dealers in Buffalo where I can go to handpick optics so its all via internet. You probably agree, not the best way to get good optics. Cause even once you get the optic you don't have anything to compare it to and so the difficulty in knowing you got a good one or something "good" as the case may be. I really only have the 8X32's to compare image quality to so at least that's something. My eyes are at 20/20 corrected as of this week so I can see. Can't say the same for her............ Anyways.
Glad to be here and hope to meet a few of you. George
