borregobirds
Linda
Anybody have any opinions on these? :h?:
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Nikon Monarch ATB 10x42 Waterproof Binoculars (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter borregobirds
- Start date
Like my Monarch
For three years I have had a pair of NIkon Monarch 8X42. I like them very much. If you wear glasses, be aware that the eye refief is less on the 10s then on the 8s. I also have a pair of Nikon Premier LX L 8X32 and Pentax DSf SP 10X50. The Premier and DSF are both brighter, sharper, and have more contrast than the Monarchs. I have never tried the 10X42, but for the price Monarchs are hard to beat.
IMO Monarchs are great glasses, but you can not expect a $260 pair of binos to be comparable to binos costing much more. IMO if you do not want to spend more than $300, then you will get great binos with the Monarch.
If, however, you can afford more you might consider moving up to the Pentax DSF or the Nikon Premier, or the a Leica or Zeiss.
Good luck,
Lew
borregobirds said:
For three years I have had a pair of NIkon Monarch 8X42. I like them very much. If you wear glasses, be aware that the eye refief is less on the 10s then on the 8s. I also have a pair of Nikon Premier LX L 8X32 and Pentax DSf SP 10X50. The Premier and DSF are both brighter, sharper, and have more contrast than the Monarchs. I have never tried the 10X42, but for the price Monarchs are hard to beat.
IMO Monarchs are great glasses, but you can not expect a $260 pair of binos to be comparable to binos costing much more. IMO if you do not want to spend more than $300, then you will get great binos with the Monarch.
If, however, you can afford more you might consider moving up to the Pentax DSF or the Nikon Premier, or the a Leica or Zeiss.
Good luck,
Lew
borregobirds
Linda
Lewie said:
I can find Pentax DCF Sp 10X50....are those what you mean?
Thanks for the quick responce!!!
borregobirds said:
I am sorry. Yes DCF SP 10X50. The DCF SP also comes in 8X32, 8X43, and
10X43. The 10X50 is a little longer and heavier than the 10X43. Also, the neck strap that comes with the DCF SP is very thin and therefore hard on the neck. Everyone I know who as purchased a Pentax has ordered a new neck strap. Also be aware that because of the larger objective lens size, the 10X50s have a more narrow field of vision. If the new pair of binos would be your main or only pair, you might prefer the 10X43 (or other 10X42) to the
10X50; you might find it hard to track birds in the woods with a 10X50.
borregobirds
Linda
Lewie said:
Ordered the 10X50 off Amazon today. Think they'll meet our needs. No woods....open desert watching! Mainly from our backyard which has lots of desert to view from! And lots of birds and other wildlife. Watched a roadrunner the other day.
Thanks for your help! Really apprciate it!
olivewarbler
third generation birder
Nikon 10X42
The Nikon 10x42 binocs are fantastic. I had an older pair I bought in 1998 and then in 2003 they fell off the top of my daughter's stroller as we were walking through the desert. Nikon gave me the brand new waterproof Monarch no questions asked. I didn't even have the receipt.
The performace is outstanding. The optics provide a super-clear image and they focus very close. I highly recommend them to anybody.
Matthew Gable
[email protected]
currently residing in: Dapa, Yumbo, Valle, Colombia
formerly resided in: Tucson, Arizona, USA
borregobirds said:
The Nikon 10x42 binocs are fantastic. I had an older pair I bought in 1998 and then in 2003 they fell off the top of my daughter's stroller as we were walking through the desert. Nikon gave me the brand new waterproof Monarch no questions asked. I didn't even have the receipt.
The performace is outstanding. The optics provide a super-clear image and they focus very close. I highly recommend them to anybody.
Matthew Gable
[email protected]
currently residing in: Dapa, Yumbo, Valle, Colombia
formerly resided in: Tucson, Arizona, USA
FrankD
Well-known member
I have owned 3 pairs of the 10x42 Monarchs. The first pair, a black one purchased a year and a half ago, was absolutely excellent. They rekindled my interest for good, quality binoculars. Two subsequent purchases of the camo 10x42 yielded less than desirable results. Both really had a small "sweet spot" and highly noticeable bending at the edge of the field. I returned both.
Now I see they just came out with a 12x42 model....I wish they would have went in the other direction and came out with an 8x32 instead.
Now I see they just came out with a 12x42 model....I wish they would have went in the other direction and came out with an 8x32 instead.
FrankD said:
Aha! I'm not the only one! I just looked at the Monarch 10x42's again today and couldn't stand looking though them. I don't know if it was just that pair or not, but the bending at the edge of the field (right and left, not up and down) drove me crazy. I even compared them to a new pair of cheapo Bushnell Insta-Focus 10x50's (which is what I currently us) and they did not have the distortion.
I called Eagle Optics to ask about the Celestron Nobles compared to the Monarchs and he said people almost always chose the Monarchs in head to head tests at the store. I just don't get it. Is it the nature of the 10x42 setup? Or is Nikon quality highly variable?
FrankD
Well-known member
I think the Quality Control at this price point is less than what many of us would like to believe....and it definitely isn't only a Nikon issue. I also looked through a pair of 8x32 Legends last night and was really disappointed in the overall image. Eight months ago I owned a pair of the same binoculars and had a hard time telling the difference in image quality between them and my cherry 10x42 Monarchs.
Go figure.
As always, ask to handle several units and only leave the store with the exact unit of the model you are happy with.
I think the Monarchs are one of the best binos at that price point but you really have to be weary of quality control.
FrankD said:
Over the weekend I bought a pair of Nikon Monarch 10x42 ATBs for $279US.
I looked at four pairs of them and liked two of the four. So I took the last ones I touched, paid, and walked out onto the Mendocino coast to look at shorebirds and everything else I could see.
After about 15 minutes I noticed something weird. One of the barrels was not as bright as the other and had a slight blue tint compared to the other. After opening and closeing each eye and looking through the each barrel with different eyes I determined I wasn't seeing things. After another 15 minutes deliberating what to do, I went back to the store and Marilyn, one of the owners of Out of this World (a great optics shop in Mendocino), allowed me to look through the other pairs, to figure out which was the other pair I liked.
After re-admitting (a forced confessional in order to look through several sets) that I must be obsessive compulsive, she let me have the other pair.
I don't know if I'm happy with them or not. All of them had the difference in brightness to some extent--the ones I chose had the least. And all of them had color fringing--the two I picked had the least. But there just seems to be something kind of weird about them. Maybe it is that my eyes are not used to the extra contrast in bright sunlight that I never got with my $50 Bushnells. Maybe the parallax is slightly off. I don't know. Maybe I do suffer from OCD.
I suppose the full days of Hawk Watching will affirm whether I am completely saisfied or not. I am at least convinced that they are far clearer and sharper than my Bushnells and that the diopter does not move as my nose presses on the eyepiece.
I'll keep you all posted.
FrankD
Well-known member
I do not know if this is the same thing but several folks have commented that on some occasions they tend to see two different color tendencies with any given pair of binoculars. For me it is more a warm tone in one barrel and a colder, green/blue tone in the other. I see this in a variety of different binos from a variety of different companies. I have tried looking down each barrel with the opposite eye and what I have found is that this was the result of my eyes and not the optics.
I am not saying this is the case with you as you obviously noticed differences in your situation with different units of the same model but it sounds quite a bit like what I am/was experiencing.
Robert Ellis
Larus marinus
My eyes balance color differently on each side, but anytime I notice a brightness difference I flip them over to see if it is my eyes or the bin.
After time you might have to reprogram your brain to ignore the binoculars and pay attention to the birds. One can find fault in any binocular, and one can also find birds with any bincular.
After time you might have to reprogram your brain to ignore the binoculars and pay attention to the birds. One can find fault in any binocular, and one can also find birds with any bincular.
Robert Ellis said:
Yeah I know. And I found great birds with my $50 Bushnells. But when you spend 6 times as much, those faults tend to stand out for a while. I'm sure my brain will reprogram to them eventually, but for now they are seeing too much binocular, not enough bird. And I have to work this weekend during my Hawk Watch shift so it'll be another 2 weeks until I get to give them a good work out. At least I can look out my window at work.
chuck
After a day up on Hawk Hill finally, a month after I got them, I think I'm OK with my Monarch 10x42's. I had a couple of the high-end optics birders look through them and they didn't seem to notice the weirdness I alluded to in earlier posts. They said they looked pretty good -- and I asked them to be harsh critics. So I guess I'm just obsessive compulsive when it comes to my binos.
The strange thing is they look pretty good with the right-eye diopter set to zero and they look good set well into the negative position. Maybe the focus doesn't change that much and my eyes are doing some pretty good correcting. I don't know. But I finally settled down and left them alone at zero and didn't have much to complain about the rest of the day.
They also pleased me during four days in Yosemite the weekend before that, even though I was constantly moving the diopter to get the best image.
The strange thing is they look pretty good with the right-eye diopter set to zero and they look good set well into the negative position. Maybe the focus doesn't change that much and my eyes are doing some pretty good correcting. I don't know. But I finally settled down and left them alone at zero and didn't have much to complain about the rest of the day.
They also pleased me during four days in Yosemite the weekend before that, even though I was constantly moving the diopter to get the best image.
Very weird sound, great results!
OK, this is weird.
Last night I was rolling the focus wheel back and forth and noticed that at the far-focus side of the action, the wheel came to an abrupt and satisfying stop. But at the close focusing side it just sort of got tighter until you couldn't move it anymore. I should mention that another disappointment of these bnoculars was that I never got the 9 foot close-focusing that was advertised. Mine was more like 12-15 feet.
So I was mindlessly pushing back and forth on the close-focus side when I heard a gassy 'pop', sort of like opening a coke can, and the wheel kept on turning until it came to a now abrupt and satisfying stop.
The best part is now I close focus to about 6 feet now with perfect clarity.
So my big fear is that I burst some internal nitrogen-purged seal. My hope is that it was a section that was not intended to be sealed anyway. Does anyone know about where the seals are located, or has anyone heard this sound and result before? I swear I'm not making it up. My binos seem to be wonderful all of a sudden.
-chuck
OK, this is weird.
Last night I was rolling the focus wheel back and forth and noticed that at the far-focus side of the action, the wheel came to an abrupt and satisfying stop. But at the close focusing side it just sort of got tighter until you couldn't move it anymore. I should mention that another disappointment of these bnoculars was that I never got the 9 foot close-focusing that was advertised. Mine was more like 12-15 feet.
So I was mindlessly pushing back and forth on the close-focus side when I heard a gassy 'pop', sort of like opening a coke can, and the wheel kept on turning until it came to a now abrupt and satisfying stop.
The best part is now I close focus to about 6 feet now with perfect clarity.
So my big fear is that I burst some internal nitrogen-purged seal. My hope is that it was a section that was not intended to be sealed anyway. Does anyone know about where the seals are located, or has anyone heard this sound and result before? I swear I'm not making it up. My binos seem to be wonderful all of a sudden.
-chuck
Last edited by a moderator:
Otto McDiesel
Well-known member
cab1024 said:
Well then, why worry?
Otto McDiesel said:
Because I heard a pop, the sound of pressurized air escape, and now the focusing wheel moves about 4 more times around its axis than it once did. So I fear the waterproofing and fogproofing may not be effective anymore.
If anyone else has ever had the same experience but found their expensive binoculars to be in a fine airtight condition I could stop the worry. It seems like this would be the right forum to allay those fears.
If your new Leicas made an explosive sound then changed their focusing characteristics, would you be concerned? Would you ask anyone about it?
