Which entry level Binocular? (1 Viewer)

[Stawanski]

Hi,

as for people who tried the Sightron, you might find a few in this thread - it's only 79 pages long...

Sightron "Blue Sky" II 8x32

In my never ending quest to find the perfect binocular I have ventured far from the mainstream binocular market. The company name "Sightron" will carry little recognition for most birders but those in the US hunting population are very familiar with their optics' products as they have been...

www.birdforum.net

Regarding downsides - yes, a pair of 200€ bins will have downsides - as do alpha pairs for 10 times that.
But if a lot of people on this forum have bought them and did not complain, it was good enough to go birding with them. It is not going to be an alpha, though.

PS: for Kenko try the following if you can read german: https://www.juelich-bonn.com/jForum/read.php?9,450251,450278#msg-450278

Joachim

Thanks for both links, I will read through them.
I just found that the kenko has a minimum focus of ~3m

That's actually a bit of a downside for me because she would also use it to look at close distance. We have a green balcony where many birds pass by every day, sometimes while she sits outside 1.5-2 meters next to them. And it would be cool to be able to use it also in these situations to get a close up view.

You guys helped me a lot already with bringing my focus away from 8x42 towards 8x32. I think for the intended use the 42 is not necessary and the smaller x32 will habe advantages in being cheaper, more lightweight and generally having a wider fov.

I will read through the links you guys linked for me.
But I also look still at other options.

• Hawke frontier hd 8x32 (bit out of price range but it looks really promising)
• Vortex diamondback hd 8x32 (light, small, sturdy, wide fov, great warranty)
• viking kestrol or merlin (look really promising but would have to order from the uk which comes with several issues like custom fees or warranty)
• Kenko 8x32 (great recommendations here and in other forums, seems to be sturdy, plastic components compared to the others in magnesium and metal, cheap accessories, warranty service?)

Not easy to decide especially because I can't try them out.
One other downside to the kenko is that there a re no official testresults for it. The others are easily findable in several test magazines/ websites. I think that might be better for someone as a gift to get something that is not an insider underdog.

 

[jring]

Thanks for both links, I will read through them.
I just found that the kenko has a minimum focus of ~3m

That's actually a bit of a downside for me because she would also use it to look at close distance. We have a green balcony where many birds pass by every day, sometimes while she sits outside 1.5-2 meters next to them. And it would be cool to be able to use it also in these situations to get a close up view.

Hi,

regarding minimum focus distance. 3m is indeed an average value for a roof pair. But even if you have an instrument which comes to focus below 2m, for most people that is not really usable as a binocular (monocular observation is fine though). The reason is that so close the objective lenses are too far apart and in order to get the two images to merge a lot of squinting in necessary.

There is a special instrument (The Pentax Papilio serries - mainly for very close-up views of flowers and insects) which comes to focus down to 0.5m but that is a reverse porro construction and has its objective lenses close together and they get even closer together for the closest focus. But that is more of a pocket pair - not really sth I would recommend as a pair for general birding - the 6.5x model is much preferred).

So if you make 2m minum focus a hard requirement, your search space has just gotten quite a bit smaller and it might well be that you will not find sth inside your budget. 1.5m (and below) is rare and usually not useful due to the reasons mentioned above.

Joachim

 

[Stawanski]

Hi,

regarding minimum focus distance. 3m is indeed an average value for a roof pair. But even if you have an instrument which comes to focus below 2m, for most people that is not really usable as a binocular (monocular observation is fine though). The reason is that so close the objective lenses are too far apart and in order to get the two images to merge a lot of squinting in necessary.

There is a special instrument (The Pentax Papilio serries - mainly for very close-up views of flowers and insects) which comes to focus down to 0.5m but that is a reverse porro construction and has its objective lenses close together and they get even closer together for the closest focus. But that is more of a pocket pair - not really sth I would recommend as a pair for general birding - the 6.5x model is much preferred).

So if you make 2m minum focus a hard requirement, your search space has just gotten quite a bit smaller and it might well be that you will not find sth inside your budget. 1.5m (and below) is rare and usually not useful due to the reasons mentioned above.

Joachim

Good to know

I haven't found anything less than 1.5m yet but that would not be necessary at all
<3m is not mandatory but would be nice.
I think the 3 optioned to the kenko/sightron are all around or under 2m close focus.

 

[jring]

Hi,

Hawke is 2.5m, Vortex claims 1.5, the two Vikings are 2m.

Depending on how quickly you need the gift, you might want to wait for Lee (Troubadour) to review the new Opticron Discovery ED 8x32... has nice specs (including 1.2m close focus - of course not very usable with two eyes) and usually Opticron delivers quite nice optics for the price - unfortunately things got a bit more expensive lately with them due to Brexit.

Discovery WA ED 8x32 Now Available

We've added a new model to our range - the Discovery WA ED 8x32. This is based on the same physical design as the existing Discovery WP PC 8x32 so retains the light weight (under 400g) and compact design (108x112mm). Optically it has been improved with the use of ED objective lens elements...

www.birdforum.net

Joachim

 

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The Sightron Blue Sky II 8x32 would be a good choice. It is a good solid binocular with very good optics for the price.