Binoculars - What is good these days?

Kelly Timoffee said:
Like the Steiners for example the 40 or 42 mm objective are fine just not a giant set that are two feet long.

Price wise I am looking at all options and weighing the pros and cons, what I don't want is cheap , flimsy and poor glass. $200.00 glass I don't think is a good idea.

NOT this size: http://www.steiner-optics.com/binoculars/military/m1580-military-15x80

This size works: http://www.steiner-optics.com/binoculars/m1050r-10x50
Click to expand...

If you want top of the line, then go with Swarovski EL, Leica Ultravid or Zeiss Victory. There are others that are close for less money, but none are the same, regardless of what people say.
For quite a bit less money and almost as good, the Meopta Euro HD that Cabela's carries (carried?) are very good. But a word of warning; once you look through one the first mentioned three, nothing else will compare.

Look on the birdwatcher websites for good reviews. Grabbing a pair in the store and looking 50 ft across a brightly lit showroom won't give you an accurate opinion, they all look sharp and clear.

If I were you, I'd go with Swarovski EL 10x42's. Buy once, cry once. Here's a fair priced set: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...-(mint)-Nov-28-price-drop?highlight=swarovski


Or if you want to cry a little longer, pick up the bino/rangefinder combo from one of those three manufacturers. :)
 
kamlooky said:
I stumbled into a pair of Bushnell Excursions at a blow out sale.
Had a store discount card and made the sale waaaaay to easy.
Just over a brown one.
Decent set of binos with clear glass.
Camo kullored tah bewt.
Click to expand...

I had a pair of them I picked up cheap used. Clip broke so I sent them in for warranty work and Bushnell sent me back a new Legend Monday model 10x. Surprisingly bright and clear glass for a Bushnell Legend!
 
Nikon. I doubt you get better optics for the money. Recent purchase of a Monarch 5 reinforces what I have enjoyed for many years.

Sightron... yes, they are making some very good stuff and eye relief is getting useable. Got a chance to play with some SIII ED binos.. Very similar to the Nikon. Who knows, maybe Nikon makes them for Sightron?

Pentax is next up... I found them to have a more vibrant colour palate but I felt the Nikon had just a hint better resolution. Nikon was lighter too. This is with similar priced stuff.

But the bino world changes fast so good stuff changes every season. Look at the features you want and get behind as many as you can. Like scopes, some glass may not appeal to you even if they are great.

If money is no object, Leica is some of my favorite binos. The top tier Nikons are usually rated with the best of the best but I have never looked through one. Pricey stuff.

for size, weight, costs, and image quality, going to be very hard to beat a Nikon Monarch 5... In roof prism binos, hard to beat these.. maybe the Sightron if you prefer brand/feature.

For a porro prism, the Nikon Premier SE continue to be a top rated bino.

Best to visit birder sites to see what they find works for viewing. I don't expect my binos to take a big beating and pretty much everything today is armoured and weather proof.

Jerry
 
I have swarovski, leica,zeiss among others.I'm not a fan of Steiner. I think you can get the same quality for considerable less.
There are a lot of good binos now in the $500 range.
In that range I would look at Nikon.
 
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Good is easy; just check out Zeiss, Leica and Swarovski in the 8-10 power range, pay the
money and have a nice rest of your life. Easier than falling down a well, you don't even really have to
know much.

"Good enough" is hard. "Good enough" isn't even good enough if you ever get to
spend some time with good. I wish it was different, but optics are a case where you get what you pay for.
 
IF you can find them the older Tasco EXP series (Only the one series actually made in Japan) were pretty darn good for the cash outlay. Early 2000 or thereabouts??

Beware that Ebay (the secret is out) is aware of this little gem and are priced accordingly these days for pre-owned binos.

my 2 bits only
 
I too am in the market for binoculars and knowing little to nothing about them I have been reading the birding/hunting forums for hours on end looking for a starting point. I certainly would not buy glass without trying it out myself but the forums can help get a person started. We have a bit of limited selection here so actually handling them is a bit of a challenge. There is also variation in the exact same models so a person would be well advised to try a couple especially if shopping in the low to mid price range.

Anyway, I was interested in the Nikon line up after reading reviews and noticed some excellent deals on the M5. I was equally interested in the M7 and Prostaff 7s as I have convinced myself that 30mm might make a nice compromise for the type of bush hunting I do. Without starting a war, let me say that I wouldn't want the M5s at any price and the M7 was over priced for what to my eye was okay glass at best. The exit pupil on the M7 was off and the M5s looked more like canoes than circles. Street lights looked like they were on fire in fading light, especially the yellow. The flare when looking towards the west was extreme and there was extreme distortion towards the edges making the FOV minimal considering actual usefulness. I didn't even bother with the Prostaff as the M7s were on par with the Asia Leupold I was looking to upgrade. Please note that these are only a couple of samples and others may be better. I have also read the top tier Nikons are some of the best but unfortunately out of my league price wise.

I also viewed the Swarovski CL 8x30 and 10x30. These are at the max of my price range and being a cheap SOB I would really have to be impressed to consider them. These are very sharp optics but not as bright as I expected. In fading light they very good and remained crisp but not "Wow! I have to have these". Obviously these are not top tier Swarovski but I did expect more for this kind of money. If they were a $1200 rifle scope I would be returning them. I realise with a 30mm that there was going to be some compromise but there are other binos (42mm) at half the price that were just as good and perhaps better to my eye. I have not scratched them off the list just yet but I am wondering if the extra size of the competitors 42mm would be a reasonable compromise at a considerable savings.

On a positive note I was presently surprised with the Promaster Infinity ELX line. Never heard of them? Me neither, but the glass on these is excellent and perhaps even extraordinary considering the price. They simply blow away the Nikons to my eye and were right there with the Swarovski. Edge to edge clear, very little distortion and I was looking through them until it was getting dark. I would change between several more expensive models and these were holding their own and more. The fit and finish was certainly substandard when compared to the higher end stuff and they are some what cumbersome compared to the sleek modern designs, but like I said, I am a cheap SOB and these have gotten my attention. They would most certainly make an awesome pair of truck/scouting glasses.

Another off the radar surprise was the Pentax. They only had one model in stock but I have asked to bring in a couple of more to look at. I am (perhaps foolishly) looking for full sized performance in a mid size or compact. The floor model DCFs were not at all compact but the glass was the best I have looked through so far.(take that with a grain of salt as I refuse to look through $2000 binos as I simply cant afford them) If a smaller version compares I will putting them at the top of the list.

A person can only try so many in one evening as I want to know how they function in low light. There are several others I will be checking out and I will update as the search progresses. There certainly is a lot to wade through. Some Chinese manufacturers are producing some low cost binoculars that are getting awesome reviews and a lot of the affordable big name stuff is manufactured in China anyway. The high end stuff boils down to a few big names with no real wrong answers, the mid range market is saturated with over priced junk and under valued jewels. A person just has to figure it out.
 
The best thing I can recommend is to go to a sporting goods store with a good selection of binoculars that you're interested in. Go at dusk or dawn when the light isn't great outside and ask to try them outdoors. Most stores will let you do this. Then take every bino in your price range that you're interested in and try them side by side outdoors. go home and think about it for awhile and then go do it again a week later. Some days our eyes are better than others and will pick up on things we didn't notice the first time.

I know its tough to pay $1000+ for glass, but since I bought my 10x42 Vortex Razor's, I have constantly said that it was the best money I've ever spent on my hunting hobby. And seriously... I know you said you don't even want to think about Vortex, but just try them in your price range and compare. It never hurts to compare every single option.
 
I'd take a good look through the mid and higher end Nikon Monarchs, good value, quality product.
The new low end 'Monarchs' are more like a ProStaff, not very clear or bright, no Monarchs at all imo.
 
MK2750 said:
I too am in the market for binoculars and knowing little to nothing about them I have been reading the birding/hunting forums for hours on end looking for a starting point. I certainly would not buy glass without trying it out myself but the forums can help get a person started. We have a bit of limited selection here so actually handling them is a bit of a challenge. There is also variation in the exact same models so a person would be well advised to try a couple especially if shopping in the low to mid price range.

Anyway, I was interested in the Nikon line up after reading reviews and noticed some excellent deals on the M5. I was equally interested in the M7 and Prostaff 7s as I have convinced myself that 30mm might make a nice compromise for the type of bush hunting I do. Without starting a war, let me say that I wouldn't want the M5s at any price and the M7 was over priced for what to my eye was okay glass at best. The exit pupil on the M7 was off and the M5s looked more like canoes than circles. Street lights looked like they were on fire in fading light, especially the yellow. The flare when looking towards the west was extreme and there was extreme distortion towards the edges making the FOV minimal considering actual usefulness. I didn't even bother with the Prostaff as the M7s were on par with the Asia Leupold I was looking to upgrade. Please note that these are only a couple of samples and others may be better. I have also read the top tier Nikons are some of the best but unfortunately out of my league price wise.

I also viewed the Swarovski CL 8x30 and 10x30. These are at the max of my price range and being a cheap SOB I would really have to be impressed to consider them. These are very sharp optics but not as bright as I expected. In fading light they very good and remained crisp but not "Wow! I have to have these". Obviously these are not top tier Swarovski but I did expect more for this kind of money. If they were a $1200 rifle scope I would be returning them. I realise with a 30mm that there was going to be some compromise but there are other binos (42mm) at half the price that were just as good and perhaps better to my eye. I have not scratched them off the list just yet but I am wondering if the extra size of the competitors 42mm would be a reasonable compromise at a considerable savings.

On a positive note I was presently surprised with the Promaster Infinity ELX line. Never heard of them? Me neither, but the glass on these is excellent and perhaps even extraordinary considering the price. They simply blow away the Nikons to my eye and were right there with the Swarovski. Edge to edge clear, very little distortion and I was looking through them until it was getting dark. I would change between several more expensive models and these were holding their own and more. The fit and finish was certainly substandard when compared to the higher end stuff and they are some what cumbersome compared to the sleek modern designs, but like I said, I am a cheap SOB and these have gotten my attention. They would most certainly make an awesome pair of truck/scouting glasses.

Another off the radar surprise was the Pentax. They only had one model in stock but I have asked to bring in a couple of more to look at. I am (perhaps foolishly) looking for full sized performance in a mid size or compact. The floor model DCFs were not at all compact but the glass was the best I have looked through so far.(take that with a grain of salt as I refuse to look through $2000 binos as I simply cant afford them) If a smaller version compares I will putting them at the top of the list.

A person can only try so many in one evening as I want to know how they function in low light. There are several others I will be checking out and I will update as the search progresses. There certainly is a lot to wade through. Some Chinese manufacturers are producing some low cost binoculars that are getting awesome reviews and a lot of the affordable big name stuff is manufactured in China anyway. The high end stuff boils down to a few big names with no real wrong answers, the mid range market is saturated with over priced junk and under valued jewels. A person just has to figure it out.
Click to expand...

I have a Pentax bino. It's been great, no problems in 10 years. I wish it was lighter. But the are all similar in weight unless I go smaller.
 
I generally find the first thing is to decide how big you want them to be. Compact/easy carry, or big gotta have a back pack to carry...

Higher magnification makes everything move around a lot more, tried it, didn't like it, if you're not steady/leaning on something or got a stick/tripod, pita. There's a reason 7x and 8x power is so common.
Now if I was to spend over $1k it would be something like the 14x40 techno-stabi from Fujinon, nikon has similar too. But my little 8x32 S2B's from sightron have done what I need. Tried the Fujinon 10x50, it was awesome, always in focus(no turning focus knobs) but they're big and more $.
 
I have a pair of Stiener Predator 10x42. I'm pretty happy with them, but HATE the pointed eye cups. I keep them in my truck and most times I grab them to look through them, the #$% eye cup is the wrong way. I think you can purchase regular eye cups for them?

On the bright side, they were practically free. I had a 10 year old pair of burris landmark 10x32 that you can STILL get on ebay for around $40 if you watch for them, that fell apart. Send them to burris, told them I loved there products and asked if I could upgrade to something a little higher quality. Asked them to call me for my visa # and I would pay for an upgrade. Never heard from them, but the following week, the Steiners were in my US post office box, no charge!
 
Got to spend some time yesterday in another shop. Again tried the Swarovski CLs, this time in the pocket version, and they along with the 30mm offering are out for certain. There is just not enough there to justify the added cost. They are good, but they are obviously trying to capitalize on the good name.

They had a very disappointing selection of Leupold mid range stuff and it was out dated so I still need to track down a good retailer for these.

I had been frustrated before with a Diamondback rifle scope and was not seriously considering Vortex. The problem was mechanical, not glass, so I decided to take a look at the upper and mid range stuff. The 4-800 dollar Vortex binoculars are actually very nice. They didn't have the exact configuration I wanted but they are now on the radar.

The Bushnell Legend Ultra HD was the big surprise of the day. For the price they are awesome. All things being equal they are right there with the best I have tried. I like the Elite scopes but the binoculars I had looked at were only so-so in the past. There is also a new Elite model bino but it wasn't in stock. The 8x36 Ultra HD could be a winner if they are as good as the 42mm that I tried.

I checked the reviews on the birding forums last night and sure enough the Ultra HD Legends and Vortex Vipers get very good reviews. I have a couple more to check but I am beginning to believe that the upper end of the lesser names are much better than the mid or lower offerings of the big names. I found the same thing true of fly fishing rods and reels.
 
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