Bino's

[Dingo]

Thinking of acquiring some bino's.

I know absolutely nothing about them so i would appreciate your views please guys and gals!
as i know they will be quite expensive i think taking some advice and doing the research will be the way forward, thats where you lot come in, who better to get advice from than the end user so, let me know what i need to be looking for please.

Adam.

 

[SCOMAN]

I recently bought a pair of Nikula 10 X 42 of ebay for £30 plus postage from a UK Seller. They're waterproof rubber coated and have lens covers attached although they can be removed. The lens are crystal clear and the image is sharp. At 10 X 42 they have an average aperture for light (I think I read on hear that to determine how good bino's are at light gathering divide the magnification (10) by the aperture (42) in this case by 4.2 which is average). They're light whilst appearing robust and have a nice padded strap which doesn't appear to be ready for letting go soon. I'm not selling any but for £30 I'm V happy with them and do recommend them.

 

[Barn Owl]

Best thing is to try before you buy.

Any rspb shops or dealers nearby? I don't mean those with a small selection in a High St.

Have a look at www.birdforum.net for opinions on bins of all makes and prices.

There is a BIG selection out there.

Magnification should be 7,8 or 10x at most and objective lens (the big ones at the end) between 30mm and 45mm.

It's hard to recommend a particular brand or type e.g roof or porro prism, as everyone and their eyes see and feel things differently.

Find any you like, post them up and we'll try and help you evaluate them.

Tom.

 

[Doc]

Depends rather on what you want to use them for, and how much you want to spend.

For a given price, porros will be better than roofs. Porros are hard to waterproof however.

Even a cheap £5 8x20 Chinese roof prism will show you more than the naked eye, but they won't give you much pleasure either.

For £30-£40 I would go for used Zeiss Jena porro prism 8x30s but you want the later multi-coated models, and you always take a risk buying used. For a bit more you could get Bushnell porros brand new. For a bit less you could get used Russian copies of the Zeiss - they have a yellow cast to the lenses but a good pair are still very good. Lower range Nikon are also well worth considering.

Ideally I would spend at least £100-£200 and get a pair of phase coated (this is very important) Chinese or, better, Japanese waterproof Nitrogen-filled roof prisms. The Japanese Helios AM6 (circa £200 new) is one of the best example of these.

Minox roofs are similar but dearer. You are now into £200-£400 price range eg Minox, Meopta. Above £500 are the 'Big 3' of Zeiss Swarovski and Leica.

My current binos are Zeiss FL 8x42s which are very nice but are close to a four figure price tag. I also have the Helios AM6 and although the Zeiss are better, they are not five times better - in fact in good light you need to switch between them several times to notice that the Zeiss is clearer.

I recently also tried a pair of Canon image stabilised binos and was very impressed- in good light I could see more detail than with the Zeiss used unsupported.