Binoculars

[Gem99ultra]

I'm wanting to buy a new pair of binoculars - BUT... there's a million different styles, powers, etc. There's so many different powers and I know absolutely nothing about what would be a good utility pair. Can anyone recommend a good pair that I can use for approximately 150 yard viewing? Night vision feature would be nice, but I'm sure that's way out of my price range... i.e. $400.

 

[roadhunter]

Best recommendation I can give you is to go try them out. See what is comfortable for you. What are you going to use them for? (Hunting, Birding, spying on neighbors) Long time periods or short?

 

[bullbreaker]

Oh man loads of great brands out there. I use Leupold and Burris only cause I bought em at a great deal and liked how I could see through them.
Then thers also Steiner/Swarowski/Zeiss /etc.
If your looking for some with a lot of bang for your buck IMO I would give Vortex a hard look.

 

[charlz]

Are they going to sit in the house or you need a compact pair for field carry or ? I have a pair of Leupold Cascades that I use for hunting and they are very sharp and clear. Little over $300 is what I paid IIRC.

 

[dusty3030]

Nikon or Leupold in the $400 range will give you good service.

I do suggest going to a Cabelas, Bass Pro etc where you can try a few styles before you buy.

These Nikon Monarch 5's in 10x42 are a very good bino for the money.

Nikon | Sport Optics | MONARCH 5 8x42/10x42/12x42

 

[oosik]

I would like a pair of Swarovski but I use Leopold Wind River 10x50. The Leopold were around $350-$375. I don't think my eyes are good enough for a pair of Swarovski, I know my pocket book sure isn't.

 

[fxone]

Vortex are the best value i know of. The Viper series are the best buy I think. There are deals out there if you have the time to look. Unbelievable to look through. What impressed me the most was looking into an area of woods and actually seeing detail of what's inside. dawn and dusk views are greatly enhanced to what I was used to.

The normal street price you see advertised everywhere is high 500 range. You won't be disappointed with the Viper.

p.s mine are 8x32

 

[dodge man]

I also have a pair of Leoplod Wind River 10x50. My best advice is don't go over 8 or 10 power. They get shaky. I spent about a half hour looking threw them before I picked out what I bought. I even took them outside the store to look threw them.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Best recommendation I can give you is to go try them out. See what is comfortable for you. What are you going to use them for? (Hunting, Birding, spying on neighbors) Long time periods or short?

No neighbors so no peeping They'll be mostly for the front porch to look at critters out in the woods from the comfort of a nice rocking chair. Good advice on checking for comfort. The strength and size is mostly what's confusing as well as the quality of the internals. Buying a pair of binoc's is almost as bad as buying a used car. Every store has their preference, which always coincides with their excess inventory.

Recommendations were definitely appreciated. I'll follow through.

 

[schmism]

Make shure you look through the steiner.

Don't know that you can really test them well in the store, but at dusk when you need that light gathering, when you need that depth of feild, Steiners are hard to beat.

Remember there is no substitution for optic size. 50mm objectives will AWAYS pull in more light than 30mm. You likely wont see the diffrence in the well lite store or looking out the window on a sunny afterrnoon. But like i said, at dusk when your trying to track down that coyote that has been attacking your chickens.... your going to wish you had all the objective you can get your hands on.