Binoculars $800 range
Equipment
So if I was looking for glass in the $800 range what do you guys have an love? I'd like a pair of 10x roof prism binos. Qualities I look for are: clarity, light transmission (I do a lot of glassing after dark when walking out or last light, etc) warranty, weight and functionality.
The vortex stuff doesn't have any kind of light transmission rating/calculation looks like Steiner does, but I don't even know what it means, Minox does, Nikon doesn't seem to have any readily apparent.
Check out Maven Binos. They are a new company. Their stuff looks great.
I just caught wind of a primarily "Birding Optics" company branding a new set of Hunting Binos that sound to be about that price point. I wanna say it was celestron, but the name of the Hunting Side of things was something weird that I can't remember (they were going for a weird name like "Steiner", "Swarovski", "Leupold" type name), and honestly can't find. An archery shop owner was telling me that they were supposedly pretty quality too. Anyone else hear any wind of this? I think they were pushing it hard at the ATA.
I just caught wind of a primarily "Birding Optics" company branding a new set of Hunting Binos that sound to be about that price point. I wanna say it was celestron, but the name of the Hunting Side of things was something weird that I can't remember (they were going for a weird name like "Steiner", "Swarovski", "Leupold" type name), and honestly can't find. An archery shop owner was telling me that they were supposedly pretty quality too. Anyone else hear any wind of this? I think they were pushing it hard at the ATA.
In your price range, the Cabelas Euro/Meopta warrant a good look. Likewise, Doug at Cameraland NY sometimes has demos or open box stuff that would put you in fine shape in your price range. I like the Vortex stuff, the 8x30 HD binos I have (razor, I think?) were $600, and damn good.
I have some Kahles 10x42 binos that I paid $819 for...you may find them on Ebay that would work well.
Best of luck.
For mid priced bino...this would be be my choice.
http://www.optics4birding.com/zeiss-conquest-hd-10x32-binoculars.html
I just bought a pair of Steiner Nighthawks and love them can be had for about a grand. I also looked at a set of Bushnell Legend HD or Ultra Legend HD's for about $200 and in my oipinion they would be hard to beat for that price and take the rest of the money and go on a hunt somewhere. Shawn
Steiner!! tossed my lepould stuff and picked up a pair when my buddies stieners were picking up ibex I couldn't see with my leopold spotting scope
Vortex HDs. I have a tough time telling the difference between them and binos selling for 3 times the price.
Vortex...super happy with my Razors.
I bought the Zeiss Conquest for essentially your budget.
I had a pair of Vortex Vipers that were very good binos for the money, and you'd have money left over for a good tripod and an adapter (IMO, Field Optics Research is the only way to go as far as bino adapters go, BTW). I'm also a fan of the Nikon Monarchs as well. If the majority of your glassing takes place inside about two miles, either of these binos will serve you very well.
Zeiss Conquest 10x42HD can be had for $800 if you look around. They are the last binos that I'll need to buy.
Meopta Meostar HD's can be had at about that price or slightly higher and are very good glass.
Thanks guys for you input.
I've been doing a lot of online research as well at the same time and kind of came to a conclusion that I need to spend more $ lol. I currently have a pair of 8x44 Minox in a porro prism that are just darn good glass. Last night I compared them side by side with my brothers Vortex Razor 10x42 and there isn't really much of a difference in performance between the two. I realize things change when you're looking at an 8x vs a 10x but I am trying to pick out details in low light. Light transmission, "crispness" of the image, chromatic aberration all come into play and I just plain realized if I am going to be pumping money into another set of glasses that I hopefully want to keep forever it is going to have to be a dang nice pair of glasses for me to notice a difference from my current Minox!
So basically feel like I am narrowing down to upping the budget and looking at maybe high end Vortex, Zeiss maybe used Swarros, see where this road takes us. Want to thank everyone cause your input also helps!
If that is the case than I can honestly say, that the swarros will be the one to buy. They do stand apart from the rest. Shawn
I too am happy with my 10x42 Cabelas Euro/Meopta
Good luck, Robb
"Meopta Meostar HD's can be had at about that price or slightly higher and are very good glass."
What he said, believe me. The Cabelas Euro are the same thing.
Go to Cabelas some evening and compare them to the Big three, you'll see what they mean.
Buy a used pair of Swaro s
There's a used set of 10x40 Zeiss, asking price $699 on the Kifaru message board.
How about a new pair of Swaro Habicht porros 10x40? They can be had for $1000 and supposedly give up nothing to the Swarovski roof prism binocs.
The only negative I've read is the short eye relief of 12 mm.
"There's a used set of 10x40 Zeiss, asking price $699 on the Kifaru message board."
Those are great glass, but I would proceed with caution dealing with that seller. pm if interested.
Got a pair of vortex for the money they are good
roman 5-12 do you mind me asking which pair of Vortex you have and what you placed them up against to find that you liked them?
The one pair of bino's that I am thinking I could swallow the "new" price on in that type of class is the Vortex 10x50 Razor HD. Sounds like a great set of glass, but for now I believe I am trying to keep my eyes open for a used pair of Swarro's or potentially Zeiss. Then if htey come up I'll have to rip over to a big box store and make sure they fit my "uniquely shaped face and eye sockets."
I know people that own Vortex rave about them but I haven't been able to compare them to the high end stuff in a setting that really matters. Anyone have any experience with the new 10x50 Razor HD's?
Do a google search for "binocular reviews" and you can get a lot of useful information.
Well the quest ended when I found a set of swarros on ebay. I contacted the guy and was able to negotiate and got a set of 10x42 EL's for 1350 shipped. They were used so I thankfully escaped the dreaded taxes. Cost me $90 CDN to get them into the country though.
Unless something crazy happens I'm guessing I'll never need another pair of binoculars ever again!!
To share what I found when looking for binos: to me Swarovski were hands down the brightest clearest glass period. I found I saw more difference than I thought I would see from them to the other brands.
From price and review shopping I was leaning towards the new Razor HD 10x50, but after looking through many pairs I found I liked the Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42 more than anything that didn't say Swarovski on it. I decided I'd wait until I found some used German or Austrian glass. I also peered through some Swarovski's with Swarovision and hated it. You couldn't pay me to use those binos. I experienced what some would call the "rolling ball" effect and would imagine myself to be seasick after about 10 minutes of glassing. Apparently some see it, some don't. Leica's were nice, Vortex are nice for the money, the Minox that I have I also came to appreciate how great they are especially for the coin, and Steiners did not fit my face at all. I must say I was really impressed with the Zeiss Conquests, and blown away by Swarovski. Once I looked through them I knew one day I'd own a pair, I just didn't think it would come so soon.
Those were my experiences, as in bow shopping best if you do it yourself, but thanks for all the input guys. Thanks again.
You guys are killing me with these Swarovski threads...8^) I made the mistake of handling and looking through ELs about a month ago and can't get the 8x32s off my mind...8^)
+1 one one the Zeiss Conquest HD either 8X42 or 10X42. Some demo deals are out there. Camera land, B&H, Red Hawk rifles. Almost pulled the trigger on the 8X42 demo with a $100 rebate back in December. Total cost would have been $675! A good review on these is available. Transferable Warranty is a plus!
LaGriz
http://www.cameralandny.com/optics2/zenray.pl?page=zenray-primehd10x42
You can get these for $500. Extremely good glass at this price. They have a 30 day trial period as well.Compare with glass costing 3x as much.
Also check on ebay Swarovski's are there on a regular basis.
You did well. Swarovski can not be beat. Heck nothing even really compares...
Congrats on the find. Thats the exact route I took with a used set of 10x42 SLC's for about a grand..
Just did the same thing on a spotter too Swaro STM65 20-60x for about 1/2 price.
You wont regret it.
