Binos, Try Before You Buy

[billytheghillie]

Recently there has been a few threads on the subject of " What Binoculars". I must admit I followed them all, as I was in the market for a new pair. Opticron were getting mentioned a lot, so I checked out there web site and found that they were having a field day near me, (The Barn At Beal, 7 miles south of Berwick) so I went along. I tried out Swarovski, crackin bins but out of my league, along with the Zeiss. My budget was up to £400 so I tried others like Hawke, Vanguard, Delta, but settled on the Opticron Natura BGA ED 8x42 at £259. I tried a dearer model the Opticron Imagic BGA VHD at £ 449 and to be honest the only difference I could see was the £190 price gap. Been using my Natura,s for a few days now and really pleased with them. Forgot to mention it was a company called Infocus who were doing the field day.

All I can say is, if your in the market for binos,get along to a field day, and try before you buy.

[JohnfromUK]

Always good advice to try as many as you can before buying.  It is especially important for glasses wearers where there is considerable variation in the 'eye relief' distance.  If this is too low, it becomes a problem to use binos without removing your glasses.

[spot on]

my favourite bins are a pair of 7/50 ex military individual eye focus ,no makers name just serial number and the war dept arrow,,,, £4 at a junk shop £12 to have the mirror and prisms cleaned ,,,amazing clarity and light gathering

[Old Boggy]

6 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

Always good advice to try as many as you can before buying.  It is especially important for glasses wearers where there is considerable variation in the 'eye relief' distance.  If this is too low, it becomes a problem to use binos without removing your glasses.

Totally agree. I bought a pair of 8x30 (High Eyepoint)Jenoptik Jena binoculars at a Game Fair about 20 years ago after trying out several on the stand and paid about £80 for them. These are suitable for a glasses wearer like me and I`ve never found any thing to compare. I`ve got a pair of 10x42 Hawke Nature Trek and also a pair of 10x42 Hawke Vantage, both of which have good reviews, but my old pair always seem better, or perhaps more suited to me. A bit grubby now but still my `go to` pair. Not quite sure what `High Eyepoint` means but they just suit me perfectly. I don`t think that they are made anymore as I`d like to get a new pair exactly the same.

[Longstrider]

I have some Hawke 8x32's that I'm perfectly happy with. Recently chatting with a mate who has both the Ziess and Swarowski equivalents who had a gander through mine. All he wanted to know was just where the 'other £1000' had gone  Yes, he reckoned his were better, but not better by enough to justify the massive difference in price.

[Old Boggy]

11 hours ago, Longstrider said:

I have some Hawke 8x32's that I'm perfectly happy with. Recently chatting with a mate who has both the Ziess and Swarowski equivalents who had a gander through mine. All he wanted to know was just where the 'other £1000' had gone  Yes, he reckoned his were better, but not better by enough to justify the massive difference in price.

Perhaps people buy the higher priced ones thinking that they are better and probably they are, but also because they can. However, for us penury stricken oiks, the cheaper models perform their function perfectly.

OB