What is a good pair of binoculars that $100.00 would purchase?

Answer 1

Tech stuff: Binoculars are described by two figures, generally presented like this: 7x50. The first figure is the magnification over the unaided eye, seven times in this case. The second figure is the diameter of the light collecting lens(es), in this case it is 50mm. While this is not everything you need to know, it covers a lot. From this you can work out that the exit diameter is 7.1mm (50 divided by 7). Why is this important? At night the pupil of the dark adapted human eye is about the same, so binoculars with this specification use all the persons enlarged pupil, and perform better than binoculars with smaller exit pupils. Is there any point in going beyond this point? No, because our eyes cannot use the extra light. Going the other way, a 2mm decrease to a 5mm exit pupil will halve the light gathering power, because it halves the area of the entry lens.

The second issue about magnification is whether the binoculars will be mainly used handheld, which is normal. If they are, magnifications much above 7x become increasingly difficult to use. The binoculars will not only magnify what you want to see, but they magnify the natural 'shake' of our body. It is very difficult to hold the binoculars completely steady, and these small movements are magnified.by the binoculars.

My suggestions:
For mainly daytime use - 10x25 or 8x20 are small enough to hold relatively steady and are really portable.
Combination of day and night - look for 7x35 or 8x40. These will be quite a lot larger than the small binoculars, but are a good compromise if you need to carry them, say in a backpack. If you want higher magnification, 10x50 might be okay but they will be more difficult to use handheld and will be quite bulky.
Best all round: my favourite binoculars are 7x50s. Not as easy to carry in a backpack, but good night time performance and still easy to use handheld.

Quality - you get what you pay for! Have a look online to get you in the zone and then have a look at some in the local camera or outdoors store before making your decision. My thoughts would be that if it was a choice between getting a better quality 7x35 or 8x40 over a lower quality 7x50 for much the same price, go for the better quality.

I am not familiar with US prices, but a set of Nikon 8x40 should be in this price range. They are a good compromise between performance and portability.

Answer 2

The long answer is good information - HOWEVER - the things that most people have no clue about - and why some companies who make junk are still in business - is coatings, prisms, eye relief, exit pupil size, and parallelism. This will determine if you can use the binoculars for any length of time without severe eye strain.

You will find this kind of info if you google "binocular review".
If you do the research you may want to double your budget and wait for an online sale. This info is too detailed to put it here.

Omron, Meade & Celestron (same company now), and a few others are in the optics business (astronomy). I have an Omron 10x50, which I think I paid about $150 for and I got my wife a Meade 8x42 wide angle at about the same price. I also have a Celestron 16x70 for astronomy. These are great for that purpose but heavy. You don't want these as general purpose eyes. The 8x42 are for bird watching and the 10x50s are for general purpose. Those are old prices, but under $100. is not good unless it is a 1/2 price sale. Over $200 is getting into a very gray area. you can only make the so good. After that it is diminishing returns. A lot of $500 and over units are not as good as the ones I have. A rating on a Nikon at $500 indicated that. I found a pair of Bushnell for $100. which were junk. Tasco is another brand you want to avoid.

Your age makes a difference too. your pupil is bigger when you are young and can take advantage of a large exit pupil (ep) size. The 10x50 has an ep of 5 (50/10), the 16x70s are 70/16, do the math. Young people can use an ep of 7.,Me? I'm lucky if I can use 5.

Rule of thumb 10 power is about the limit for stead hand held. The bigger the objective the better (the second number) Bigger objectives mean a heavy binocular. A smaller number is portable but you need more light to see well. A 7x20 well eliminate stargazing, and it only has an ep of ~3. Not good.

Parallelism defines how close the images match at your eyes. Ideally, you will be looking slightly cross eyed. If it is very cross eyed or even worse whatever the opposite way is called. I have seen some like this. You will wonder why you need so many aspirin.

If you wear glasses, eye relief becomes an issue. Some units have an issue without glasses.

If you don't want to throw away good money, understand these things and your main use before you buy. Then test them to these standards when you get them. You may want to take them back. Nothing is perfect.

Do the research or be blind. Your choice.

Answer 3

The best value/quality for the money that I have seen are Orion binoculars. Go to http://www.telescope.com
and click on the learning center, even if you don't want to buy from them.

Go to a sporting goods store and look at their stock. Most carry Bushnell, which has a full range of quality. Don't worry. For anything over $100, you will be getting decent binoculars.

A _really_ "standard" configuration is called 8X42. This means that they are 8 power, which gives decent magnification and the front lens is 42 mm in diameter. The bigger the lens, the more light the binoculars gather and the wider your field of view will be.The 8X42 are almost universal.

Bushnell makes a decent pair called the Legacy. They are 8X42 and they are waterproof. They have the Bak-4 prisms, which means "premium glass" and is usually a sign of better quality. You should find these for about $100 and maybe less. These are "porro prism" design, which means the barrels are sort of bayonette shaped where the light path goes through the prism. There are "roof prism" binoculars that are a bit sleeker and cost more money. Personally, I think the porro prism design are easier to hold onto comfortably for longer periods of time, but see what you think. It's harder to make GOOD roof prism binoculars than good porro prism binoculars, so a comparably priced porro design is probably better quality.

Answer 4

Steiner binoculars are amont the perfect 3 manufacturers made in the present day so some distance as high quality is going. you isn't dissapionted with them. They lead them to in some distinctive cost tiers yet even their greater much less costly ones ($3 hundred - $500) are better than maximum others in that budget.

Answer 5

2 months ago I bought a decent pair at Adorama on line
The Olympus RC 1. It's 8X21 for $59.95+$5-shipping. So cost was $64.95