Binoculars recommendation anybody??

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bluedragon

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I got so confused with (and distrusted) the "advice" given to me at a number of the optics stands at the Boat Show yesterday, that I walked out without anything! I need new binoculars for boating use only (not bird watching, etc). I'll happily pay £100 for a good pair but would have to be very impressed with functionality to pay £200+. A compass would be useful if reliable, but from what I tried and complaints heard, the cheaper ones are rubbish! Image stabilisation would be great...and might be a reason to pay loads of money...but again does the reality match the hype? Thoughts from forum members? Thanks.
 
I found Monk Optics very helpful and ended up buying their own brand 7x50's - which I have been very pleased with. Integral compass which I wouldn't be without now and extremely high quality lenses. All with anti fogging etc. At low light it is possible to see more through the binos than with the naked eye - I've no idea how that works but it's true! I think I paid a little more than £200 but much less than the Steiner equivalent which must have been gold plated at about £600!

rob
 
Only one comment. You get what you pay for! £100 does not buy you a decent pair with a reasonable compass. Depends entirely what you expect from them.
 
Same problem, I've a rusty old pair of 7 x 50 bins bought from dixons years ago for about thirty quid, they do me but i have an hankering for a new pair with a compsass in and rubber so the bounce instead of chipping cobs out of my teak. Again do newer ones live up to the hype? some forumite must have put his hands in his pocket recently and can give us the lowdown, new versus old, cheap veersus expensive?
 
I've got the Steiner Skipper with compass. Fantastic optics, especially in low light conditions. Cheaper compass types tend to have a 30mm card with associated stability problems. The Steiners have a 45mm card and so are extremely easy to use. Ignore the rrp, a quick search online, you can find them for around the £250 mark.

Whatever you buy, you really need to test them first. When I was looking I found some around the £150 price where the night compass illumination interfered with the compass, up to 5 degrees.

For comparative purposes, PBO had a test on compass bins last January which was quite good.
 
[ QUOTE ]
For comparative purposes, PBO had a test on compass bins last January which was quite good.


[/ QUOTE ] And they were very positive indeed about Compass24's £100 version of the 'cheap' type. (www.compass24.com have a sale on at the moment). we got some a year ago and love them. The dampning on the compass rose isn't 100% but for less than £100 you get a lot more than you pay for!
 
Yes, cheap ones. I always carry a couple of 15 euro ones so that I don't care what might happen to them. And you can always give one to somebody who lost his (better her) own. They are usually quite good. Just check the focus knob for play.

On the other hand, I always fancied the Steiner Commander ones but I dont think I can find any real use of the compass...

BTW, with all 7X50 you see better at night (that's because of the X50 which has to do with the lens diametre)
 
I was on a boat recently that had a pair of these Steiners. They were a few months old and and were pants for taking bearings. The compass card seemed to have jammed at an angle so it was all but impossible to use. I can't say I was blown away by the optics either. I suppose they could have been badly dropped.

I have a cheapish pair of Plastimo 7x50 which I am very happy with and it would not be a catastrophe if they went overboard or fell from a height. So I am not totally convinced by the 'you get what you pay for' argument, returns at the high end seem limited.
 
Pasta Simon...Im interested to know what you mean by compass rose damping not 100%? On a £100 pair I tried yesterday, the rose "stuck" as I panned around and then jumped about 10-15 degrees...completely useless for taking bearings (as I told the guy on the stand)...another one straight out of the box was the same.
 
I totally agree Simon, and your experience is valid. It depends entirely on your expectations and what you want to use them for. I paid about £280 for a pair of Bynolytes that have lenses that collect an extraordinary amount of light and enable me to see things in poor light that I am sure I would not see with a £100 pair. The compass is as stable as any hand bearing compass I have ever used, and I decided this was the optimum price to pay for what I wanted. I looked at Stieners and others and felt that I could not detect any improvement in lens performance over the pair I bought (both have Zeiss lenses) and the compass was actually worse (to my eyes anyway). I respect the view that others have expressed however regarding cheap throwaway kit. If it does what you want why not? I still say you get what you pay for though although there will always be some that are good value (like yours) and others for the same money that are rubbish. Personally if I were paying up to £100 I would probably look for the best lenses I could buy and forget the built in compass. A crappy compass is worse than none at all in my opinion. But we will all make different judgements based on budget and requirements so there is no right or wrong.
 
It doesn't get stuck on ours, but swings too much. It means that they are not good enough for acurate position fixing in bad weather, but we use the compass to confirm a GPS fix or to check on transits. They were particularly useful checking bearings on ships in the English Channel during a busy crossing. The optics are excellent for such a 'cheap' pair and they come with a float in the strap etc.
 
You can pay several hundreds of pounds from binoculars and then worry all the time about dropping them or having them fall off a seat and be ruined - or you can pay £20-£50 for a cheap and cheerful pair and then expect to replace them at least once a season. Really depends on what you want binoculars for, and how you would look after them.

I sailed with someone who had an expensive pair and was paranoid about them, he even kept them permanently below in their case to prevent damage, ours are always on deck where they are immediately available.

I have owned mid priced bino's such as Compass and wouldn't go that route again. for us we get low cost ones without compass ~£50 at the boat show, they generally last us 2 seasons before they get a knock and the seals go leading to fogging. There are usually a couple of stands at the boat show selling own brand low cost binos.

I don't trust magazine reviews, a few years ago in one issue the Compass came out tops in their review, the next year they did another review and said that the same model Compass binos were poor!
 
In my experience this is common. In particular if you don't hold the bins perfectly level and horizontal the card sticks. More expensive ones will still work even if you don't hold them level, but they all take a bit of getting used to at first. Unfortunately the market percieves that bins with compasses are better than those without. This has led to perfectly adequate bins in the cheaper range being fitted with mickey mouse compasses that are as much use as a one legged man at an a*se kicking contest......
 
I've got a pair of 7X30 Pentax jobs £14.50 from Makro 5 years ago. They work fine for me. I'm not too particular about looking like Jack Hawkins in the Cruel Sea, so a 3 foot long set that need a Tripod & a Bridge like the Ark Royal to mount them on ain't for me.

O.K. No Compass & only O.K. in low light but I won,t cry when they get dropped overboard

You pays you money Etc.

Martin
 
BoatMike...I agree...a compass would be useful in taking anti-collision bearings on shipping (and that's what attracts me), but if it doesn't work with 100% realiability on a moving deck, then it's actually dangerous and better not to have one. Low light performance and ease of use / ruggedness may be what I should really concentrate on. Any views anyone on fixed vs. variable focus by the way...
 
> You can pay several hundreds of pounds from binoculars and then worry all the time about dropping them or having them fall off a seat and be ruined - <

True, so I would do what we did, and buy the Fujinon FMTXR 7 x 50's. Pricey and no compass though other models in the range have this, but quite superb and only surpassed by another pair that were almost £750.00!! We paid £480.00 odd pounds ten years ago from Monk Optics.

Ok, things may have moved on a bit, but my point is that the Fujinons are genuinely guaranteed for life (I know that 'cos they replaced mine immediately and without question - my fault too!) and are tested, amongst other things, by being dropped from 5 metres onto concrete! That'll do me, as they are still as fantastic now as the day we bought them, especially at night, where the light gathering properties are superb. Oh, they float as well with the flotation strap!!

I've tried the Steiners, and they're ok, but not in the same class IMHO. We also carry a 'cheapy' pair as a back-up.
 
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