doughboysigep

Does anyone have a pair of these or similar binoculars (or any opinions)? I saw a pair in Bass Pro this weekend and liked them. I see that Bushnell makes a similar model. Price is decent ($60 at BPS). Just want to know what people think

PABowhntr

You may not like my response. Personally, I find the "zoom" or "variable power" binoculars to have little use especially when you are talking about the compact models. My reasoning is fairly simple. Compact models produce a fairly dim image to start with because of their smaller objective size and smaller exit pupil. Now, throw in a zoom feature and the field of view shrinks considerably as does the exit pupil as the magnification increases. A 25 mm objective lens coupled with a 24 power magnification yields an exit pupil of around 1 mm. Very little light gets through that small of an aperture even on a bright sunny day. Couple that with the fact that it is extremely difficult to hold something like that steady enough to really take advantage of the increase in magnification and you are left with a feature without any real practicalbenefit.

In my opinion you would be better off either buying two fixed power bins or just settling for one magnification that you are comfortable with. A very educated and talented individual on the subject of optics once said that it is the quality of the glass and the quality of the coatings used on the glass that determines how much detail can be resolved at any given distance not necessarily the magnification itself.

If you want to stick with a compact model then I would suggest either the Bushnell Legend 8x24, the Nikon Travelite 5 8x24 or the Nikon Prostaff ATB. The reverse porro design of these models will yield a fairly bright image (relatively speaking) while still keeping the cost down to a respectable level. A compact roof prism model would cost significantly more to produce as fine of an image.

Hope this helps somewhat.

kshunter

I agree with PABowhntr 110%. There are many reasons why a 24 power pair of binoculars are bad (as stated above) a 10X is more than enough for 90% of the hunting applications today. 12X is enough for all. If a bigger power is needed, then buy a spotting scope.

Using a 24 power with a 25 MM lense will give only 1 MM of light. With only 1 MM of light, your eye is already being robbed of viewing only 1/3-1/4 of the light, in avg. daytime conditions. So you might as well keep the binoc's in your pocket if it's getting close to evening or at sunrise. Plus holding is steady will be extremly hard, figuring you have such a small FOV.

okcmco

I have never read nor heard any positive comments about zoom binoculars. The possible exception might be the leicas which are around 1800 bucks. Usually cheaper zoom binocs are crap. You are paying for the extra cost of a zoom feature when you should be spending any extra money you have on HIGHER QUALITY glass and coatings. If you think you need multiple power, try any of the mid or high end binocs that have available, a doubler eyepiece. this efffectively turns one side of your binoculars into a scoptting scope. IE, the Brunton epoch 2x doubler turns the Brunton epoch into a 21 power spotting scope.
Or get a good binocular and a good lightweight spotting scope. The binocular is used to find game, and the spotter is used to evaluate the trophy quality ofthe game you spotted with the binocs.
okcmco

North Texan

I agree with the other posters. Mainly because I have never had a pair of low-end optics I have liked, or for that matter that has held together very long. And I definitely wouldn't recommend a pair of binoculars much over 12x without a tripod. If you need that much zoom, get a spotting scope.

I really wouldn't recommend anything smaller than 40mm objective lenses for hunting. 8 or 10 x 40 binoculars are about the ideal size. They offer good magnification with good light transmission IF they are made out of quality glass. A set of quality optics will probably set you back about $250-$300 for the higher-end Nikons and Bushnells.