Binoculars £100 - £150

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

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I am interested in buying some binoculars, not for bird watching but stargazing and general medium - long range viewing use.

Budget is £100 - £150 and there looks to be some quite good binoculars out there for this price. Sure, I would love some Fraser optics, Steiner or Canon image stabilization bins but don't have 4k to spend

Who knows much about binoculars? (or wishes too)

The shortlist I have so far;

Opticron Adventurer II WP 10x50 - £109
Opticron Oregon 4 PC 10x50 Binocular - £139
Pentax UP 8-16 x 21 Zoom Binocular - Black - £94
Pentax SP 16x50 - £129
Nikon Aculon A211 10-22x50 Zoom Binoculars - Black - 129
Nikon Aculon A211 16x50 Binoculars - Black - £128
Celestron 71007 SkyMaster 12 x 60 Binocular - £70
 
Mr Joshua said:
Celestron bins seem to get favourable reviews, I have the trailseeker 10x42 and they're really well made.
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They do and have read a few reviews. I have a feeling the Celestron would be ok but can’t imagine the actual quality and durability of them being as good as the likes of Opticron, Pentax or Nikon. I’m happy spending a bit more for better quality.
I’ll check out Trailseeker, thanks
 
You will get what you pay for; over the years I have had Nikon, Pentax and Opticron.

I now have a pair of Swarovski - for bird watching - I doubt that they would be much good for "stargazing and general medium - long range viewing use".
 
Bought my Dad some compact binoculars for his birthday last year as he's been banging on about wanting some for ages. Didn't spend as much as your budget as he wanted a specific compact model, the Nikon A30. They're really clear and I wouldn't hesitate to buy some £150 Nikon binoculars if I was in the market for some, based on my limited experience with the A30.
 
This is worth a read if you have a minute or two.

http://binocularsky.com/binoc_choosing.php

I have some very old 10X50 and they work pretty well other than them being quite heavy. Modern stuff is generally much lighter. You do notice it when you've been holding them up for a while. 10X magnification is about as big as you want to go if you intend to hand hold, anything more than that and you will need a mount or tripod.
 
DampDog said:
This is worth a read if you have a minute or two.

http://binocularsky.com/binoc_choosing.php

I have some very old 10X50 and they work pretty well other than them being quite heavy. Modern stuff is generally much lighter. You do notice it when you've been holding them up for a while. 10X magnification is about as big as you want to go if you intend to hand hold, anything more than that and you will need a mount or tripod.
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Thanks, I read that the other day. Great article
 
danoliver1 said:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/pentax-binoculars/pentax-sp-50mm-wp-binoculars.html
^ these. For hand held observations dont go above 10x or the image will be shaky. 50mm apature any more and they get too heavy to hold. ^ these have good eye relief at 20mm and an exit pupil of 5mm so the image will be brighter which is perfect for astronomy. What ever you do dont buy zoom binoculars they are garbage.
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I had the Pentax SP on the shortlist. How are they better than similar priced offerings from Nikon & Opticron?
 
For serious astro use I use Miyauchi binos but you wouldn't want to be carrying them around lol. I have a pair of Minolta 10x50 (porro prism) which are actually very good, I tested them in the shop and compared them against everything else they had at the time and they stood up well even in comparison to much more expensive models. I also have a pair of Pentax 8x42 BCF HRc (roof prism) which are smaller and lighter and great for carrying around. Also a pair of Leica 10x25 which are fantastic pocket binos for daytime use but useless for astro viewing :)
 
danoliver1 said:
There £149 in the link i posted previously .
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Oh, thanks. I must have seen different ones.

If getting into serious astronomy, why do people use expensive bins over a full telescope with mount, tripod, different lenses etc.? My only guess is to save space as bins & tripod are smaller than having a huge telescope setup
 
General zoom level question. Does 10x mean it brings the viewed object 10x closer?
E.g. object is 100m away. 10x will mean it appears 10m away?
 
Guest2 said:
General zoom level question. Does 10x mean it brings the viewed object 10x closer?
E.g. object is 100m away. 10x will mean it appears 10m away?
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Yes. It also magnifies hand shake which is why when you go over 12x you really need a tripod. Also the higher the magnification the narrower the field of view becomes.
 
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