Binoculars £100 - £150

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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
 
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?
 
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?
 
danoliver1 said:
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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Do you think the 12x zoom is worth it over the 10x (£10 more) on the Pentax SP 50mm WP?
Pretty much decided on these based on reviews on multiple sites and your help, plus others on here

Thanks
 
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BusError said:
For binos, beside the recommendations, if you get a chance to get to try the "HD" version of Minox or (especially) Vortex it's worth trying, I have a pair of Vortex HD that are nothing short of /amazing/ compared to the typical run-of the mill bino, I mean, the clarity, light, FoV, eye relief are a *mile* from "normal" binos. I spent several hours with like 12 pairs of binos one day before picking that up.
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Like these, there seem to by many Vortex HD models
https://www.uttings.co.uk/p131948-vortex-crossfire-hd-10x50-binoculars-cf-4313/#.XlGqAEqnyuc
 
danoliver1 said:
At 12x power unless you use a tripod or monopod then stars will be jumping all over the place because of hand shake. Personally i would be looking at 8x for astronomy mainly for the wide fov. 10x is usable too but you do loose a bit of fov.
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Do poeple use image stabalizing binoculars to star gaze or are they for generally used for moving targets?
 
Thanks. Guess they are more for hunting & military use where constant movement is needed for moving targets. Also not carrying a tripod about
 
Feek said:
Duh, sorry. That means mine are wider FoV than your new ones? I assumed larger optics meant wider FoV.
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The same. I thought so too but not sure what “Real field of view” means. I’m quite sure some binoculars will state a higher fov but won’t actually look as wide for whatever reason
 
ChrisLX200 said:
It must be 40yrs ago when I first looked through a pair of Leica 10x25 pocket binos (in a shop with lots of other premium binos to compare with) and I was stunned by the quality of the view for such a tiny thing even compared to the likes of other Leica binos, and those by Zeiss and Swarovski. I never bought them though because they were expensive and practically useless at night, but I still lusted after a pair :) Well finally a couple of months ago I picked up a minty example for less than half price.

Moral of the story: Don't ever look through a telescope or binocular you can't afford lol!
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Nice, about £400?

It's a clear night tonight so thought i would get the Pentax bins out I just bought. Wow, I was actually impressed I could see the craters on the moon really clearly and many more stars. I spend 30 mins outside before i reaslised i was freezing cold on my balcony
 
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