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Bird watching
Posted: 13 May 2012, 15:27
by Brooksy
Whats a good all round pair of binoculars for birding ie brand & strength?
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 13 May 2012, 21:01
by Craig52
Brooksey, try Rays Outdoors they have a good supply and can give you good advice on the right ones Cheers Craig
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 13 May 2012, 21:32
by iaos
It all depends on how much you are will to spend. For top of the line such as leica, zeiss, etc you can pay +$2000 for a pair. They are light weight and as you can imagine the optics are fantastic.
I have only recently bought my first pair. I got barr and stroud "sahara" 10x42. I paid around $250 for them and have been happy with them. Another good mid level brand is bushnell.
In terms of specs most birdos use 8x or 10x magnification with a lenses size if between 30 and 42mm. Obviously the bigger the lenses the larger the field of vision and easier to follow a bird in flight. But with the larger lense comes more weight.
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 13 May 2012, 23:39
by spanna
I have a pair of Nikon Monarch 10x42, fantastic, small, light, waterproof. They're one of those things you only have to buy once in a number of years though, so may be worth paying an extra few dollars to begin with rather than upgrading later...
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 15 May 2012, 16:35
by vettepilot_6
I bought a couple of Sakura Day Nights ( 15 x 22s ) and a set of (20 x 60s) the little ones were bout $25...larger ones bout $65 including delivery on ebay
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 16 May 2012, 18:54
by Brooksy
How do you find the Sakura's?
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 17 May 2012, 08:36
by vettepilot_6
brooksy wrote:How do you find the Sakura's?
Bought mine on ebay...some of the smaller ones still for sale from UK ...just a little dearer then the ones I bought....actually I love them...extremely well built (made in Japan) and have a good clear vision and a zoom option on the larger pair (which are quite heavy) but good for long distances..
Re: Bird watching
Posted: 22 May 2012, 13:26
by Brooksy
Thanks heaps for all the reply's. Its a bit mind boggling when you look into all the details and specks of all the binoculars out there. I ended up getting a pair from rays outdoors (thanks Croc). They were having a 50% off sale so i got a pair of water and fog proof 10x50, roof (BK4) prism, fully multi coated optics - 8 elements in 6 groups for $99. They are quite a compact pair. Now all i have to do is get some time to get out there and try them out.
