Which Binoculars?
Discussion
My opologies if i have posted this in the wrong forum.
Basically i am after a fairly decent pair of Binoculars but havn't a clue which ones to buy or how much i should be spending. My main interest for having these would be for spotting aircraft & also looking into the heavens at night. I really wouldnt want to spend more than about £100 & wondered which ones you guys could recommend please?
Basically i am after a fairly decent pair of Binoculars but havn't a clue which ones to buy or how much i should be spending. My main interest for having these would be for spotting aircraft & also looking into the heavens at night. I really wouldnt want to spend more than about £100 & wondered which ones you guys could recommend please?
I have some Bushnell 10x42 waterproof ones. They're about 100 quid, and pretty good in my limited experience.
You might want a bigger lens for looking at the stars though (to get more light in - "something" x 50 or so) or something a bit more powerful for planes from a distance (12x?)...only hassle then is, you're likely to need some manner of support to keep the things steady.
You might want a bigger lens for looking at the stars though (to get more light in - "something" x 50 or so) or something a bit more powerful for planes from a distance (12x?)...only hassle then is, you're likely to need some manner of support to keep the things steady.
boobles said:
My opologies if i have posted this in the wrong forum.
Basically i am after a fairly decent pair of Binoculars but havn't a clue which ones to buy or how much i should be spending. My main interest for having these would be for spotting aircraft & also looking into the heavens at night. I really wouldnt want to spend more than about £100 & wondered which ones you guys could recommend please?
I used to sell camera's bino's and scopes.Basically i am after a fairly decent pair of Binoculars but havn't a clue which ones to buy or how much i should be spending. My main interest for having these would be for spotting aircraft & also looking into the heavens at night. I really wouldnt want to spend more than about £100 & wondered which ones you guys could recommend please?
In my opinion go to a shop and try some. Crap bino's are not worth the money and more money does not guarantee good.
Do you understand the numbers? 8x25 or 10x50??
The first number is the magnification level. The second is the lens size in mm.
As a rule the bigger the lens the clearer the picture will be with better colours and will be easier to focus. It will also aid low light use to. The down side is the bigger lenses make the bino's physically heavier.
In terms of magnification, the higher the make the narrower angle for field of view you'll get, they'll be harder to focus and harder to hold steady. Most people struggle to hold 8x still, although you might get away with 10x, anymore than that and you'll need something to lean on or a tri-pod.
Often cheaper bino's around £35-50 use similar optics to ones costing £150 and will perform as well, they just might not look as nice or have a cheaper case. This is why its key to try them out.
I've found the Minolta, Olympus, Nikon and Canon bino's to be pretty good. Bushnell are ok and good for outside as they are nitrogen filled normally (but so are a lot of others), optics are ok. Always been disappointed with Pentax bino and quite a few other brands.
TBH - unless you plan to spend £500-700 on a pair all the others are very much on par. So why spend £100 when £40 will buy you just as good.
boobles said:
Hi,
I have ordered some called Adler Optik 15x70 with the soul purpose of using them for Astonomy & after reading some reviews, these come out on top.
I hope you get on ok with them. Although if I'm honest I think you'll struggle to hand hold 15x magnification, even with 70mm lenses.I have ordered some called Adler Optik 15x70 with the soul purpose of using them for Astonomy & after reading some reviews, these come out on top.
As for astronomy, well you'll see more stars when you look thru them and you can make the moon look a little bigger but that might be about it. A star is just a dot and thru some bino's will still be a dot. You need something like 100x mag to look at any of the planets.
As I said hope they work out for you though and don't let my ramblings put you off.
cottonfoo said:
300bhp/ton said:
A star is just a dot and thru some bino's will still be a dot.
A star (not counting the sun) will still be a dot, even if you owned Hubble 300bhp/ton said:
And bino's won't really be powerful enough to see the moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn. Probably quite nice to use to look at the moon though.
I reckon you could see 3-4 of Jupiter's moons reasonably easily. One might see Saturn and its rings as a tiny ellipse, depending on their aspect, certainly won't resolve the rings separately.300bhp/ton said:
As for astronomy, well you'll see more stars when you look thru them and you can make the moon look a little bigger but that might be about it. A star is just a dot and thru some bino's will still be a dot. You need something like 100x mag to look at any of the planets.
You can see the galaxy Andromeda through binoculars.
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