I have owned a small pair of Nikon binoculars since I was about 7 years old. I really treasured them since they were bough for me by my parents before we packed up as a family and spent 6 weeks travelling and camping through Africa in a Landrover.

They took a tumble last week and are broken 🙁

So I’m in the market for another pair, especially as I am going back to South Africa later this year.

I have a budget of about £150, I can be persuaded to pay more if its really justified.
I mentioned this to a customer and he mentioned Barr and Stroud as being good quality and good value but apart from that I’m totally at square one.

If anyone knows about these things I would greatly appreciate some advice as I’m clueless.

Just try a pair of Image Stabilized Canons….unbelievable.

Not cheap, but just fantastic kit.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-10×30-Binoculars-10-x-30-Image-Stabilized-NEW-/370537640501?pt=UK_Photography_Binoculars_Monoculars&hash=item5645c3b235

PaulD

Certainly not cheap. A little out of my budget! 🙂

These: http://www.acecameras.co.uk/asp/web/recorprod/1/product/15698/cat/1291/ph/cat/keywords//recor/1/SearchFor//PT_ID/1/product.asp
I’ve had a pair of the DCF 8×32 for just over a year; I bought them as a Christmas pressy to myself while I was browsing Ace Cameras in Bath. For £89 they are exceptional, nice clear view, nitrogen filled, compact and not too heavy. With £150 available you could easily afford the more powerful 8×42, or 10×42, but they are bigger and heavier. I love mine to bits.

Look through shooting websites etc. Some Hawkes came out rather well a few years back.
Don’t go sill on magnification as the human eye can’t deal with too much.
Divide lens size by mag. Any number bigger than 5 is a bit much but equally say 40x 10 gives 4 which is not as good as it can be. Not sure what you are comparing but 5 is the optimum number for the eye apparently.
Big mag needs lots of light hence the reason why these crappy liitle 10×20’s aren’t much use.
Lots of generalisations here.

I think Steiner offer some excellent value. Not cheap but excellent quality.

I think I agree with what Matt said above, basically if you want a good clear, sharp image you need a lot of light, so the bigger the objective lens the better. If you can put up with the weight and size then go for 7×50.
Basically most people look at the magnification but the objective lens is more important. As the Yanks say “There is no substitute for cubic inches”.

I’ve got some Opticron 10 x 28’s which are spot on for carrying on the bike or in a pocket, £180ish, still good in low light too, although not as good as my old Optolyth Alpin 10 x 50’s. The Opticron range are really good value. I checked mine against some much more expensive Nikons & TBH I couldn’t tell the difference & I don’t think you can unless your’e eyes are spot on in the 1st place. (which mine aren’t!)

CountZero – Member
These: http://www.acecameras.co.uk/asp/web/recorprod/1/product/15698/cat/1291/ph/cat/keywords//recor/1/SearchFor//PT_ID/1/product.asp

I’ve had a pair of the DCF 8×32 for just over a year; I bought them as a Christmas pressy to myself while I was browsing Ace Cameras in Bath.

Just in case anyone comes back to this, Ace Camera’s is owned by a nasty little $h!t called David Uwins. He was convicted and jailed for downloading ‘the worst’ child pornograhpy.

All of us locally now avoid his business like the plague and he is expanding his business on the internet

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/businessman-jailed-for-downloading-horrific-child-porn-972015.html