Recomendation please. Mates birthday present, got £130 to spend, he’s after a travel / compact pair with good distance and good quality lenses, I know nothing about this so any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Opticron.
I went for their 8×42 for about £140 after having their 8x25s free joining the British Trust for Ornithology.
Great binoculars.

I bought some celestron nature DX 8×42. They are so good for the money I bought my dad some aswell but in 10×42

Best price I found was from here: http://www.tringastro.co.uk/celestron-nature-dx-8×42-binoculars-4376-p.asp

Opticrons are excellent VFM. I’ve got their nifty little Oasis 10×28’s which I carry in a jersey pocket on the bike. Contrary to popular belief, I have no problems with ‘shaking’ cos of the magnification. The only problem is because of the small object lens they aren’t as good as my 10×50 Optolyths which are 35yr old.
There was a guy selling Swarovskis at Fairburn Ings a few weeks ago & I tried some of their (cheaply) £800 jobs, ok they were better than my Opticrons but not £600 better, that’s for sure!

nikon travelite worth a look

I’ve owned zeiss and Swaro, love them both, but ridiculously expensive

at that budget and spec, I would recommend Steiner 8*30 as hitting a lot of the marks – good power, good light gathering, nice size and weight while still being ‘proper’ binoculars

Thanks for your suggestions, I’ll check them out.

Last month,

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anybody-good-on-binoculars

Earlier,

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:singletrackworld.com+binoculars

Former Swaro EL owner and now Zeiss Victory. There are subtle differences between solid binos and excellent ones. Often very subtle, depending what you are looking at/light levels etc. Saying that, MIL bought some Hawkes for a wee bit over your budget, ie about £160 and I was really impressed. As above, Opticron are good value. Difficult if you are buying them for someone, but don’t discount how they feel in your hands/focussing wheel use etc. my zeiss are brighter than the swaros, but the swaros felt much nicer in the hand.

I ordered a set of Nikon Travelite EX 12×25’s yesterday, reading the reveiws there was a question as to whether the 12x’s were too powerful and difficult to hold still, but I thought I’d give them a try.
£109 BTW.

+1 for opticron, you can get a very respectable pair for around that price

Nikon Prostaff 7. I’ve got a pair of 8×42 and they are superb. Should be within budget.

Thanks for all the info. Drove to Canterbury Cameras yesterday and tried out a few pairs. Ended up with a pair of Hawke 10x42s, fairly compact, felt really solid in hand, focus wheel was nice and steady, waterproof, came with a couple of straps and a semi solid case all in budget. My mate is very pleased with them.

Good work!!