I'm going to be doing real bird surveys, so I need to be getting binoculars. Right now I just use my camera, and don't carry binoculars, but that won't work while surveying. Right now I have mid-1980's Bushnell Sportview 10x50, so I know how difficult it can be to find a mobile little bird in a wall of foliage through binoculars, and will value field-of-view a lot. Finding birds fast will be important during surveying. The edges of the field are like peripheral vision, for detecting motion not studying detail, so i don't expect center-of-field quality at the edge. I'll be looking for IDs, not aesthetic pleasure. Also, mail-order is my only option. Don't know of any place that sells nice optics here.
Important factors:
8-9x seems obvious, 30-45mm
waterproof/fogproof (surveys are multiple days in rainforest, they will be wet)
Field of view
I'd like to keep it under $300, if possible. $500 is the absolute limit.
fully coated and phase corrected optics
Eye relief (always wear glasses)
weight (less than 25oz)
I'm reading a lot, trying to see if I can meet my budget. Porros seem best suited to my needs. The Swift porros look best for field-of view, though the 8.5x44 ED may be out of my price range. The Nikons are easier to find. Info on some brands like Steiner is hard to find. Still lots of reading to do, but I'm wondering if someone can tailor comments to my primary objective of surveying?
I am not an expert but I here are some thoughts based on my recent shopping:
I would think that Porros are not necessarily the best choice for you. Most of the "waterproof" Porros are not that waterproof because of external focusing (especially the Swifts from what I have heard!), and you will be in a very wet place. And if you are using them a lot I would think that the ergonomic advantages of roof prisms would be important.
It seems like most 8x42-ish roof prisms with a wide field of view are either at the lower end (e.g. Bushnell Excursion, Stokes Talon) or expensive but not $300 - $500. I don't know why this is -- maybe beginners looking for a first binocular value FOV over sharpness, mid-range shoppers demand sharpness and are willing to give up some FOV to get it, and at the high end you can have FOV and sharpness?
I have looked at a lot of binoculars lately and the one of the best I have seen for less than $500 is the Vortex Viper 8x42. Nice build quality, light, made in Japan, good optics, fantastic warranty, better than average field of view. For me, the eye cups are too shallow for the eye relief. But if you wear glasses all the time this will not be a problem for you.
The Vortex Fury 8x42 (coming out soon) is lower-priced and will have a very good FOV for a full-sized roof.
For more FOV without breaking the bank, consider a mid-size roof prism model. The Celestron Noble 8x32 has a nice big FOV and is supposed to work well with glasses. I have not seen these myself but have had good luck with Celestron products in the past. They are less than $300. Most 8x32s have pretty good FOV but not all have enough eye relief to work well with glasses.
[QUOTE=bkrownd;949313]I'm going to be doing real bird surveys, so I need to be getting binoculars. Right now I just use my camera, and don't carry binoculars, but that won't work while surveying. Right now I have mid-1980's Bushnell Sportview 10x50, so I know how difficult it can be to find a mobile little bird in a wall of foliage through binoculars, and will value field-of-view a lot. Finding birds fast will be important during surveying. The edges of the field are like peripheral vision, for detecting motion not studying detail, so i don't expect center-of-field quality at the edge. I'll be looking for IDs, not aesthetic pleasure. Also, mail-order is my only option. Don't know of any place that sells nice optics here.
Important factors:
8-9x seems obvious, 30-45mm
waterproof/fogproof (surveys are multiple days in rainforest, they will be wet)
Field of view
I'd like to keep it under $300, if possible. $500 is the absolute limit.
fully coated and phase corrected optics
Eye relief (always wear glasses)
weight (less than 25oz)
I'm reading a lot, trying to see if I can meet my budget. Porros seem best suited to my needs. The Swift porros look best for field-of view, though the 8.5x44 ED may be out of my price range. The Nikons are easier to find. Info on some brands like Steiner is hard to find. Still lots of reading to do, but I'm wondering if someone can tailor comments to my primary objective of surveying?[/QUOTE]
Reports are that there is not that much difference between the standard Swift #820 and the 820ED, not enough to justify the price difference anyway. Neither one seems to be as waterproof as the Audubon HHS, which IMO is one of the best buys on the market. It's somewhat deficient in FOV, but not by much, and really fine for use with glasses.
Eagle Optics has a 30 day return policy that should get around your mail order dependency. http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=1156
Aloha,
Ed