Ed
My 10 year old nephew has become interested in the great outdoors (yay, finally gets him away from the playstation!) and I'd like to get him a pair of binoculars for Xmas to encourage him. They need to be small and light for little hands, and less than £50 (happy to look at second hand) as a) they will undoubtedly get dropped at some point, and b) I'm not entirely sure how long this interest is going to last!
My first set of binoculars was £20 and I was perfectly happy with them at that time, so I'm hoping it's doable. There seems however to be a plethora of cheaper makes out there, and I wondered if anyone could help me narrow my search a bit so I don't go for a complete lemon?
I bought a used Orion 10x25 for my grandson when he visited last summer. He became more fascinated with how the twist-out eyepieces worked than with what he could see through them. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out how to get all the pieces back together again, so I'll buy him a starter toolkit next summer. There is a lesson buried somewhere in all this.
Ed
You could have a look at the Opticron Savanna 54 reverse porro, which has a narrow IPD especially designed for children. Sherwoods have them for £59, which is slightly over your budget. I haven't tried them myself but Opticron products are usually very good and excellent value for money.
Another possibility would be the new RSPB Puffin. This is also angled towards children and comes with a free bird book at the moment. It is £49.95 but only has a 1 year guarantee, unlike the Savanna which comes with a 10 year one.
I am sure there are plenty of other options but these are two possibilities to get you started.
Ron