Hi all,
I am finally upgrading my bins and have a budget of around £300 thanks to birthday contributions!
Ive been to a couple of shops and found the best, for me, to be the Opticron BGA 8x42 Classic WP and the Nikon 8x42 Monarch. I tried the Hawke Frontier ED 8x43 the other week and they felt very bright, but theres not much wildllife/trees to look at outside the shop where I tried these.
What do you think, am I mad in thinking these are the best I can get for this sort of money or have I hit the nail on the head???
Im thinking of going to Rother valley Optics off Junction 31 of the M1 as they seem to have most of the brands out there - is there any form of viewing area onto a field perhaps at this shop?
I would appreciate any advice on this as I will probably be using the new bins for the next 20 years....
Cheers
John
John,
I have to partially leave this question to the folks on your "side of the pond" as I always struggle with figuring out what your currency converts to in ours. However, I am familiar with both the Monarch and the Hawke. Both are recommendable glass at their respective price points. Optically I would give the nod to the Frontier EDs as they easily "beat" the Monarchs in several areas (brightness, apparent sharpness, field of view, color fringing control, etc...) but the Monarchs are a bit more compact and lighter in weight. Either would be a good choice in general.
I have no experience with the Opticron model you mentioned but would suggest taking a look at the internal focus porro that Opticron sells. It is identical to the Leupold Cascade porro that I own. I find the Cascade porro to be excellent optically and ergonomically and most certainly a steal for the price they are now selling for ($210 US).
Hope this helps somewhat.
Hi John
I just had a look at Rother Valley Optics shop and they sell Minox bins. Check out the BL BR range which come well within your budget and will in my opinion beat anything in that price bracket.
If you do a search in this forum you will find many satisfied users of these bins me included.
Regards
Ian