Zoom Binoculars

In article: <43aspq$@dub-news-svc-1.compuserve.com>
(Floyd D. Whitehurst) writes:

-> I would very much appreciate any experience (or info)
-> anyone has with Zoom Binoculars, but I'm mainly interested in
-> the Celestron 8-24x50mm Pro Series zooms, on paper they seem
-> to be better than Minolta's Standard 8-20x50mm zooms &
-> Tasco's Futura LE 9-27x50mm's . Thanks!

Dave

Don't go for zooms. I ignored advice when I started birding about 5 years ago and bought a
pair of 7-35x50 Bressners. Only on odd occasions did I find the zoom useful (up to 15x),
when I didn't have the scope with me. Disadvantages:

1) VERY narrow field of view - I was struggling to get onto birds which others found with no
problem.

2) More mechanical parts to go wrong

3) No-one would accept a trade in when I'd had enough of the things.

I've now got 10x42 Swarovski Habichts and would never go back to zooms - and I use the
scope less!

Do what I didn't - listen to advice!!


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Hello Dave

I just bought (three months ago) my fifth pair of bins (binoculars). If
only I had known better in the beginning, I could have saved a lot of
money, and bad birding experiences.

First you need to know how serious you are into birding. If you have just
started, it could be a fad. But if you can tell that you will forever be
birding, at least once a year on vacation, it is worth some serious
investment.

My first pair were Bushnell Zoom x35. I will never get zoom bins again,
for that matter a zoom camera lens as well. The simple logic applies, the
more that moves, the more that can break. They gave me many hours of
hellish birding. I didn't realise how crappy they were until I looked
through my friend's Nikons.

Take my advice, get out of the under 200 US range. Planned obsolescence is
rampant is this area. And stay away from old East German or Russian bins.
My friends still chuckle over my Russian 7x50 that I had to bang against a
tree to get the lens in the right position.

I have been relatively happy with Nikon bins. I think for the money the
Japanese Camera companies make some desent mid range bins- after all they
should know lenses.

I now have a pair of Leica and am one happy bugger. But the investment
will only pan out if they last me three years, and that will be a new
record.

Bon Chance
A.Bennett Hennessey