Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 18:28:33 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Summary: Inexpensive binoculars MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi all, Thanks to everyone that responded to my query about buying some cheap=20 binoculars. I received 11 private responses in addition to those posted to=20 MDOsprey (an additional 14 messages). It is great to have such a wide=20 community of friendly birders so willing to help out with a question. Mark=20 Wimer asked me to post a summary of responses so I have attempted that below= . SWIFTS WINS! In summary, it looks like Swift is the overall winner, with opinions divided= =20 between the Swift Audubon 8.5x44 and the Swift Ultralite series. A total of=20 13 out of 25 emails favored one of these binoculars. The Ultralites are the=20 cheaper of the two (see below) while the Audubons are apparently more rugged= .=20 Among the Ultralite series, the 8x42s had much better close focus than the=20 10x50s. They are not waterproof as Bob Hartman pointed out in his MDOsprey=20 post of 1/9/01 and Dave Harvey mentioned that they are easily knocked out of= =20 alignment, although I expect this is typical of porro prisms in this price=20 range. The Audubons are still not waterproof, although I note that a=20 "waterproof" version of this binocular is mentioned on the National Camera=20 Exchange website. The volley of responses favoring the Swift glasses has probably swayed me to= =20 recommend those to my friend. Eagle Optics still has the best prices I know=20 of (see below) and offered the following: Swift Audubon 8.5x44 - $228 Swift Ultralite 7x42 - $198 Swift Ultralite 8x32 - $198 Swift Ultralite 8x42 - $197 OTHER CONTENDERS=20 There were several other contenders for inexpensive, quality binoculars,=20 though only Nikon got multiple votes, with several different models=20 mentioned. I did not do any price shopping for these other binoculars but=20 include the prices quoted to me in the emails as a general guide. The below=20 ranking has no significance EXCEPT that I placed Nikon first since it=20 received multiple votes and I placed Bushnell last since, while it received=20 one recommendation, it also received two negative emails=E2=80=A6 1) Nikon Action Series (2 votes) - runs about $150 2) Nikon Egret II 8x40 (about $110) 3) Nikon E2 series (about $200 or slightly more) 4) Orion 8x42 ($179-$199) 5) Minolta 8x40 ($85) 6) Pentax UCF 8x24 porro prism compact (about $240) 7) Celestron Pro 8x40s (about $240) 8) Bushnell Nature Views THE NEXT STEP UP? One person wrote me and recommended the Bausch & Lomb 7x42 Discoverers=20 because they are a) porror prisms b) fogproof c) waterproof d) have phase=20 corrected prisms e) have 8 ft close focus. These usually retail a little ove= r=20 $300 but it was suggested that they might be found for as little as $278.=20 Given the pluses listed below, I would think they might be worth the extra=20 $50-$100, especially for anyone into butterflies as well (when close focus i= s=20 an essential feature).=20 VENDORS Lori Markoff (MDOsprey 1/9/01) pointed out that National Camera Exchange has= =20 some good prices online at www.natcam.com, though in a quick comparison of=20 Swift products they still did not win out over Eagle Optics=20 (www.eagleoptics.com) which is usually (justly) touted as the cheapest optic= s=20 vendor around. The differences were marginal (maximum difference was $8 I=20 think) and in some cases the two were equal. I imagine if one was really=20 pinching pennies it might pay to check both websites to see if one edged out= =20 the other in price. Thanks again to all who responded and good shopping! And as Norm just pointe= d=20 out, there is no substitute for field testing binoculars! Best, Marshall Iliff Ocean City, MD miliff@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================