J.M.Spencer@newcastle.ac.uk (J.M. Spencer) (10/30/90)
I need a pair of binoculars for hawking in woodland and falconry on open moorland. I also want to use them for deerstalking in close woodland. I am considering a pair of 10x40s or something similar. I don't want a pair of porro-prisms (the normal binos) but would prefer the roof-prism style. The Zeiss 10x40s are very nice, but cost around 500 pounds sterling in the UK. I've visited a number of local camera shops. Unfortunately, they have very little in stock but can order virtually anything I want. I don't want to buy without looking so it's quite tricky, especially as I looked at a pair of Bresser 10x56 which were well recommended by the Consumers' Association at a cost of 130 pounds. I thought they were rubbish. I also looked at a pair of (East German) Carl Zeiss 8x30s which were very good quality and yet cost only 40 pounds. Consequently, I am very wary of handing over large sums of cash without seeing the goods myself. Can anyone suggest various makes/models? I expect to pay around 300 pounds but could stretch a little further. e-mail will be fine and I'll summarise. --- Jonathan ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sender : Jonathan M Spencer Mail : Computing Lab, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK Phone : +91 222 8229 ARPA : J.M.Spencer%newcastle.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk JANET : J.M.Spencer@uk.ac.newcastle UUCP : !ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!J.M.Spencer
misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) (10/31/90)
In article <1990Oct30.113448.21415@newcastle.ac.uk> J.M.Spencer@newcastle.ac.uk (J.M. Spencer) writes: > I need a pair of binoculars for hawking in woodland and falconry > on open moorland. I also want to use them for deerstalking in > close woodland. I am considering a pair of 10x40s or something > similar. I don't want a pair of porro-prisms (the normal binos) > but would prefer the roof-prism style. The Zeiss 10x40s are very > nice, but cost around 500 pounds sterling in the UK. > I've visited a number of local camera shops. Unfortunately, they > have very little in stock but can order virtually anything I want. > I don't want to buy without looking so it's quite tricky, especially > as I looked at a pair of Bresser 10x56 which were well recommended > by the Consumers' Association at a cost of 130 pounds. I thought > they were rubbish. I also looked at a pair of (East German) Carl > Zeiss 8x30s which were very good quality and yet cost only 40 pounds. > Consequently, I am very wary of handing over large sums of cash > without seeing the goods myself. Can anyone suggest various makes/models? > I expect to pay around 300 pounds but could stretch a little further. In general: If you buy eastern countries bins (East Germany, USSR, etc), check them individually. Some of them are very good, at cheap prices. Others can be very bad. Say you get a load of 10 East German Zeiss 8x30. 2-5 could be so bad you send them back right away. Likewise, a few could be of excellent quality. They need to be tested thourougly. The best makes on the market for them moment are: Leica, Baush & Lomb, Nikon, Zeiss. The differences are not very big, all have their good points. I.e. you can dive with the Leica, but on the other hand they are heavy. Baush & Lomg 8x is excellent, 10x is not so good. Nikon 8x is also very good. etc. Leitz i.e. the old brand of Leica which was manufactured in Portugal are pretty good too, perhaps you could get them for 300 pounds? I have a Leitz Trinovid 10x 42 and I'm quite satisfied. Very lightweight easy to use bins. If you step down in the priceclass Optolyth could be a good choise. Don't you have any friends bins you can try? Visit a birding site and ask the birders for a quick look with their bins. Western bins can well be ordered, I think they are pretty much the same once you know the model suits you. check out the British Birds Telescopes and binoculars survey. Annika Forsten, Finland