Birding Binoculars?

[popeyespappy]

Mom likes to watch the birds. She has a pair of nice binoculars that she paid around $500 for 30 years ago, but she took them to my brother's in Florida and left them there. Now she is looking for a new pair and asked me to help her find something nice, but not terribly expensive.

I'm looking at Bushnell Elite E2 8x42 or 10x42. I can get the 8x32 for about $290 and the 10x42 for $330 with the expires soon 30% rebate. Does anybody have any experience with these? Is there something else I should be looking at around that price point? What is better for birding 8 or 10x?

[I_am_not_mafia]

Mom likes to watch the birds. She has a pair of nice binoculars that she paid around $500 for 30 years ago, but she took them to my brother's in Florida and left them there. Now she is looking for a new pair and asked me to help her find something nice, but not terribly expensive.

I'm looking at Bushnell Elite E2 8x42 or 10x42. I can get the 8x32 for about $290 and the 10x42 for $330 with the expires soon 30% rebate. Does anybody have any experience with these? Is there something else I should be looking at around that price point? What is better for birding 8 or 10x?

I've been looking at getting a pair myself for bird watching. I can't really help much I'm afraid but we did go to an RSPB reserve to look through their binoculars and I was stunned at the quality of the image in HD bins even when looking at a nearby butterfly. I am not saying their brand is much better as it's the only brand I tried.

I had been wondering about 8x or 10x and I personally found the 10x to not be much more difficult to use. I had been wondering about Nikon.

My only pair of bins are a zoom pair brought in the 80's for 30 pounds from the local branch of Boots when I was a small child.

[Anomalocaris]

I find image stabilization extremely valuable when using binoculars.  They difference is better appreciated when you try the image stabilization.   They use battery operated micro-gyros to sense angular motion when your hands shake, and uses a floating element to make small corrections to the binocular’s line of sight to ensure the image remains stable.   They are somewhat pricy compared to conventional binoculars, but well worth it.  Also being considered higher end binoculars, they have comparatively good optics, and are weather sealed.  I have a pair of Canon IS 10X30.  They run about $500. Nikon and Fuji also make comparable image stabilized binoculars.

The image stabilization feature is also immensely useful for star gazing.

[popeyespappy]

I find image stabilization extremely valuable when using binoculars.

Image stabilization is probably going to put us over her budget. She would like to keep the price to around $300 to $400.

What I have on the list right now are:

1. Nikon Monarch 5 8x42 - $279
2. Bushnell Elite E2 8x42 - $276 Supposed to be better glass than the Ultra HD models and they normally cost $394 minus the 30% rebate. They weigh about 6 ounces more than either of the Nikon products though which could be a big deal.

If she is willing to spend a little more then the Nikon Monarch 7 8x42 which are highly reviewed on a couple of birding sites are available for $437. Similar products from Vortex and Leupold are currently in the high $400's for Vortex to mid $500's for Leupold.