Best optical quality bins £200-£300?

[matty79]

Hi there, could I have your opinions as to the best quality binoculars available for between £200-£300, I am looking at the 10x50 to 15x70 range and anything inbetween.

Many thanks for your input.

Matt

[Tinker1947]

These are on my hit list, loads of light coming in and not to powerful so you know what your looking at...... 10.5 X 70

http://www.firstligh...resolution.html

[matty79]

Yea I have been looking at these too, I have a pair of the Revelation 15x70 already but whilst they are decent i feel I could do better with the image quality. Also catching my attention are Hawke Prostalk ED, Barr & Stroud Savanna HD, William Optics ED, Pentax PCF series, any thoghts on any of these?

[BinocularSky]

Helios Apollo 15x70.

The End.

[Capricorn]

You need something like the Rutland Water Bird Fair, they have a marquee with about 500+ different binoculars there at all prices and makes.

What you find is that different ones suit or don't suit.

I have 2 sets of Bushnell's, as much based on cost as optics, but found that similar Nikons really were not much better. The ones that were always good were Leica, but they were £1400. BUt beat everything else hands down.

The Opticrons were no better then my Bushells but twice the cost. Equally other Bushnells were no where near as good in the optics. Canon stabilised were decent and the images were stabile, a good set to look through especially at 15x, 20x and above.

I did find that looking through 2 different sets and deciding that set A was better may not mean that the ones you get match the performance when you buy some. There is variation amongst the same binocular line.

I was at an astromomy conference recently, looked through one set of astro binoculars and they were awful, brand new and pretty costly but I was sure they were out of collimation and I always had a blurred patch through the right hand side and could not adjust the diaopter difference between right and left.

[laser_jock99]

If you can get hold of a pair of these William Optic Apo binoculars they are fairly good:

http://www.williamoptics.com/binoculars/astro750_spec.php

Originaly built for the Chinese military, they are certainly tank-like at 1.6Kg!

FLO have them http://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics-binoculars/william-optics-10x50-7x50-ed-binocular.html

As Capricorn says though it's a good idea to try a out few pairs if you can. Look through those Leicas and everything else might be a disapointment!

[Peter Drew]

Daylight testing is no guarantee of good nightime performance, star images are notoriously challenging for binoculars the objectives of which are mostly cemented doublets causing odd shapes and flares. I have some 10x50 Opticron Elite which give nice round stars at focus, another identical model was poor by comparison so there is an element of luck overall.

[Grunthos]

I agree with Steve.

Helios Apollo 15 x 70 are superb.

My most used instrument these days...

Sent from my GT-I9100

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Helios Apollo 15x70.

The End.

Absolutely!! Wonderful bins, much better than the Omegon (Revelation clone) I used to use. I prefer them to the 10.5x70, because the exit pupil of the latter give pale backgrounds. I generally use them freehand, but for longer sessions I use my p-mount (home-made).

[neilm]

Another vote for Helios Apollo.

[matty79]

Cheers for the suggestions I've been looking at them all closely. Let me throw another name in the hat, Fujinon Polaris 16x70? Worth £800?

[ollypenrice]

Second hand? Big savings to be had. I'd only go to a dealer or someone I know. I don't do Ebay.

Olly

[matty79]

I've bit the bullet and ordered them, £830 new from a dealer. Got a bit more in my redundancy than i was expecting, here comes the clouds now!!!!

[jabberwocky]

Matty is that your Tuscan in your avatar? Mad as a box of frogs car, if so is it the Tuscan 1 with the lights in the rear window?

£830 for a pair of binos, wow.keen to hear how good they are

[BinocularSky]

Let me throw another name in the hat, Fujinon Polaris 16x70? Worth £800?

Distinctly better than your Revelation, but only marginally better than teh Helios Apollo. Worth £800? Matter of opinion, but almost certainly the best 70mm binocular you will get. Must mount it. Also, once you have used something that good, lesser quality will become really irritating. For that money, there are a couple of others worth considering: the 77mm Miyauchi (angled eyepieces, which makes it much more comfortable to use) and the Takahashi Astronomer (only available 2nd hand, but possibly optically the best small-to-medium astro binocular ever made -- still regret not getting one when I had the chance).

[matty79]

@ jabberwocky, yes that was my Tuscan, unfortunately no longer have it but it was fun whilr it lasted, yea it was the Tuscan 1 with the LED lights, 4 litre straight six, pure madness lol.

Well the bins shold be with me tomorrow so i will report on them in due course, I know they were costly but I wanted to treat myself to something quality.

[E621Keith]

Cheers for the suggestions I've been looking at them all closely. Let me throw another name in the hat, Fujinon Polaris 16x70? Worth £800?

It depends how much quality you want. I recently acquired a pair of used Fujinon FMTR 7x50 and I was shocked when I looked at M31 in my light polluted backyard. I have only seen the core of M31 with my Pentax PCF and my other binoculars, but the Fujinon showed me the disk as well. I was saying to myself, 'you have to kidding me', 'am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing' .... The PCF is very good when compared to the cheap mass market models, but the Fujinon is in a different league.

I would be quite interested to find out how the Kumming BA8 compares to the Fujinon and Pentax. From what I read the BA8 should be close to the Fujinon.

Distinctly better than your Revelation, but only marginally better than teh Helios Apollo. Worth £800? Matter of opinion, but almost certainly the best 70mm binocular you will get. Must mount it. Also, once you have used something that good, lesser quality will become really irritating. For that money, there are a couple of others worth considering: the 77mm Miyauchi (angled eyepieces, which makes it much more comfortable to use) and the Takahashi Astronomer (only available 2nd hand, but possibly optically the best small-to-medium astro binocular ever made -- still regret not getting one when I had the chance).

Let me add the Nikon Astrolux 18x70 to that list of premium priced 70mm binocular.