Binos

[Jared185]

Hi all so I just sent my telescope back as tech support said it was broke. Anyway I'm looking at buying a set of higher power binos now as I used a friends set of 25x100 sky masters last night and fell in love with the ease of setup use and the sights I could see. So I was wondering what's the best set of either 25x100 or 20x80 binos with tripod for around 400.00 Orion has some 20x80s with tripod for 251.00 and I can get a celestron skymaster 25x100 with tripod for 355.00. Which setup is better quality. Or is there another setup that would be better for my price range

[Jared185]

Now I'm looking more to the Orion mini giant 15x63 or 9x63 without a tripod. Any input on these

[Steven_J]

If you are looking at the 15x zone instead of 20x+, you will be hard pressed to find better than the Helios Apollo 15x70s for £269 - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/helios/helios-apollo-high-resolution-70mm-binoculars.html

You will find many, many fans of these on this forum. 

Your budget is a little unclear as if it tops out at £400, then these Lunt 16x70s for £479 would be out of reach but they are looking to be amazing if the preliminary review from Steve is anything to go by - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/lunt-engineering/lunt-16x70-magnesium-binocular.html

If you, like many of us, were drawn to bins due to the speed, convenience and sheer ease of setup, I recommend getting a good monopod instead of a tripod. Then it doesn't interfere with the grab and go joy of bins.

[alexbb]

Just one thought: 9x63 would result in a 7mm exit pupil which would be too much for most people, I think including me.

[A40farinagolf]

I'd recommend the Helios Apollo High Resolution 22 x 85 - I find them a good compromise. They come up second hand from time to time and I bought mine in mint condition for less than half price recently, they usually retail for circa £380

They fall between what I'd class as very large observation binoculars @ 100mm objective and normal binoculars @ 50mm.

You get good light gathering ability with reasonable portability.

I generally use a monopod but sometimes mount them onto my AZEQ6 and then use the GOTO + tracking in AZ mode