What should I look for when buying a pair of binoculars?
I’m buying a pair of binoculars as a birthday present, they will be used primarily for bird watching so need to be fairly lightweight, but what makes for a good pair for most uses?
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I have a pair of Bushnell Perma Focus 10X50. I use them for deer hunting. I love these binos. Lightweight and powerful without having to fine focus them in. They are self focusing and work very well. I paid about $80.00 for them. They are sold in different magnifications as well.
How much do you want to spend? That is the big question. Most serious birders prefer 8×40 binoculars. If they have their druthers they want roof prism rather than porro prism, because they are waterproof and fogproof. If the person whom you are buying them for wears glasses you want a pair with at least 18 mm eye relief. For bird watching you want as wide a field of view as you can reasonably get. There is nothing worse than not being able to find the bird amongst the clutter of tree limbs because it is not in the field of view when you put your binoculars up to your eyes. BAK-4 lense are preferred.
Here are a couple of good options.
Under $100 but not a real great field of view.
Under $50 but not waterproof and not for eyeglass wearers
Under $150 a good pair except not very wide field of view.
Under $200 with a very wide field of view, about as wide as they come. Also close focus for dragon flies and butter flies.
If you want to spend more than that there are some really great binos to choose from in the $1000-$2000 range. But the ones above are more than satisfactory.