Where can I find reviews of info on binoculars. Price to quality comparisons etc. I'm asking for a buddy who wants to buy a new set. He has 8x50 Stieners which are pretty good but he wants something in the 10 to 20 power for glassing Mullies and Elk and the like out west. Any suggestions? I think his Stieners are fine for what he wants, but I told him I would look around the net anyway.

Poke around www.betterviewdesired.com  
Then you can check out street prices at Adorama.com or do a search for camera world.  

Eagle Optics touts itself as having great customer service, but when I asked them what they could do to help me after my G/F threw her diopters out of kilter, they didn't do squat.  I understand that they are under no obligation to, but if they don't go the extra mile, then why pay a higher price for mail order.  


I realize that there are a lot of people who apparently spend $1000 on a set of glass, but I also know of a couple of fanatic elk hunters (who admittedly hunt coastal Roosevelt elk where the distances are smaller than say eastern Oregon)  who scoff at the idea of blowing more that $300 on binocs.  

Your buddy is going to spend a crudload if he wants good binoculars in the 15X60 range. Minimum $400-500.   I believe that Fujinon makes some roof prism phase coated models in this range.  

I am very happy with my little Pentax 8X30 WP roof prisms which cost exactly (you guessed it) $300.  

Suggest to your buddy to go to a camera store, preferably with a big parking lot, and see if he can really use that extra power without shaking like he has the DTs.  

I think you're right that he will be OK with the 8X50s, although come to think of it, I didn't know that steiner made 8x in other than small and 30mm or 56 mm objectives.  

Thanks for the input. You probably right about the objective on the Stieners. That info was his.

Sukebe,

Take the reviews with a grain of salt and have a look through several different glasses for yourself.  Yea, the more you spend, the more likely you are to get good glass (and good construction quality), but that is not always true (ie: Windriver).  Nikons or Pentax are realy good for the $$$.  If money is no object, I would get Leitz or Zeiss and not look back.    

Also, most people cannot hold binos with more than about 10 power steady, so if you plan on doing a lot of glassing, consider that too.  

a review that sucks less than most and at least is somewhat objective is on the website of the Cornell ornithological lab(birdwatchers). I would recommend that you get a test pattern and check it for yourself. I recently went through this exercise and ended up with the determination that Swarovski and Leica were, by some margin, the best optics in reasonably portable binos. I went for the Leica's because they seemed to have the best overall clarity and lack of distortion in all sectors of the lens.  

I have Leupold Gold Ring 10x40's and I don't have any problem glassing with them.  8x are fine for working up to 300 yards, or so, but beyond that you really need something with higher magnification.

Why doesn't your buddy look into a spotting scope for the long range work it will do much better, especially when it comes to judging animals.  

Try [url]www.sierratradingpost.com[/url] to see what they have in stock.  Right now they have 20x80 Steiners for $ 575.00, but it doesn't say they are "water proof".  I didn't know Steiner made something that wasn't water proof.


They did have some high powered Steiners and they always have really good prices.  They are also the cheapest place I have found to buy hunting clothing and winter clothing, but sometimes they have killer deals on optics too.

I've spent some good bucks over the years with Sierra TP & I've never been disappointed with customer service.  In the last 2 years, they've had a lot of Steiner very cheap, and some Nikon & Pentax stuff.  Prices are unbelievable.  Having said that, if you see something in the catalog that you want, call them RIGHT THEN (just like rule 1 of pawnshopping).  Nice store if you're in Cheyenne.

hanko