Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 18:11:59 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Greg Downing Subject: Re: RFI: need info on economical binoculars MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My girlfriend bought a pair of Swift Autobahn 8.5/44's for about $225 and they are very bright and clear. The only negative is that they are not as light as some of the more compact binoculars, but she preferred the solid feel. She has since gotten more serious into birding and purchased a pair of new Leica's. But they cost 4 times as much. The Swifts seem to be much better than what you'd expect for $225! I highly recommend them. Greg Downing Parkton, MD gregdowning@mindspring.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marshall Iliff" To: Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 6:07 PM Subject: [MDOSPREY] RFI: need info on economical binoculars > Hi everyone, > > I find myself in a small dilemma and am hoping some MDOspreyers out there can > help me. I have a friend who is a budding birder and is looking to buy his > first binoculars and is hoping for something in the $200 range. I'm not much > of a "gear" person and usually gloss over the product reviews in Birding and > other magazines. Unfortunately, while I can give a long and tiring sermon on > the comparative merits of Zeiss vs. Bausch & Lomb vs. Swarovski, these are > all well out of his price range. > > Does anyone out there have any advice on binoculars in the $200 price range? > A quick look at the ABA Sales Catalogue revealed the Pentax PCF binoculars > were in that range, as were Bushnell' "Birder" and "Natureview" binoculars. I > used Bushnells back in my early days of birding and would hope that there is > something better out there. Anyone using these binoculars? Any other advice? > > I'd also be interested in any opinions on spotting scopes in the $400 or less > range. > Please reply to me offline and thanks in advance for any responses. > > Best, > > Marshall Iliff > > Ocean City, MD > miliff@aol.com > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================