Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 12:03:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Scott Crabtree Subject: Re: RFI: need info on economical binoculars MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'll echo Frank's enthusiasm for the Nikon products. Since Nikon came out with their new "E2" series, bargains can be found for the excellent "E" series porro prisms. They're highly regarded and highly rated, and can probably be found for right around $200 or slightly more. That may be too high for your new birder, but it's well worth the investment. Go for the 8X30's for field of view (over 400 feet @ 1000yds), or the 7X35's for the 19 mm eye relief if wearing glasses. Like many lower-priced porros, they can get knocked out of alignment - my wife's 7X35's have been so twice. (That'll teach me to swerve when her binos are on the dashboard!) An experienced repair technician told me that they had the best internal engineering he had seen at that price point, making them easily repairable - many low priced binos are engineered to be "throw-away," with plastic internal parts and body armor that's not replaceable without tremendous effort. Scott Crabtree Baltimore, MD ccrabtre@radium,ncsc.mil From: Frank Boyle Subject: Re: RFI: need info on economical binoculars In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Marshall, I recommend the Nikon Action Series. You can get 7 x 35s for about $150.00 or 10 x 50s for a little more. I started out birding with an extremely heavy pair of Nikon 10 x 50 Lookout IIs over 15 years ago, and they served me well. They cost $96.00 in 1986 and I would STILL put them up against any of the pricey roof prisms or porros out there today. Simply put, Nikon has the best optical glass in the world (no, they didn't pay me to say this!!). Best of luck, Frank Boyle ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================