Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 11:26:50 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Abbie Banks Subject: Re: Testing Binoculars MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 5/2/2002 10:26:56 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ABTrowbridge@MSN.COM writes: > It seems so tacky to test-run every pair in a store and then surf > the web for a better price. On the other hand, I really can't afford > to make a thousand dollar mistake. maryanne dolan > washington dc > abtrowbridge@msn.com Hello Mary Ann, I can only tell you what I have done and I am certain you will hear from others regarding binocular choice(s) and how they determined their selection. A thousand dollar mistake is something I would not want either. I went to quite a few different places to view binoculars. I have purchased 5 pair of binoculars over the past years...one pair was a gift for a young teen. I went to retail stores that offered a good assortment of quality binoculars. A phone call will provide this information. If you have been quoted a price for binoculars on the Internet, think about giving your local merchant the opportunity to match or come close to the price. I felt that a close price was good enough considering shipping as an addition and good will to my local merchant. In addition, when you are out birding you might want to ask someone if you can look at their binocs. Also, if you go to a birding symposium you will see many different optic companies with their products. The binoculars I chose some years ago were Swarovski and when stolen recently I replaced them with the same. I keep a pair of Swift Ultra Lights in my car and have a pair of minis (Bushnell 8X25) that strap on when I am birking (birding/biking). Kowa was the scope choice but, it may not be the same today if I were to purchase another scope. I hope this was helpful. Abbie dovekie7@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================