Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums
Privacy Policy |
Please read our Terms
of Service | Signup and
Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu.... uh, User
saidiadude
newbie
Reged: 05/02/08
Posts: 3
|
|
I'm a newbie to Binoculars. I've read a few of the posts (great resources on this site). I'm looking for entry-level binoculars with the following properties:
- General Backpacking/hiking use (not birdwatching)
- Fog/Water resistant (waterproof would be better)
- 8x-10x range, wide angle (42-50mm)
- Low price (budget is an issue)
- Reasonably tough (I'm clumsy :-)
- Very light astronomy (may get telescope later)
- 2lbs or under. Not too bulky (6" or less)
I tried a few binoculars at the local stores and I liked this one the best for a starter set:
Tasco Sierra 10x42. It's $39+tax at the local Big 5 Sporting Goods store. At that price, I figure I won't feel too bad if I drop it or damage it otherwise on the trails.
Does anyone have any experience with this particular set? Tasco quality in general?
Thanks for your help.
Edit: Specs from Tasco's website:
Model: TS1042D, 10x42, Center Focus, Roof Prism, 293 FOV (1000yds), Exit pupil: 4.2, Eye relief: 12.5, Weight: 25 ounces.
Edited by saidiadude (05/04/08 09:30 PM)
|
RussL
Music Maker
Reged: 03/18/08
Posts: 1925
Loc: Cayce, SC
|
|
Welcome to CN!
I'm not the expert here, but for your purposes I can help. If you're not gonna use your binos for much astronomy, you will be pleased with the Tascos--except for maybe one thing: eye relief. Just look through them and see if you can see the entire field of view. Do you wear glasses? If so, you will want longer eye relief than if you don't wear glasses. No need to get all technical here, just look through them. If you don't see the whole field of view, try rolling down the rubber eyecups (or twisting down the other kind) to see if that helps. My old Tascos didn't have much eye relief. I wear glasses and could only see about half the field.
Also, angle of view (as in "wide") is measured in degrees. For instance, if those 10x binos say 6-degree FOV, then they are wide angle basically. Sometimes they don't say, but specify feet at a thousand yards. Something like 400 or so feet would be a wide angle. It varies. Some are sorta wide and some are very wide. Some are narrow. They don't have to be too wide to still give a good view.
Know this: you get what you pay for in binos. My first ones were cheap Tascos and I had a ball with them. But I wish I had known about eye relief above all. You'll be fine with something like that until you study up on what specs mean and knw what you really want next time.
Also check out Bushnell. I think they may be better than Tasco these days. Now get ready for some replies from the pros on here.
Clear skies! 
--------------------
--Dawg, the Russell
"Akita mani yo." Observe everything as you walk. (--Lakota)
Celestron Celestar 8 Standard SCT, f10
Celestron 80mm Wide View ref., f5
Orion 120ST ref., f5
Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, Newt., f8, (c. 1962)
Sears Discoverer 60mm ref., f7, (c. 1973)
Celestron Ultima DX 10x50, 6.5 TFOV
Tasco 7x35 wide
Several mediocre eyepieces
|
mttafire
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/02/06
Posts: 1114
Loc: midwest
|
|
Garrett 8x45: 99.00
Excellent general all around use bino.
--------------------
God Bless America
Binocular astronomy
for me ONLY.
8x45 Garretts
15x70 Skymasters
2 eyes!
|
Mark9473
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/21/05
Posts: 3211
Loc: 51°N 4°E
|
|
I have no experience whatsoever with those Tasco's, but generally in that price range I would avoid buying a roof prism binocular. They are more expensive to make to a decent quality than comparatively sized porro prism binoculars.
I highly recommend you read through this: http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1769
--------------------
Mark
Leica 8x20; Vixen 8x42; Swift 8.5x44, 10x50 and 20x80; TS 7x50; Orion 15x63; Docter 15x60
WO Megrez II 80 FD + Baader 90° T2 Amici
|
KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 12895
Loc: Lancashire UK
|
|
Welcome !
Based upon the lack of replies , it appears you may be very lucky to find anyone here would has actually tried that particular model .
At $39 , it's certainly the least expensive 42mm roof prism model I've ever come across .
Don't expect too much for that kind of money , but if it's all you have to spend at this time , then at that price , ignorance is probably a blissful attribute .
The absence of even " claimed " eye - relief in the specs. given would definitely worry me if I were intending upon wearing glasses when using them , and is poor form in any case .
Also , conventional wisdom tells us that dollar for dollar , Porro prism binoculars ought to offer better views than Roofs .
I once bought a 10x 42mm ish Porro ( Bresser ) in this kind of price bracket , and it was surprisingly OK for the money .
Since , at this price point , luck may be what you need more of than overload of information , I will close by wishing you good luck ! :-)
Kenny
--------------------
If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
Zeiss 7 x 42 BGAT
Captain's Helmsman 7 x 50
Nikon 10 x 42 Superior E
Swift Audubon Kestrel 10 x 50
Helios 15 x 70 Observation
Strathspey 20 x 90
Televue 76 APO
Zeiss 85 Diascope
Helios 102 f5 refractor
Various eyepieces barlows tripods mounts etc.
Panasonic Lumix DMC - TZ5 digital camera
|
RussL
Music Maker
Reged: 03/18/08
Posts: 1925
Loc: Cayce, SC
|
|
Me again. Yeah, I'll bet the eye relief is short, otherwise they would be bragging about how long it is. But if you don't wear glasses they may still work for you. I was surprised to see that they are "fully multi-coated." Don't know if that includes the prisms.
5.6-degree "angular view" equals a 56-degree apparent FOV in these, 5.6 times 10, (what it looks like to your eyes when you look in them--wide enough).
4.2mm exit pupil. Not as bright an image as a 10x50 would give, or even a 7x35 among others, so they won't excel at twilight or on cloudy days, but will give good saturation on bright views.
Waterproof AND fogproof, they say. That's good. How tight they are is in question, but probably ok in rain, but you wouldn't want to dunk them.
Tripod adaptable. Good. (You'll need to buy the adapter, I suppose, or make one--ain't hard).
25 oz. Fine.
Center focus. Best for general use.
The guys are correct about getting more bang for your buck with porro prisms, but just go look through them again and see if you can see any problems in the image, especially as to eye relief. You'll like them better if you can "get inside" them without having to cram them through your head to get the full view. At the price you at least won't have to grimace too hard if something happens to them.
I still have an old pair of Tasco 7x35 that I think I paid $30 for about ten years ago. They're easy to look through is the reason I have kept them. Not the best eye relief, but I can just get by with them. They're the ones I take hiking and such since I don't worry about them like I would for my more expensive 10x50s that I save for astronomy.
Try some other binos, too, to get used to comparing. I also have an old pair of Bushnell 8x30 that actually had a better image than the Tascos until the dang cat knocked them off a table.
Just trying to help all I can.
--------------------
--Dawg, the Russell
"Akita mani yo." Observe everything as you walk. (--Lakota)
Celestron Celestar 8 Standard SCT, f10
Celestron 80mm Wide View ref., f5
Orion 120ST ref., f5
Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, Newt., f8, (c. 1962)
Sears Discoverer 60mm ref., f7, (c. 1973)
Celestron Ultima DX 10x50, 6.5 TFOV
Tasco 7x35 wide
Several mediocre eyepieces
|
RussL
Music Maker
Reged: 03/18/08
Posts: 1925
Loc: Cayce, SC
|
|
Somewhere (I wanna say on this site) is an article about how to test binos in the store, but I can't seem to find it. I think it was by EdZ.
Ed, or anybody, can you give a hand? 
--------------------
--Dawg, the Russell
"Akita mani yo." Observe everything as you walk. (--Lakota)
Celestron Celestar 8 Standard SCT, f10
Celestron 80mm Wide View ref., f5
Orion 120ST ref., f5
Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, Newt., f8, (c. 1962)
Sears Discoverer 60mm ref., f7, (c. 1973)
Celestron Ultima DX 10x50, 6.5 TFOV
Tasco 7x35 wide
Several mediocre eyepieces
|
saidiadude
newbie
Reged: 05/02/08
Posts: 3
|
|
How are these: Barska 8x42? Reverse porro BK-7 prism. Field of view 378 feet at 1000 yards. What exactly is a "RUBY" coating? I haven't found them in a store near me yet.
BTW, Thanks everyone for your help! This is one of the friendliest forums I've been on :-) Your feedback has been invaluable. I don't wear glasses and I had no problem with the 10x42. Just for fun, I tried the 12x50 Tasco and had a very difficult time (11mm eye relief). Since I'm not in a rush to buy the binoculars, I'll do some more comparison shopping to find what I like. Other recommendations/comments are welcome!
Edited by saidiadude (05/05/08 07:33 PM)
|
BillC
on a new path
Reged: 06/04/04
Posts: 2237
Loc: Washington, USA
|
|
Ruby coatings are designed to blow a lot of light back into space--shrinking the effective size of your aperture, thus reducing contrast--while salesmen tell you that you are increasing contrast by using them.
Cheers,
Bill
--------------------
William J. Cook, Chief Opticalman, USNR-Ret.
Founding Editor, Amateur Telescope Making Journal
20-year vet. of Captain's Nautical Supplies, Optics Dept. Mgr.
Optics Machanic, WG11-3306, Ft. Lewis, Tacoma,WA
Yata, Yata, Yata . . .
|
Rich N
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/22/04
Posts: 5562
Loc: San Francisco Bay Area, Calif...
|
|
I suggest you go to a good camera store or sporting goods store that sells the top of the line binoculars (Leica, Swarovski, and Zeiss) and look through several of them. This will give you a point of reference when you are shopping for modestly priced binoculars.
Good binoculars are built to take a few bumps and keep working well.
Good luck,
Rich
|
saidiadude
newbie
Reged: 05/02/08
Posts: 3
|
|
Good idea. I'll check out a few binoculars over the next few weekends. It's probably best to save up some money and buy something like this: Celestron Oceana 7x50
|
Rich N
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/22/04
Posts: 5562
Loc: San Francisco Bay Area, Calif...
|
|
I recently bought a friend an Orion 8x42 Ultraview. It's a nice "all around" binocular.
If you want to use the binocular in the daytime it is nice to be able to focus on something that is less than 15 feet away.
|
etc
member
Reged: 01/27/08
Posts: 46
|
|
FWIW, I had a cheap Tasco scope and that thing was horrible. I forget what power it was but a relatively low powered quality binoculars would be much better. Just a total waste of finances.
I have a few "Alpha" binos, and they are great. A Leica or a Swaro will never fail to generate the "wow" feeling with the sharpness and clarity.
However, I was surprised to see that mid-priced binos were almost as good, actually I could totally live with them if I had to.
Binocular performance is logarithimic. You have to spend 2-3 times as much to get a 5%-10% improvement and sometimes it takes an expert to notice it.
In the price range of $100 or less, I would definitely get a porro prism instead of a roof. I saw a roof bino, 10x50 at Walmart and it was surprisingly good. The only problem I had was lack of eye relief and IPD was not exactly right. If you wear no eyeglasses, it's not an issue.
Some other ideas to consider. Get a used mid-priced bino ($300 range) it might be most cost-effective.
Get a used Leica or Swarovski off Ebay. Sometimes you can pick up an older bino for a surprisingly low price.
Get Russian binoculars, some porros are a pretty good copy of Zeiss. I had a pair and unfortunately lost it. Eye relief is poor, they are not waterproof but they are interestingly enough fairly usable, and moderately priced, a great value.
|
RussL
Music Maker
Reged: 03/18/08
Posts: 1925
Loc: Cayce, SC
|
|
Hi again! I don't know what your budget limit is, but I would highly recommend anything in the Nikon Action Extreme series, especially the 10x50. They're included in some of the comparison reports in this forum by EdZ. I think you can get them for around $150. I also looked at some Bushnell Nature View 8x40s that impressed me for $112. It's true that the more you spend, the better they will be, although at some point the improvements will become less and less apparent unless you REALLY know what you're looking for.
Anyone find that article about testing them in the store yet?
--------------------
--Dawg, the Russell
"Akita mani yo." Observe everything as you walk. (--Lakota)
Celestron Celestar 8 Standard SCT, f10
Celestron 80mm Wide View ref., f5
Orion 120ST ref., f5
Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, Newt., f8, (c. 1962)
Sears Discoverer 60mm ref., f7, (c. 1973)
Celestron Ultima DX 10x50, 6.5 TFOV
Tasco 7x35 wide
Several mediocre eyepieces
|
werewolf6977
Lord High Smasher
Reged: 12/15/03
Posts: 8429
Loc: Hanover, Ohio
|
|
Even the Nikon Action type VII would be better than a $39.00 Tasco roofie. Most cheap roofies are too dim for good astro use.
--------------------
Pete
6" Apogee/LXD55
Starhopper 6" Dob
Spaceprobe 130EQ
Black C8 OTA
WO Zenith Star 66 Patriot Edition
Sun Pak Pro 7500 Platinum Edition
8X42 Bushnell H2O Porro
7X35 Tasco
10X50 Nikon Actions (Type 7)
15X70 Skymasters
Dell Inspiron Dual Core 531s
"Science without Religion is lame, Religion without Science is blind" A.Einstein.
|
|
5 registered and 19 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: EdZ
Print Thread
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Thread views: 1142
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
[Re: 