Binoculars for Safari

dakid

dakid

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Hiya,

I'm looking to buy, in the next four-to-five months, some binoculars for taking on safari in February 2012. I want to get some good ones and am looking at spending around £300. £350 is too expensive, but I could go a little over maybe.

I don't know huge amounts about binoculars, but Warehouse Express has Nikon Monarch X 8.5x45 DCF binoculars on at a cost of £329 and they seem fairly popular. Are they any good?

I should say that I don't believe there will be any night drives on the safari, but I'd still welcome decent low-light performance from them.

Advice and comments very welcome and gratefully received!

Thanks,

Martin
 
Why would you spend £300+ on 8.5x45 bino? Get a Celestron Nature 10x50 Porro for £60 - longer range and large aperture, waterproof etc a very good piece of kit.
 
Easy. Canon 10x30 IS. £300 when I bought mine. I treated myself to a 12x36 IS pair and Ms arad85 liked them so much I ended up buying her a 10x30 pair ;)

Once you've used IS binos, you don't ever want to use non-IS.

IMHO, the problem with the larger binos (10x50s) is carrying them (size and weight) - especially if you have camera gear with you too.
 
For safari I reckon of the order of 8x42 is about spot on. Higher mag are great for birding but too much for general use.

I must be proper mad by the definition above as I spent £1200 on Leica 8x42 when I could have got 10x50 for £60!

Viking and the RSPB branded range are good value midrange bins worth considering.
 
where are you going and what do you want the bino's for? When we did South Africa (sabi sands) I didn't have any use for binos and I'm glad I didn't take them. The game was close that the naked eye could see most everything you could want to see. You didn't have to do any finding and while you were driving you couldn't have looked through binos anyway as the roads were bumpy.

If you're going on a self-drive safari then that is a different story. Then you'll be doing the looking. In that case, field of view and comfort looking through them for a period of time are going to be important. Something in the range of 8x40 is a good general use bino. If you have the space and desire, then a x50 can be great for lower light and field of view. They are big and heavy though (comparatively).

If you're going somewhere that you're scanning long distances (200m+) then a 10 or 12X can be useful, but for general use you'll be better with an 8X and have a larger exit pupil for more light.

Thanks
Rick
 
Anything from around 8 x 40 to 10 x 50 will be fine, they have the same exit pupil and low light performance will be very similar. The quality of the optics can make some difference here. Don't be seduced by high magnification, anything more than x 10 can be a problem to hold steady, and even that's a bit of a stretch with compact binoculars, unless you use them a lot. I've never used binoculars with IS, so I can't comment on them, but I can hold my 8 x 40 Bushnells and 8 x 42 Leicas steady without it.

African nights are very, very, dark once you get away from towns and cities and the only binocular that is likely to be any use at all is a 7 x 50, providing there is some ambient light from the moon. Dawn and dusk are good for game viewing, and something around 8 x 40 or 10 x 50 is fine for that.

Just as a matter of interest, where are you going? The topography and vegetation varies a lot in Africa, from bushveld - thick vegetation and short viewing distances - to savannah and desert, which is pretty much the opposite.
 
My binoculars are the mighty Nikon Monarch 12x56 - superb in low light and cracking magnification; they weigh 1.18kg and, although supplied with a neoprene neck strap, are best carried on a harness available from the likes of Viking, etc..

The best bit? They retail around the £560 mark, WE have them for £429 but if you google 'Uttings Outdoor' they have them for £299.99. I cannot stress how great they are - I use them for birding so light and colour is quite important for me...I'm just glad I bought mine in New York in 2008 when the exchange rate brought them in at £220!

PS Just had a quick look and most of Uttings prices undercut a lot of suppliers - and a lot are in stock.
 
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MartynK said:
Anything from around 8 x 40 to 10 x 50 will be fine, they have the same exit pupil and low light performance will be very similar. The quality of the optics can make some difference here. Don't be seduced by high magnification, anything more than x 10 can be a problem to hold steady, and even that's a bit of a stretch with compact binoculars, unless you use them a lot. I've never used binoculars with IS, so I can't comment on them, but I can hold my 8 x 40 Bushnells and 8 x 42 Leicas steady without it.
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Agree with all of this. I take a pair of 8.5 x 42 Swarovski bins - but they're around £1200 which is probably a bit over budget. The Nikon Monarchs do have an excellent repuatation and 8.5 x 45 is ideally suited to use on safari.

I used to own a pair of 10x30 IS Canon bins and they were pretty useless. They're too dim and the eye relief is far too short for me. The only thing I found them useful for was astronomy.
 
I am a complete fan of the Canon 10x30, and since I bought them 4 yrs ago they have been to the Arctic, Antarctic, on safaris and have just returned from Alaska.
At least 7 of our friends have bought them since using ours, including people who used to swear by Swarovski, the IS is a great boon when you are in a moving platform of any kind.
However, try them out for yourself and compare to the others as you'll have to live with them!!
OK they are not so great in really dim light, but the IS IMO completely mmore than makes up for this, and on safari the light will generally be pretty good, even in the morning and evening.
 
IMO there is only one way to buy binoculars, especially if you are thinking of spending around £300, and that is to go to a place that is willing to let you try our a number of pairs and see what suits you.

Unless you have steady hands I would not go above a magnification of 10x.

The amaller the objective lenses the smaller the light gathering power. This may not be a problem if there is lots of light on the safari (eg African plains or the high Arctic in summer), but could be an issue in the jungle.

Porro prism binoculars are the old fashioned type, but can be cheaper, though generally heavier.

Roof prism binoculars tend to be lighter but more expensive.

Although you want them for a specific reason, I'm sure they will get used elsewhere.

Any binocular is a compromise. Bigger objective lenses gather more light, but increase the weight, smaller objectives make for a really light pair but aren't too good in low light. Big magnification makes things appear closer but are difficult to hold still.

Which I why going to try some is essential. The most popular sizes for hand held use are 7x50, 8x40, 8x42, 10x42.

The only place I have used recently for binoculars was InFocus http://www.at-infocus.co.uk/index.html

I spend well over an hour (at the Hertfordshire shop) trying lots of pairs (the guy asked my price limit and then gave me a number of pairs without telling me the price of each). I eventually got a pair at about 80% of my limit.

Time well spent.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
The amaller the objective lenses the smaller the light gathering power. This may not be a problem if there is lots of light on the safari (eg African plains.
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Almost all of the game drives in most places will be early morning or late afternoon when the light isn't very good. The reason I moved up from my previous bins (Swift Audubon 8.5 x 44) to my current Swarovski 8.5 x 42 was because of a Leopard. We were staying in Samburu Lodge where, every evening, they left food on the other side of the river for one of the local leopards. With my bins I could hardly see a thing - just a darker bit of dark that may, or may not have been moving. Somebody offered me a view through their Leicas and it was incredible just how different it was.

I'd looked through various different high-end bins at Birdfair but there didn't seem much difference in the daytime. But I did more research on my return from Kenya and ended up with the Swaros.
 
This may be a daft question, but are we talking a very big IQ difference between a £300 pair and a £1500 pair of binoculars? I was toying with the idea of Leica Ultravids for wildlife, or even looking at astronomy binoculars until I lost interest.
 
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Laudrup said:
This may be a daft question, but are we talking a very big IQ difference between a £300 pair and a £1500 pair of binoculars? I was toying with the idea of Leica Ultravids for wildlife, or even looking at astronomy binoculars until I lost interest.
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There can be a fair amount of difference, yes, but I don't think anyone would argue that the very expensive binos are the best choice for everyone. You get top quality materials/workmanship, which usually results in greater clarity, colour rendition, contrast and low light capability; which tend to show up more under adverse conditions, and they can take a lot of wear and tear/abuse for years, but are they worth it? IMO, if you can afford them, and want the best, yes. If you are a wildlife/bird pro, spending a lot of time in the field in all weathers, yes. If you are going on one safari, probably not. There are plenty of excellent binos at less than half the price.
 
Laudrup said:
This may be a daft question, but are we talking a very big IQ difference between a £300 pair and a £1500 pair of binoculars? I was toying with the idea of Leica Ultravids for wildlife, or even looking at astronomy binoculars until I lost interest.
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Like Martyn says, there is a difference but it's probably not big enough to make the extra expense worthwhile for most people. It's the same with just about anything, you'll always meet the law of diminishing returs. Is a £200 amp for your music system 10 times better that a £20 amp? Probably. But is it 10 times worse than a £2000 amp? Almost certainly not.

For the bins, you'll get a great pair for around £300. The only reason I got an expensive pair was that the company paid over half the cost as my retirement present!
 
I know they are a tad expensive, to say the least, but I recently got a pair of Canon 10X42 L Binoculars, and they are just fantastic. Truly amazing.
 
subwax said:
I know they are a tad expensive, to say the least, but I recently got a pair of Canon 10X42 L Binoculars, and they are just fantastic. Truly amazing.
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Yeah, the L version of the IS bins looks good. However, it's still got a lousy eye-relief which makes them a pain for spec-wearers.
 
hollis_f said:
Yeah, the L version of the IS bins looks good. However, it's still got a lousy eye-relief which makes them a pain for spec-wearers.
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Have to say I just push my specs up out of the way and have the two lenses balanced for my eyes. But then my "only" sight defect is old age and I don't have any astigmatism or other faults to correct...
 
This is a link to a page that gives some very good advice about evaluating binoculars.
 
I've been using a pair of Hilkinson 8 x 56 binos for a few years now:
http://www.claritas-online.co.uk/products/product_pages/binoculars/resolution.html
and with particular reference to safaris have used them in low light conditions in East and South Africa and have been very pleased with them.
The exit pupil diameter is 7mm and really copes well with low light.

We went to the RSPB reserve at Pulborough today and with this thread in mind I tried out the binos on display and compared them with mine.

I'm a sucker for spending money on something newer and "better" but I really struggled to best my Hilkinsons with those on display.
Of course I didn't get my mits on those locked in the display cabinet but then they were somewhere in the stratosphere price wise.

If my Hilkinsons were to disappear in a puff of smoke today I would not hesitate in replacing them with the same.
 
footman said:
I've been using a pair of Hilkinson 8 x 56 binos for a few years now:
http://www.claritas-online.co.uk/products/product_pages/binoculars/resolution.html
and with particular reference to safaris have used them in low light conditions in East and South Africa and have been very pleased with them.
The exit pupil diameter is 7mm and really copes well with low light.

If my Hilkinsons were to disappear in a puff of smoke today I would not hesitate in replacing them with the same.
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The only 8 x 56 binos I've used were an older pair of Zeiss. Superb performance but very heavy, because of the big objective lenses. Their 7mm exit pupil is the same as a 7 x 50 night glass, but most people find that they can't take full advantage of it as they get older, because our pupils can't dilate as much.

I have 8 x 40 (cheap) and 8 x 42 (expensive), but I used to live in Africa and the binos that probably got the most use were my 10 x 25 Leicas. Compact, featherweight, excellent quality and surprisingly good at dawn and dusk for a 2.5 exit pupil. The bigger guys were better, obviously, but no fun to carry up and down mountain trails and on bush hikes!
 
We have a couple of pairs of opticron bins and an opticron scope for birding, good budget - mid range gear.

Keep an eye out at your local RSPB reserve, they have excellent optic days where you can actually get your hands on the gear.
 
Wow ... what a response. Thank you everyone! I'm sorry I've not been able to get on until now, but with impending wedding and house move, it's all a bit busy Chez DaKid.

To answer the questions from above ... as part of a 2.5 week honeymoon from mid-Feb, we're going to Kenya and spending the first two nights near Lake Naivasha, followed by three nights at Governors Il Moran in the Masai Mara, before we move on to the sun and sea bit of the holiday. There are only morning and afternoon drives scheduled, but your guess is as good as mine as to what time that means.

It sounds like it would be a very good thing for me to get somewhere to try out some binoculars, although I guess it's difficult to replicate the low-light conditions particularly, although maybe a grey November/December would be a fairly useful simile!

It also sounds like anything greater than 10x would be too much for Safari though, and that maybe x30 is not quite powerful enough, even if it does come with IS?? I've never been on Safari before though, so more advice definitely welcome! :)
 
dakid said:
and that maybe x30 is not quite powerful enough, even if it does come with IS??
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Try a pair (a lot of Canon dealers will have them in). IMHO, the IS more than makes up for the lack of aperture as unless you're talking real dusk, your pupils will be small anyway and the exit diameter won't come into the equation. With IS, I can hold mine steady enough to see the tail fin emblems of planes passing 20,000ft near enough above our house. Without IS, it's all a blurry mess...
 
Bit of a thread resurrection, but I'm tidying up my email inbox!!

I just wanted to say that I ended up buying the Canon 10x30 IS and have never regretted it. I used it on safari, have used it at open-air concerts, and used it at the olympics, and it was awesome for all of them. Thank you everyone for the advice!!
 
dakid said:
I just wanted to say that I ended up buying the Canon 10x30 IS and have never regretted it.
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Good, good... They can suffer from chromatic aberration though in very bright contrasty conditions, but I did tell you ;) :D
 
arad85 said:
Good, good... They can suffer from chromatic aberration though in very bright contrasty conditions, but I did tell you ;) :D
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Haven't really noticed that yet, but out of curiosity will keep an eye out. Plenty good enough for me though, and I'd never get a more expensive pair past the missus anyway ;)
 
dakid said:
Haven't really noticed that yet, but out of curiosity will keep an eye out. Plenty good enough for me though, and I'd never get a more expensive pair past the missus anyway ;)
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don't do it... if you haven't noticed any CA using them then don't go looking for it. If you do you'll probably notice it and then won't be able to use them without seeing it.
 
postcardcv said:
don't do it... if you haven't noticed any CA using them then don't go looking for it. If you do you'll probably notice it and then won't be able to use them without seeing it.
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Too late for that now :D
 
I've only ever noticed it at the periphery, and in one specific contrasty condition I was using them in... and my binos are the 12x36 so will probably be different to yours ;)
 
I'll still be looking for it now ;)
 
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