That is a lot to digest and I certainly will be doing that.

There are no stores in my town where I would find binoculars, but in two weeks I will be visiting in a larger town and hopefully can find something there.

I definitely will need to try them before I buy.

Thank you.

Sue

Check the sporting goods department of your local big box department stores. They usually have a fair selection of binoculars, monoculars, and spotting scopes.

A couple other excellent places to find good quality binoculars is Boating & marine supply stores or Gun shops.

Wow lazypup, that was some really good binoc info and advice. Thanks for taking the time to share all of that. I think that I shall print it out and save it for the day when I get enough money to buy myself a superb pair! I think that you are right about a person needing to go in person to try them. I suppose you could go to a store with a nice selection of good ones, decide what you want, write down the name, style, and model #'s and then go on-line in search of the best price for what you now know you definitely want. :

i have had cataract and retinal and laser surgery on my right eye. just fair vision with glasses about 20/30 and 20/40. also a floater that interfers with vision at times.
i use either a pair if binoculars for backyard veiwing or a lightweight spotting scope when walking around or siteseeing. both are inexpensive that i purchased at a local big box store. the binoculars are 8x30 with seperate adjustments on each eye piece and a center zoom and the handheld spotting scope has a pistal grip and is 10x50
they work well for me and i have a shelf near the window that the scopes and camera sit on. i usually do best by laying my glasses down and useing one or the other scopes

I've attached a link that might be helpful to you. I tried to read up when I was shopping for new binoculars and found myself on info overload. The information in this link is pretty straightforward. While it's now a few years outdated (as are the prices quoted), the objective information remains the same. Although I couldn't afford to shop in the price range contained here, I did find the info helpful.

I ended up purchasing a pair of Nikon Action 8 x 40 fairly inexpensively at binoculars.com and I'm very happy with them. I found that reading user reviews there and seeing comparisons was quite helpful. I hope this is useful and good luck.

Jann

Here is a link that might be useful: Mid-priced Binocular Review

More help, advice and suggestions. Very good!

We have a WalMart here but I didn't think they would have anything worthwhile, but I will check it out.

I'll be making notes to take with me when I go shopping.

Thanks to all of you.

Sue

Do not be too quick to dismiss WalMart. Out of curiosity I just went to their website and input the word "Binoculars" in their search bar and boy was I surprised at what I found.

I knew going in that Walmart has a very good sporting goods selection and serious hunters are very discriminating about their field optics, but I was not prepared for what I found.

I had expected to find moderately priced mid range binoculars from companies such as Tasco or Focal, although in retrospect I think "Focal" is a proprietary trade name associated with K-mart.

What I was not expecting to find was binoculars from top world class optical manufactures like Nikon, Canon, Pentax and Olympus, who are primarily known as professional photographic optics manufactures and Bushnell, Leopold, and Steiner who manufacture world class telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes and rifle & pistol sighting scopes.

While I found prices ranging from $27 to over $1200 In my opinion there are a number of items listed in the $50 to $100 range that would well meet the needs of an avid birdwatcher for years to come.

In my previous post I discussed the general construction of binoculars but there are a couple more features that I failed to mention.

ZOOM - You will see some binoculars that are listed as zoom lenses by example, they may say something like 6-10x.

I am sure that zoom lenses are desirable to some people, but in my experience you would probably always use them at the maximum magnification anyway so the zoom feature is moot. In addition, in order to achieve the zoom function they often have to add additional optical elements, which adds weight and reduces the light gathering ability resulting in a slightly darker image.

COATED OPTICS-Generally coated lenses are only found on higher class optics but they offer many advantages. In its simplest form they apply a coating that reduces UV (Ultraviolet light). A UV coating does not generally effect the image quality but by reducing the amount of UV light that passes through the lens it will greatly reduce eye fatigue. They also apply coatings to reduce internal light flare, chromatic aberrations and aspherical aberrations. These coatings help maintain edge sharpness and color sharpness in the image and in my opinion they should be considered a very desirable feature.

i agree with lazypup except the question of zoom features.
because i have had surgerys and injurys and cataracts and retina detachment and lazer surgery and my old age the zoom feature is important to me. as a young man i hunted with open sight rifles or pistols and was an accomplished
hunter. After a major injury to my right eye i started using a 4xscope for hunting and then to a 6x power scope and after other injusrys and surgerys a 6to 9 power zoom the same with binoculars my first pair is over55 years old and still serviceable and is 7x35 without zoom and i don't focus well enough with them anymore except for cerain ranges, the current pair has a zoom feature and even in backyard birding the closest feeder is about 6 fot from the window and the furtherest 50 foot away and the zoom really helps me with focus. the hand held spotting scope has a pistol grip and i can use it with my good eye and is especially good looking across a field or up a hill side or just sitting in a park going from tree to tree.

I may have lucked out.

I was at my grandaughter's for dinner yesterday. Her husband is an amateur (but very good) photographer and he just happened to have these binoculars that were given to him. He gave them to me. I may never use the camera, though.

Here is a short video about them.

I'll see if they will be okay for my needs.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Sharper Image

I have a pair of Nikon Trailblazers... I love them. I only recently started watching birds, but I think these are great for it. I got them at my Walmart. They are 10x25; 6.5(deg. symbol ??) WF; & Waterproof. I believe I gave about $70 for them, but they are well worth it!

Hope this helps!

~Shannon

Pawnshops are good places to check for binoculars. I dropped mine on a vacation to Myrtle Beach once & before I unpacked I found a replacement pair for about $40.00 in a pawnshop. They had several to chose from as well. Course that was in the 80's so $40.00 pair would be considerably more now.
Susan

Sorry if you can't see the video.

Try the link.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Binocs