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 think that a 10 x 25 binocular would be useless for photography - not enough light gathering power and the tele power is fixed at 10 times. The poster above recommended an low cost camera with an optical zoom lens. I agree with that recomendation. 10 x 25 => 10 power by 25 mm diameter objective lens. An officer's binocular is about 8 x 50. Its brightness is roungly 50/8 or a little over 6. Use "6" as a standard for comparison. The 10x25 brightness is 25/10 or 2.5. This thing is dim. Furthermore, you won't be able to hand hold a shot at 10x magnification. A very stiff tripod is needed to steady the shot. Also, the fastest shutter speed you can get is needed. The low light of the 10 x 25 binocular will not provide a fast shutter speed. A good camera with zoom provides much more light gathering power measured by its f/stop number; The lower the number, the greater its light gathering power. A zoom lens should be marked with two f/stop ratings, for example f/2.8 - f/5.8. The largest ratio, f/2.8 is the opening at the lowest end of the zoom range and the smaller ratio, f/5.8, would be the opening at the high end of the zoom range. Look at the Canon Power Shot series. These cameras have some of the widest openings at full zoom. However some other brands have sensors with better dynamic range of exposure.

I've searched for threads about this, but, have not seen a lot of information so, can anybody give me a good recommendation for birding binoculars? My budget can go as high as $150.00. I had earlier seen a post from somebody saying that he found a real good pair of binoculars that ALSO have a built-in camera....that would be even better. Thanks in advance. Kevin

I'm really unhappy with my Swarovski binocs. They are great to look through, but the lens covers never stay on - the ones that cover the large end not only don't stay on to cover the lens, but the whole thing falls off...I've lost so many that I finally gave up. The hard plastic cover that covers the eyeball side of the lenses also seems to be a poor design. they were so expensive, I'd really like to keep the lenses from scratching, but it's impossible. I would never buy these again.