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.

Years ago, I bought an inexpensive wide-angle 7 x 35 binoculars with a 'rocker' focus. It has proven to be a very good choice for bird watching. The key here is wide angle and not too much magnification. This binocular is smaller and easier to handle than a 8 x 50 or 10 x 50 and the image is not jittery. It is a little less bright than an 8 x 50, but is bright enough. A 10 power binocular is difficult to use because a person can not hold it steady enough to calm the image and its narrow field of view makes it difficult to track a bird in flight. If you wish to get a close view of birds at your feeder from inside your house, make sure that the binocular can focus close enough. Many binoculars can not focus on objects closer than 15 to 20 feet. The general rule is the higher the power, the greater the distance of the minimum focus distance. Calculate a 'guide' number to judge potential brightness for comparisons. Use an 8x50 as standard. The guide number is 50/8 or about 6. The guide number for 7 x 35 is 35/7 or 5. Thus you could expect the 7x35 to be a little less bright than the 8x50 (power x objective diameter). Having a rocker focus (quick acting) rather than turing a knurled nut is a very useful feature for bird watching, although these tend to be a bit more wobbley than the nut type. For birding, you will need a binocular that operates in cold weather. Some cheap units masks loose fitting focusing parts with thick grease. This lubricant can get very stiff in the cold. I do not recommend buying binoculars on-line because you need to handle the binoculars before purchasing. The one exception to this is if you are buying a known brand and model with which you are familar.

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 can vouch for the Nikon Actions as I have an 8-10 year old pair of of 10X50 ones and my wife just selected a 7X35 pair (model 7215) this month. I like the way the new ones are rubber armored. They have outstanding sharp optics and are very bright. The 7X35 just cost $68 from Academy and I suspect you can get them a little cheaper online. They are not waterproof but for the price are a great value. Nikon binoclars have a 25-year warranty against defects and they have a lifetime "no-fault policy" whereby they will either fix or replace them for $10 plus shipping and handling even if the problem was your fault.