Which binocular should I choose?
June 7, 2010 by
Filed under Zoom Binoculars
I wanna buy a zoom binocular. I’ve selected some.
1. Barska Gladiator 20-140×80, Zoom Model#: AB11184
http://www.opticsplanet.net/barska-20-140×80-zoom-gladiator-binoculars-ab11184.html
2. Celestron Skymaster 25-125×80
http://www.opticsplanet.net/celestron-binoculars-skymaster-71020.html
Barska has no fog-proofing, but Celestron has. But Barska is pricier. In other cases, specs are almost the same.
So, what should I buy?
Does non fog-proof binos have a tendency to fog up inside?
If you’re going to buy a zoom binocular, then you probably don’t have astronomy in mind. Astronomers avoid zoom binoculars because they don’t focus sufficiently well. If you buy a zoom binocular and try to use them for astronomy, you’ll be disappointed.
I’d go with Orion rather than Celestron or Barska. I once had a problem with Celestron binocs that were miscolumated right out of the box. So I gave it to a kid to play with and bought an Orion pair. The two best Orion binoculars for most people are Orion Scenix 10×50 and Orion Little Giant 9×63.
Don’t buy a zoom binocular! Zoom binoculars have very poor optics compared to single magnification binoculars. Also, these magnifications are way too high for normal use. You will need the binoculars mounted on a massive tripod for them to be steady enough to see anything. The most useful size of binoculars for astronomy are 10×50. Anything larger requires a tripod, and that takes away from the whole binocular experience. If you want magnifications in this range, get a telescope with a proper mounting.
Only once in my life have I had binoculars fog up internally, and that was when I was using them on a sailboat.
You don’t state what they are goign to be used for but I would be hesitant to recommend either of them. If you think that by getting high-powered binos you are getting something for nothing because they do the same thing as a telescope forget it – even on an average bino mount this will be useless at 100+. If you plan on using them on a camera tripod forget the whole idea now.
Since you post in the astronomy area we will assume that is what you want them for. The key thing is aperture – 80mm in this case, and _low_ power – I would be hesitant of binos over 30 power even with a binos mount. At the kind of money you are looking at fixed magnification is the way to go – zoom binoculars tend to be poor until you start talking about four figure price tags. Use a telescope for high powered views. A telescope is designed from the ground up to work at high power, rather than having it tacked on so that it looks impressive in a listing, even if it is ultimately useless.