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Photo Forum / General Photo Topics / UK Photography / October 2003Binoculars advice - 8 x 40
Dixons are advertising some Miranda 8 x 40 Binoculars for £19.89 when presenting a £20 newspaper voucher. No model number is quoted. Are these likely to be any good? Has anybody bought any. I want them for watching Horse Racing and Cricket mainly. > Dixons are advertising some Miranda 8 x 40 Binoculars for ?19.89 when > presenting a ?20 newspaper voucher. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > I want them for watching Horse Racing and Cricket mainly. They **might** have changed the model since the 1980's when I bought a Miranda 8x40 but it still goes well despite falling off out car when moving and many other accidents, they were well built. But I would consider either 7x50 or 8x50 - the 50 will make the wider view seem much better for racing and cricket. Look on e-bay, I have just got a second hand pair of PARAGON 7x50 for about ?16 inc. P&P and the bloke seemed to be selling a few each week. MarkBR Thanks to everyone for the good advice given. Well you get what you pay for. they will be competent but not very good. The magnification of 8 isn't too big, excessive magnification makes viewing fast moving objects difficult - for sailing I use 7 x 50. where the problem is that you, the user, are bouncing up and down! 40 mm objective is OK, should be reasonable in poor light. Don't buy mail order, test them in the shop. You need to check that the two images are correctly aligned and that you can focus both to suit your eyesight. If you wear glasses see if the bins can be used with and without glasses on. Otherwise just check for robustness and general build quality, binoculars tend to have a hard life. Don't expect too much for £20 lt fOn Mon, 27 Oct 2003 23:45:31 GMT, >Dixons are advertising some Miranda 8 x 40 Binoculars for £19.89 when >presenting a £20 newspaper voucher. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >I want them for watching Horse Racing and Cricket mainly. Thanks Henry. Aldi have some Binoculars on sale from 13th Nov. for £19.99 They are described as follows; Zoom Binoculars 8x to 24x magnification with 50mm red coated objective lens** Centre focusing wheel One eye dioptrically correctable** Fold down rubber eye cups Zoom lever Tripod socket Lens cap and cloth Heavy-duty case Manuf by Optus What do people think of the spec? Are they likely to be better than the Miranda's from Dixons Can anyone explain the items i've ** to a layman. What's the alternative to buying either of these. i.e. would a second hand pair be better, where would I get second hand from, how would I know if they were any good. > 8x to 24x magnification with 50mm red coated objective lens** Lenses are almost always coated or multicoated (better) with anti-reflective coatings. These improve contrast by reducing reflections/internal reflections. The fact that the coating is red is of no real importance. It probably isn't going to be the most advanced multi-coating on a £20 pair of binoculars. It becomes more important if you are looking at back-lit subjects. > One eye dioptrically correctable** If both your eyes have the same short/long sighted-ness, then you don't have to adjust binoculars (the optics of the focussing will bring things into focus for your vision (which may be out of focus for others)). But for people without identical eyes, a dioptre correct on on eyepiece means you can adjust the binoculars so that both eyepieces are in focus at the same point (for your eyes). You would do this by focussing the binoculars with the eye that has the eyepiece correction closed. Then close the eye you just used, and using the other eye bring the object into focus by adjusting the dioptre correction. Hope that helps, Ben Paul > 8x to 24x magnification with 50mm red coated objective lens** Variable magnification from 8x to 24x. In my opinion zoom binoculars are a gimmick and the zoom will probably reduce overall viewing quality. Also anything beyond 8x, certainly beyond 10x can be difficult to hold steady. Other bit is about coating on objective lens, probably meant to help increase contrast, possibly a gimmick, may wear off. Larger objective lenses pass more light, larger magnification needs more light. So in theory 8x,40 will be brighter than 8x,30; but also 7x,50 will be brighter than 8x,40 - hence use of 7x,50 by sailors who are perhaps more worried by poorlight than large pic. For most general use 6-8x and 30-40 is probably best, > One eye dioptrically correctable** Most people have different sight in each eye. This adjusts to compensate. You usually focus with left eye, then fine tune with right eye. > Are they likely to be better than the Miranda's from Dixons Try them and see, but I would doubt it. Dixon's could probably replace the Mirandas in a few months time, Aldi probably only have them in for a short period. > What's the alternative to buying either of these. i.e. would a second hand > pair be better, where would I get second hand from, how would I know if > they were any good. Second hand pair would probably let you get a much better pair for similar money. This would probably mean clearer, brighter picture. Don't worry too much about what the outside looks like. Concentrate on glass being clear and unscratched, smooth working, no double-image etc. Again TRY them and be certain you are comfortable with them. Where do you live? Try a local independent camera shop or Jessops. You might just have a specialist locally, but they are few and far between. To be frank you won't get much for £20, so the second hand route could have a lot to offer. > Thanks Henry. > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > pair be better, where would I get second hand from, how would I know if > they were any good. |
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