[Public-List] Binoculars

[Stephen Gwyn]

Higher than 7x is jumpy, lower than 6x isn't very useful.

Larger aperture gives you more light, but when it's really
dark, it doesn't help anyway. I think it's mattered maybe
twice to me in the last 30 years, in the twilight. And
modern coatings really increase transmission.

I really like my West Marine binoculars. In terms of
optics, there's very little to choose between their
200$ (or wait until they go on sale for 100$) binoculars
and their 500$ (or more) Japanese or German cousins.
Good glass, well ground, with good coatings. Just don't
drop them. While no pair of binoculars likes shocks,
West Marine binos are more fragile than most.
But mine are now 15 years old and have been bumped a
fair bit over the years with out problems. But they're the
7x50's so not what you are asking for.

So maybe these guys:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--shoreline-8-x-42-waterproof-binoculars--16730525?recordNum=7
They go on sale half-price as loss-leaders on a regular basis.

But I haven't looked through them, so I can't say for sure.

SG