Compact wide-angle waterproof binoculars?

[wtarzia]

Will anyone recommend a compact wide-angle waterproof binoculars? I don't need a fantastic pair since my sailing is all coastal and rarely more than 3 or 4 miles from land but I do want something aboard and I have found that my little Brunton monocular is fairly useless in a small pitching boat (and not very waterproof, either). Price range up to $200 maybe. -- Wade

[TimH]

Not compact, but fine German optics.

http://www.go2marine.com/docs/8/6/5/8/86585F-p.jpg

I just got a pair for my birthday.

[Thorne]

Personally for small open boat use, I like the 10x25/26 or 12x50 lightweight waterproof ones that can be comfortably worn around the neck for long periods of time.

Cabelas carries several decent models depending on your price range -
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0022060711806a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Product_liberal&QueryText=waterproof+binoculars&sort=all&Go.y=0&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0039161712344a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Product_liberal&QueryText=waterproof+binoculars&sort=all&Go.y=0&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?type=product&cmCat=Related_IPL_712344&id=0057563713041a

[paladin]

Get 2...I kept a small hideaway on the boat for my Steiners....and in the binoc box left a pair of cheap Tascos....if someone was gonna steal them the cheap ones went (twice)...still have the Steiners.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

7x or 8x would be my pick for magnification - anything above that is a tricky thing to hand-hold - very tricky without a lot of practice.

My 7x claim a 132m field of view at 1,000m and the 8x - 105m - but you'll be lucky to get that if you wear glasses - the eye relief figure might matter a lot.

[JimM]

I recently purchased 10 x 42 Zen ED2 binocs made by Zen Ray Optics. very clear for $412. Chinese version of european roof prisim binocs. Very wide field of view.

[wtarzia]

Get 2...I kept a small hideaway on the boat for my Steiners....and in the binoc box left a pair of cheap Tascos....if someone was gonna steal them the cheap ones went (twice)...still have the Steiners.

--- Good idea. In my garage I keep some sacrifical tools, poorer duplicates of tools I have in my basement, hoping the thief will be happy to take them for a quick getaway. The router gives minor electric shocks (which is why it is retired) and so brings a curse to the thief.

[wtarzia]

I have a VERY cheap pair of plastic 4X binoculars, kept in car glovebox. I think they were made for little kids. I really like how the low power gives a steady image and of course reduces brightness less than higher powers as it gets dark. But I haven't found any maginifcations under 7 or 8 for binoculars worth having.

My Brunton monocular is 8X25 and very hard to use, which is why I didn't go for the usual compact binoculars.

My father's old boat glasses I have right here before me, cheap Sears wide-angle 7x35, which he kept on his Chriscraft, not waterproof but they were cheap enough to not worry about for fair weather weekends (they are now misaligned, and also, on my outrigger it is hard to keep anything dry). I wouldn't mind a WP version of something like that.

[bluedog225]

Get 2...I kept a small hideaway on the boat for my Steiners....and in the binoc box left a pair of cheap Tascos....if someone was gonna steal them the cheap ones went (twice)...still have the Steiners.

Steiners, that's nice. Top of line scuba to include photg equip, variety of high-end firearms and edged weapons, cannon, titanium chainmail, french jump boots, multiple receivers, a machine gun or two, several boasts....Be easier to list what you don't have? :D You're raising the dues on my man card. :)

[paladin]

The only difference between men and boys izz the price of their toys......

It's not who dies with the most toys, wins...
but
he who dies with the most working toys, wins.

I might mention that I got the Steiners in Saudia Arabia.....the cheapest I found them in the U.S. was Boat U.S. for just under $800, and Optics planet had them at $999 a set......In Dammam I saw several sets with case with the asking price of $750 for the Commander III's.....I started "negotiating", and for the next 45 minutes and 3 cups of tea later, they were mine, case and all for $550 American. On the way back I saw them in the duty free shops in Berlin for $2500.00 (and less than half that in Boat U.S.

[Gary Bergman]

Well, a few years back, we gave Wastw Marine over 300$ for a pair of nice, pretty blue binoc's.....Sportsman's guide has the same pair for 70$.....range finders in them are nice..

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

There are 6x and 7x in waterproof fairly easily available

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Binoculars/ci/1010/N/4294541827
Have a really neat search tool - where you select the features you want....

[bluedog225]

Steiners, that's nice. Top of line scuba to include photg equip, variety of high-end firearms and edged weapons, cannon, titanium chainmail, french jump boots, multiple receivers, a machine gun or two, several boasts....Be easier to list what you don't have? :D You're raising the dues on my man card. :)

Oops.....should have said "several boats".....:rolleyes:

[Ian McColgin]

Steiners are top of the middle line. You can spend more. You can also get close enough to that quality with the better Fujion, but in a bigger unit.

Power and all is a never ending issue. I say 7x50 as the best compromise for boating. On shore I can handhold something up to maybe 12 power steady enough to see much. Thing is, the field of view really helps with target acquisition and 7x50 delivers as much light as the dilated eye can handle in low light.

Note on that low light. If you hold the binocs up at arms length and look through the ocular (eye piece) you'll see a light disc about at the center. That's the image and is called the exit pupil. Any bigger than the human eye opens to is wasted light, and smaller is denied light. In daylight, the human eye's pupil is not wide and no matter what size glass you have, the exit pupil will be bigger than your eye's opening, but so what? At night, the human eye will dilate to about 7mm so a glass with that size exit pupil is maximizing it's total size and the resultant exit pupil.

The exit pupil happens to work out easily as the size of the objective (the lens away from the eye) divided by the power of the glass. So 7x50 gives an EP of just over 7mm. The very common bird glass 8x40 gives an EP of only 5mm, making it fine in daylight, poor at dusk, and useless at night.

For mariners, a night glass is important. From there, you make choises based on field of view and clarity as you hold it in a bouncing boat. Seven power is about as much as you can hold and read a bouy number at a half mile or so. More power and the number just hops about too much.

G'luck

[wtarzia]

There are 6x and 7x in waterproof fairly easily available

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Binoculars/ci/1010/N/4294541827
Have a really neat search tool - where you select the features you want....

--- Thanks, found what I want there, a pair of Nikon WP wide-angle 7x35s, just ordered. (Love those Steiners but they cost a third of what my boat cost me :-) -- Wade

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Great - do remember to write a review once you've tried them out on the water.

[floatingkiwi]

Steiners are top of the middle line. You can spend more. You can also get close enough to that quality with the better Fujion, but in a bigger unit.

Power and all is a never ending issue. I say 7x50 as the best compromise for boating. On shore I can handhold something up to maybe 12 power steady enough to see much. Thing is, the field of view really helps with target acquisition and 7x50 delivers as much light as the dilated eye can handle in low light.

Note on that low light. If you hold the binocs up at arms length and look through the ocular (eye piece) you'll see a light disc about at the center. That's the image and is called the exit pupil. Any bigger than the human eye opens to is wasted light, and smaller is denied light. In daylight, the human eye's pupil is not wide and no matter what size glass you have, the exit pupil will be bigger than your eye's opening, but so what? At night, the human eye will dilate to about 7mm so a glass with that size exit pupil is maximizing it's total size and the resultant exit pupil.

The exit pupil happens to work out easily as the size of the objective (the lens away from the eye) divided by the power of the glass. So 7x50 gives an EP of just over 7mm. The very common bird glass 8x40 gives an EP of only 5mm, making it fine in daylight, poor at dusk, and useless at night.

For mariners, a night glass is important. From there, you make choises based on field of view and clarity as you hold it in a bouncing boat. Seven power is about as much as you can hold and read a bouy number at a half mile or so. More power and the number just hops about too much.

G'luck
Ian, how you know every single facet of this game, impresses me. Is all you do study?
I disliked your comments when you posted to my thread many moons ago, about how the planks were loose on the folkboat,(that found me, sorry about the flowery title folks but it stuck), not from bad fastenings as I thought or wanted to think, but from the rottening and softening of the forefoot beneath. It led me on a journey that had me extract and replace if necessary, everything from the bottom up.
I never did say thanks for that but, thanks. Without the watchful eye of experience and truth watching and disclosing the sometimes hard to swallow reality, this forum would not be the useful tool it is.
Kerry

[dredbob]

Leupold has 6x30 available in its Yosemite series and are obtainable for around eighty bucks (from Amazon.com among others). Waterproof, with a lifetime warranty.

Six power magnification is good for smaller boats such as canoes and kayaks, which tend to move around a bit more than larger craft.

Leupold Yosemite (http://www.leupold.com/observation/products/binoculars/yosemite-series/yosemite-6x30mm/)

[purri]

Steiner 7x50 Commanders. EOS.

I bought mine in 89 for abt 800DM prior to reunification. Exxy at the time and once they went back for factory service abt 95 (some child of Shaitan twisted the compass and broke the seal) all the armour and bits having the made in West Germany logo was replaced free of charge. National pride y'know!

I give them a fair flogging over the years as I hunt and fish a lot (BTW DEET insect repellents did affect the armour).

Factory recently updated and reswung the the compass for a series 3 (as a second spawn of Shaitan broke the seal), cleaned the internals, rearmoured the body, new strap and recollimated the central bushing all for $130AUD.

Fantastic bloody service and optical quality!!

[Gary Bergman]

Maybe a little off topic, but I have a pair of WWII USN Square D company binoc's...One of the eyepiece cups is broken (Ancient plastic, as opposed to today's rubber type)..any ideas where I can get a replacement?? Are these somewhat 'standard'?

[Ian McColgin]

Gary, find Celestaire on the internet and then try phoning. They used to have sextant and binoc repair, I think. Anyway, they would know whether the glasses are worth it.