I need to get another pair of binos so that my dad will have some to use. I have a pair of pentax dcf wp and a pair of monarch atb. For the money, the atb's are nice, but I have not researched any in last 2 yrs. Is there anything else out there now that I need to look at before I buy another set of monarchs? They might be used a little for deer hunting in the south, but mostly for spotting pdogs once a year.

I BOUGHT A PAIR OF LEICA 10X42 ULTRAVID HD'S AFTER TRYING THEM AT THE NRA SHOW. HAVE BEEN USING 8X42 CELESTRON ROYAL'S FOR SEVERAL YEARS. THE CELESTRONS ARE A VERY GOOG BINO, BUT THE LEICAS ARE A FAR SUPERIOR BINO. THEY ARE A LOT OF MONEY, BUT YOU WILL NEVER NEED ANYTHING BETTER LATER.

Lots of good talk about Zen Ray binoculars. Check out some of the optic forums.

Leica and Swarovski are probably the best, Kahles are really good for the money. Below that, the wind rivers are pretty good in their price range.

John

Look into the IOR/Vadldada's for the $ they are very good.

PS-I have Leicas too but the $$$$$$ are much more

I've had Pentax ED DCFs, ED Monarchs, ED Wind Rivers, Bushnell Elites, ED Leupold Gold Rings, and an ancient pair of my dad's Leica Trinovids. My most recent purchase was a Swarovski 8.5x42 ELs. Soon after I got those I took them, my 8x42 EDG Monarchs, and friends 8-12x42 Duovid Leicas and 8x43 Bushnell Elites and went up behind the house to look at goats on the snowfield for a few days.

If there is a tougher thing to judge than billy horns on a snowfield, I don't know what it would be. Anyway, after all that I'm quite happy with the Swarovskis but the Leicas were almost as good. Both of those binocs are expensive, and for a bit less $ I would consider Zeiss Victorys or your EDGs in the smae class. I doubt I'd be sorry about using any of those glasses even after a 12 hr. day of glassing with them.

There are too many factors that affect the answer to your question to give a reasoned answer with the information provided.

Is your Dad going to use them just occasionally while hunting for checking movement etc. or is he going to use them for hours on end glassing for prairie dogs or other game? In my opinion a spotting scope of intermediate (or better) quality would be better for PD spotting.

Next question is budgetary, if you've got a surplus of funds then get a Zeiss, Leica, or Swaro and be done with it. Otherwise, the real problem becomes how much do you want to spend. There are quite a few binos in the $3-500 range that are NEARLY as good as the ones mentioned above that are 3 to 4 times as much.

Bottom line, you mostly get what you pay for with a bit of research BUT I can tell you this from personal experience, the best qualtiy is just that, BUT it is really just a minute amount better than the good intermediate priced binos and whether that extra 1 or 2% of performance is worth an extra $1000 to you is up to you, your optical needs and uses, and your finances.

Thanks. The use is for scanning the fields to find dogs from the bench. The pentax and monarchs' both work good for that purpose, just wanted to make sure there wasn't something else out there to try b/c I have been out of the optics loop the last few years.

The budget is around $300.

As for the more expensive optics, they sure are nice, I've looked through leicas and zeiss, super optics, but no way could I swing a pair of those.

In that price range, Nikon and Pentax are hard to beat. I'm not sure there's much else I'd look at in that range except for maybe Burris.

LWD

Steiner?

Always liked the Safari's for the $...

If I may, I would suggest that you look at the Promaster Infinity Elite ELX 8x42 ED's These are normally $499.99, however, when placing the order over the phone just mention your affiliation with this forum and we will reduce the price by $150.00, or if you prefer to order on line directly just type Accurate Reloading in the note area and we will issue a $150.00 refund back to your form of payment. These binoculars have been extremely well received and reviewed as a best buy in the under $800.00 price catagory.

jb177

Camera Land, NY sells demo and factory remanufactured binos at an excellent price. I got 2 pair of Leica's for about what one pair of new would cost here locally. I could not tell them from new! Prompt service and response when I e-mailed and called them. I am very happy with the bino's, also!

jpj3