Everyone who wants to explore our world needs binoculars. And they should be good. Kept in a case. …And, remember, if you use them or keep them around your house they really DO need to be kept in a case. Otherwise they’ll get bent, scratched and damaged, then they won’t show you reality anymore.
Right now I only have two decent binocs. Both cheap and mini. I just tossed out two big ones I had that were both bent off alignment. I had used them over the years by pressuring them into alignment while I was using them. C’mon! They’re now in the trash.
So I looked into info on recent breakthrus. Has the tech improved for binocs like for everything else? I discovered that quality costs a lot. But also that you can today get a lot of quality with at least one less zero on the end of the price-tag. That is, a $100-200 binoc can be really good and in a similar league with a $2k binoc.
I have optic geek friends. And friends who use them for their living — a world-famous global birding guide and a globe-trotting big ship mariner.
Also, there is a lot of lore out there in forum-land about vintage binocs and how wonderful they are. Marine military items seem to rise to the top. I haven’t compared them yet but I look forward to it. It appears that in this category you can get good results for $50-75.
An inspired list of good vintage binocs to glean for on eBay: thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-binoculars/
