Monoculars/Binoculars

G

gorm

Joined
Feb 1, 2000
Messages
58
I once saw a made-for-TV movie starring Darren McGavin as ageing CIA/Black Ops warrior called out of retirement to do battle for ownership of a strategic island. The "other side" was vaguely identified as the
Communist Chinese. They sent their best, we
sent our best. Winner to take all. Anyway,
as part of his equipment, McGavin chooses a
small monocular.
I've never considered them worth anything beyond occasional birdwatching and sneaking
looks at cheerleaders. What say you all? We're talking about small-mini binoculars.
I think, anyway. Waterproof doesn't seem to
appear very often in the ads and literature
I've seen. If it's fogproof, is that enough?
 
It depends on what you are planning to use them for. A monocular is better than nothing if you want to watch birds, sneak up on insects, keep an eye on the "enemy." Their advantage obviously is the ability to "go light." But there are also some really fine small binoculars out there so the question becomes, how light do you want/need to go?

I've only owned cheap monoculars so I've usually been disappointed. But there are some high quality monoculars out there. And fogproof is not equal to waterproof. Waterproof binoculars usually cost more. One on the top binoculars on the market--Zeiss--were not guaranteed waterproof until recently. My Leica's are guaranteed waterproof but they cost over a grand.

I believe Zeiss makes an interesting monocular and I've seen one by Steiner that seemed nice yet affordable. But I've never taken a close look at either. The best optics out there are Leica, Zeiss, and Swarovski. If you buy any of these three, I doubt you will be dissappointed in terms of durability and quality.

Below are some links you might be interested in. Eagle optics is one of the best places in the country to buy optics. They are extremely helpful on the phone. Their faq on optics is great. Check out their monocular page listed below.

http://store.yahoo.com/eagleoptics/index.html http://store.yahoo.com/eagleoptics/monoculars.html http://www.eagleoptics.com/eagle/binocular_guide/choosing_binoculars.html
http://www.binoculars.com/


------------------
Hoodoo

The low, hoarse purr of the whirling stone—the light-press’d blade,
Diffusing, dropping, sideways-darting, in tiny showers of gold,
Sparkles from the wheel.

Walt Whitman

[This message has been edited by Hoodoo (edited 05-28-2000).]
 
Here's my take on it. I really love the Steiner monocular Hoodoo is talking about. But it's at least $100 most places. I just bought two different monoculars from Cheaper Than Dirt. Both Chinese made, 8x22, and rubber coated. One is Tasco, the other Vivitar, and the most expensive one was $10. That is the beauty of them. I could have bought the Steiner (I've certainly spent that much on knives before), but now my fiancee and I both have one when we go hiking or to hockey games. And I don't have to worry about destroying my good pair of binoculars, or loaning them to anyone. For ten bucks I haven't lost much (it would cost almost that much to send a good monocular back to the factory to be fixed).

Monoculars are great though, since they don't take up much room you can just stick them in a pocket and go.
 
I have a Russian 8x30 monocular that I paid about $20 for, and for the money it was a bargain. It seems to be half of a copy of some old aus Jena 8x30s that I've seen, has a crisp view in the center of the field, seems decently robust, with the primary problem being less than optimum coatings and blackening. I usually keep it in my backpack that I carry everywhere, and it was last extensively used spotting .30 and .45 holes at 50 and 100 yards. I've not seen any others for sale, but I have since picked up some surprisingly good 7x35 binoculars at a garage sale for $5, and have seen good 7x35s and 7x50s at pawn shops for $20 or so. In general the older models don't seem to have the good coatings that a lot of current models do, but the average resolution of lower end models seems better, like they did a better job of polishing or selecting lenses or something.
 
Optics are really one thing that it really pays to buy the best you can afford!! IMHO, the best are Swarvoski, Leica and Zeiss. I have owned all three and you will be satisfied with any of them.
 
I've handled the Zeiss 5x10 http://store.yahoo.com/eagleoptics/zeis5xmin.html
It's a very cool toy. You can carry it like a pen in your shirt pocket. The magnification is not that great, but the view is superb. The field of view is so large, that you get the impression there is nothing you’re looking through. You can see just a big bright picture and don’t have that tunnel impression you get with some binoculars.

A word regarding mono versus binoculars. The binoculars have a biological advantage. The brain collects the information from both eyes and combines them into one image which is clearer than that of each single eye. Clarity and night view of a binocular is therefore always better than that of a monocular. Besides that looking through a monocular is more exhausting than looking through a binocular.

I would therefore always go with a good small binocular for general use. A monocular saves money and weight but that’s only of concern if it comes to bigger (and therefore more expensive) lenses.
 
In astronomy the Nikon ProStar 7x50s seem to always get excellent reviews, and along with the newer (non-waterproof, two piece) 8x30 and 10x42s they're the best that I've looked thru. The Fujinon 7x50 and 10x70 FMT-SX also usually get excellent reviews, and they have the advantage of a tripod mount, longer eye relief, and when I bought my 7x50s almost 1/2 the price. The coatings on the Fujinons are superb, offering some of the best color transmission that I've seen although I haven't looked at the newer German offerings. The 2/3rds center of the field is as good as the Nikon ProStars per my eyes but the Nikons are better at the edge of the field. The Fujinons and the ProStars both have one piece bodies, are waterproof, have individual eyepiece focusing, and are heavy enough that people complain. Fujinon also offers an 8x30 in the same line.

A nice site for optics is Better View Desired.

 
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