Not to be one of the many people that say jump to the next price break range and look in the $150-$200 range. The quality and durability with increase a large amount and most likely last you many years. Not saying a life time, but I like to tell people when buying something how much a year would you be willing to spend on that item? 40 bucks a year for 10 years? That is going to start getting in to the nice hardware territory.
That being said, Vortex makes some good value binos in the 100-145 bucks, I keep a pair in each of the cars. Never can tell when you might want to look at something a ways out there.
I’ve been observing this thread resurrection for a few days, hoping to learn something new.
But, of course, it is impossible to make a decent pair of binos for e.g. $50. That’s $25 per side. With a case, a strap, a cleaning cloth and a warranty. Delivered from China, distributed, taxed, posted, advertised etc.
My starting point for excellence: Opticron Discovery 8x32. A really great, light, tiny but superb full featured bino (power, light gathering, field of view, focussing range butterflies to infinity, fully waterproof, rinse under the tap), that gives full performance, unlike tiny opera glasses with 20mm lenses or so. £150 new.
Great: Hawke Frontier EDX 8x42 (or 10x42, but that has a significantly smaller field of view)
Superb: Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42.
Between my partner and me we have all three. Absolutely worth the money.
My varifocal glasses cost as much as the Zeiss, I think I know which were better value.
Where is the glass made, German is best, then Japanese, Chinese is the worst. Friend just bought a used pair of Weaver Grand Slam(Japan) off Ebay for $75. He is very happy with them. Told him to look for those because of my experience with Grand Slam scopes. As for Vortex, their high end stuff is made in Japan but very expensive, the affordable stuff is made in China and no better than anyone else’s cheap stuff.
I tried a pair once - don’t remember where or how exactly, but that was a before/after experience. It’s quite amazing to be able to use binoculars with no shaking at all. This feature alone drastically increases image resolution and comfort.
Last time i looked there where very few options and it would be in the $500+ range…