Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Best binoculars under $300?

Avoid Chicom optics.

I have to agree with Hawker - I just picked up a pair of Zen Ray ED 8x43 and have been completely impressed.

I looked a lot of models under $400 some were close, but for my eyes and needs, the Zens were perfect and Camera Land had them on a great sale.

Please enlighten us...

Plus you get the Rainguard HD coatings. No sure if any of the others mentioned have any weather resistant "hydrophobic" type coatings. One of the reasons I like Bushnell's Elite line of bino's, riflescopes and spotters is that feature.

You will hear negative things about the Minox porro's lack of FOV but its only noticable if you are stacking it next to a premium roof. The image sharpness and brightness in the sweet spot of these porro's are as good as any bino I have looked through-the smaller FOV is a no brainer compromise IMO. The 10x minox is my back up 10x glass to my Zeiss FL.

A couple more binos to keep a look out for in your price range.

The new Bushnell Elite ED is great, I have seen deals on them. ED glass, diaelectric prism coatings. Bright and sharp, flat field quality Japan bino. I had a pair of these and a pair of the Original $1000 elites and had a hard time deciding which to keep. This bino is like a new diaelectric nikon monarch with the addition of ED objectives.

Used or new Vortex Viper

A used original Bushnell Elite (split bridge EL styling).


IMO the Pentax DCF WP and SP have been outclassed by other binos in the same price range in the area of brightness. They are not as bright as more recent designs.

I was not impressed with the Bushnell china made Legend ultra HD, wide fov but lots of distortion and small sweet spot. I was also not impressed with the discontinued bushnell elite E2.

Timberbuck,

I disagree. I think some folks are bothered much more than others by narrow FOV. I once owned a pair of 9x63 porros with a 5� TFOV (same as the Minox porros) which gave a miserly 263' field. I felt like I was looking through a straw. So for me, a decent FOV is a critical factor in choosing bins.

As for the older Pentax WP series, many have opined that their sharpness bests the newer Pentax SP and even ED aspheric lens design series. Seems the slight improvement in edge flatness has been obtained by trading off a bit of field sharpness. As for brightness, certainly the latest and greatest lens coatings have improved things but if forced to choose between a smidgeon of additional brightness over better sharpness (and inherent resolution), I'll take the later every time.

-=[Bob]=-

Bins: Swaro 7x42B SLC 8�; ZenRay ED2 7x36 9.1�; Minox BD 6.5x32IF 8�; Leupold 9x35IF Gold Ring 7.3� / 8x30 Yosemite 7.5�; Pentax 8x32 DCF-WP 7.5� / 9x21 UCF 6.3�; ZOMC-Kronos BPWC2 6x30 12.5�; Binolux 7x35s 11� & 10.5�

I've sent my hardly used Cascades in twice for messed up eyepieces.

I used the heck out of a pair of nikon ATBs in Astan. Tough little binos and not the worst glass.

Those original Bushnell Elites (split or open bridge hinge) were excellent bino's IMO. Those were made in Japan and besides having excellent glass, they were also very durable. A couple of forum members here (I think JG-Raider is one of them) had them and liked them from what I can recall.

Another + for Minox 10X44BP a great deal from Cameraland.

Do you like to support the Chinese a communist country and an enemy? Do you like American jobs going overseas? I feel like an idiot trying to explain this to someone who is suppose to be a conservative supporter of guns and gun rights. The concepts are relatively simple and there is always an alternative to cheap Chicom products with respect to optics. The ones I mentioed have objective assessments done that provide a source of comparison for reference, instead of the usual subjective assessment and associated, "I think these are the best..." comment.

Dolphin:
I guess it is time to get educated. Did you know that most every
binocular in the market today, under the $500.00 price point,
is made in China? There are a few mentioned above you may find otherwise, but that is now the norm.
The original poster has requested the under $300. types, so that is how it goes.
I don't like it any better than you do, but that is the way it
goes.

Got both the 8x42 Zens and 10x36 Bushnell Legend Ultras and IMHO both are outstanding for the price. If I was planning an elk hunt I'd take the ultras because of their size but Zen Ray does make a smaller 10x36 that I'm sure would be awesome too.

The beauty is there is no need to compromise with modern designs. They are both brighter and as sharp or sharper.

A perfect example is the new elite ED .

another vote on ZRS HD. The clarity is right there with any of those sub $800 binoculars. I remembered a couple of years ago, Nikon EDG was one of the few that offered dielectric glass coating at more than $1500 tag. At $200, the ZRS with dielectric coating is really hard to beat.

I guess it is time for you to get educated. That may be the case only because the market is flooded with cheap Chicom crap optics. As I said, you can always find better quality made in Japan or even made in Germany optics if you are willing to look around. The two I mentioned are prime examples and in addition are excellent examples of two that are less than 300 dollars. If we keep buying Chinese, they will keep selling Chinese.

Hi Dolphin, Thanks for the links on these binoculars. I didn't see a Japan sticker on the Minox but the Olympus does have one. I think you will find Farmboy 1 is on our side. My brother has a Nikon 8x42 Monarch that has a Japan sticker on it and a friend from work bought a Nikon 10x42 Monarch that had made in china sticker on it. It is really hard to tell where any of these are made "even" if they have the sticker.
My brother dropped his Monarch from his treestand 30 ft. up and is still using it. It had to hit something soft of course, messed up the one eyecup a little but still worked.

my leupold and good bushnell are as sharp as my high end zeiss.

Does steiner have anything in his price range? German glass right.

Yes they do, Cabelas is a good place to look for ideas. They have several steiner and other brands that will serve his needs. I ended up buying Steiner, I couldn't quite muster the cash for zeiss or swarovski. I am happy with mine so far, there is definately an edge over my old Leupold binocs. Of course the leupolds were $200 glass, they held up for over 5 years and I was able to pass them on.

Another vote for Zen-Ray.

Thanks, I realize he is, I guess I am just a little sensitive about the issue. I am fairly knowledgeable regarding optics and am one of those guys who will search until he finds what is just right and at a deal before he buys. Avoiding Chicom optics, most of which is crap, some like the Zen Rays are the exception, but are produced and reproduced in the same factory and sold under other company names such as the Hawke Frontier ED, are flooding the market and hard to avoid in the low to medium end of the market. The Minox 10x44 porro prism model that I own says made in Japan on it, and inexpensive BV I own says made in Germany and a spotter the 62ED says made in Germany while the 40x eyepiece says made in Japan. The www.allbinos.com website I mentioned is pretty good at saying where a particular binocular was made despite where the company is based. You can always e-mail the company and ask them as I have done on many occasions to find out where specific products are manufactured. The made in "sticker" should at least with reasonably good certainty indicate where the particular optic was assembled which is important as quality control in addition to all of the other reasons for not buying products made in China is poor in general.