Reddit mentions of Pentax 12x50 PCF WP II Binoculars with Case

To be fair, the post he linked only suggested the $2200 pair if money was no object and you had to have the abolsute best. He spend most of the post talking about the $150 pair he has had for four years that still work like new.

I have kept these binoculars in my truck for about four years, all year long, and they show no signs of wear or damage.

They're Pentax 12x50 PCF WP II binoculars.

They're waterproof, rubberized, 12x magnification, nitrogen filled, etc....

My daughter rides horses and my wife rows crew. Every single weekend from June to October I am either at the river or a riding competition using those binoculars to look at stuff. They get a lot of use.

I live near Company 7, a distributor of extremely expensive telescopes and other high-end optics in Laurel, MD and I compared these directly with Leica, Zeiss, and Swarovski binos.

My personal assessment was that they were probably 80-90% capable compared to binoculars from those manufacturers, with slightly more color fringing and slightly less light collection, but for about 10% the price.

If price is no object, then a set of rugged Leica Ultravids for $2000 is THE best you can get. They will outlast your children.

I got the Pentax Binos. That way, the one day I forget to wear the neck strap and drop them into the river while riding on a launch, I won't want to kill myself because I lost 2000 bucks.

Orions are also good but they didn't seem as rugged to me. They seem more astronomy-focused.

The Pentax binoculars are about $150 on amazon right now.

The case and lens caps are garbage so I just keep mine in an old pillowcase in the storage area underneath the back seats in my truck.

I also keep a threaded mount adapter attached to them so I can use a monopod or tripod (usually monopod) to steady them. I use an old manfrotto monopod and with the adapter they come right up to eye-level.

Depending on the sport you may want to get a lower magnification so you have a wider field of view but 12x works for me because it is the limit of handhold-ability and I'm only looking at single individuals who are far away.

Oh. When you look at binos the AAxBB rating is AA= times magnification and BB= the diameter of the objective lens.

Magnification you buy to suit your application. Hunters might want a lower magnification for the wide field of view and with walking bird watchers want something light and easy to handhold so 8-10x, and with stationary bird watchers and astronomy buffs the sky's the limit.

If you're observing field sports from a bleacher, you may want a lower magnification so you can more easily track your subject and see others who are around him or her. I'm trying to look at a short person rowing from about 500m away, so I got the higher magnification.

With lens diameter, bigger is almost always better unless you desire something lightweight.

Don't buy zoom binoculars if you can help it. They are more fragile and the cheaper ones are almost never weather sealed.

edit:

Here's a video review of the 10x50 version of my binoculars, with a through-the-lens view, that focuses on astronomy. I actually would have gotten the 10x model (it's lighter and easier to hand-hold) but Amazon was out of stock when I ordered them.

Also, Pentax has a lifetime warranty where they will fix them for $20 even if you drop them.

With that budget I'd actually start with a halfway decent pair of binoculars like these. Use them to learn the easy parts of the sky and point them at everything you'd eventually want to look at with a telescope. Learn the constellations. Try a Messier marathon. Identify features on the moon. Find the visible planets.

If you're still interested after a couple months of regular use you will have a much better feel for whether buying a telescope is right for you. If you still do buy the scope after that, you'll still get a ton of use of the binos. And if you don't, you'll still get a ton of use of the binos!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, as with any kind of telescope, a support of some kind is mandatory. I find the mobility of a monopod superior to a tripod for binocular viewing.