Zoom binoculars

bfoss · Guest

I am looking for a good pair of zoom binoculars in the $150-$200 price ranget. I have looked at Galileo, Zhumell and other brands. Are these brands good? Any suggestions? Any drawbacks to zoom binos? Thanks for your help

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5383

Hi

It's no secret on this forum that I am not a fan of zoom binoculars. Strongly suggest you stay with a fixed power binocular.

I don't recommend ANY zoom binocular for serious work. Optical performance in terms of image quality, eye relief and field of view is ALWAYS significantly lower than a comparable fixed power binocular and mechanical reliability of zoom binoculars is notoriously poor. Failure rate is many times higher for a zoom than for a comparable fixed power binocular. In short, there is no such thing as a zoom with good optical quality.

If you want a zoom optic, a much better option is a spotting scope on a tripod and, at zoom binocular magnifications, you would also need a tripod, anyway.
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