I want to see the curves of the bikinis...
Written: Aug 10 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Light, small, & a good compromise of strength, field and price.
Cons: No binocular is good for all applications
|
|
|
| glake's Full Review: Pentax UCF M (10x21) Binocular |
...but I don't need to read the labels!
Oops! I forgot myself for a minute there. What if my wife reads this?
Bird watching, yeah, that's the ticket. Bird watching. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Think she'll believe I'm bird watching during our trip to the beach next month?
Anyway, there are as many uses for binoculars as there are models. I'm not an expert but I know a couple of things and SteveR1960's guide to Choosing Binoculars is very helpful.
What I knew when I went shopping for my new binoculars was:
1) I wanted to be able to identify a bird and see it's colors but didn't need to be able to count it's feathers.
2) I wanted enough field of vision to be able to follow a race horse around the track, but I don't need to see the whole track.
3) I wanted something small and light. I knew this meant some compromise in the first 2 items but when I tour D.C., I'm already carrying enough and I don't want a sore neck from a 10 lb. necklace.
4) I'm not a professional bird watcher, sports watcher or even bikini watcher so I'm NOT willing to spend several hundred dollars for what is basically a grown up toy to me.
Using that criteria, I searched around several shops for several months until I found a display with several models of compact binoculars and a few larger ones. I immediately liked the look, the size and the price of the compact Pentax models.
I'm sure I looked like an idiot as I stood in the store and looked through an outside window at a sign high up on a telephone pole across the street. It was boring but most stores don't even have THAT much view so I felt lucky.
I quickly narrowed my choice to the Pentax UCF M 8x21 or the Pentax UCF M 10x21. Since this review is on the 8x21, I'll just tell you why I picked it.
Both were small, they could fit in a coat pocket easily. That's good if it rains or if your neck still gets sore from carrying them.
Both are very light at only 6.9 ounces!
Both were inexpensive at $110 and $120 respectively. Not cheap, I've had $40 binoculars but I wanted some quality this time.
Both have multicoated lenses, glass prisms and center focusing.
But even though the 10x21's gave a slightly larger image, the less expensive 8x21's gave me a little sharper, brighter image. The little extra magnification of the 10x21's didn't allow me to get any more real detail from the sign I was looking at so I went with the brighter 8x21's.
So far, in the 3 months I've had these, I'm very pleased with them. I gave the old $40 pair to my 5 year old daughter so SHE can bird watch in our own backyard. When I looked through them and my new ones, it was like watching an old 12" black and white TV and then suddenly discovering 29" Technicolor! I can't go back.
Maybe if I had tried out the $300 ones I would have found an analogous increase in performance there, but I'd never spend that much on binoculars anyway so why torment myself?
If you want to look at comets and planets, these don't have enough light gathering.
If you are a REAL birdwatcher, and want to see the eye color of a nuthatch at 400 yards, these aren't strong enough.
For an airplane in flight, or a rabbit scurrying across a field, you'll never keep them in sight without a wide field of view.
But for an amateur or beginner bird watcher, a local little league soccer game, a concert where you got the cheap seats, or a little discrete bikini watching from my beach side hotel room (wink wink), I think these are an excellent choice.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
glake
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: George
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Reviews written: 128
Trusted by: 123 members
About Me:
I like ALL kinds of movies and books but prefer to review the odd ones.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.