First pair of binoculars?

[elkaholic123]

Swarovski optik......never regret it,they will be the last ones you buy 

[tides56]

Thanks for all the help, it really narrowed down my choices. Thanks! 

[pianoman9701]

One of our site sponsors is Zen-Ray Optics. Charles is very active in the hunting community and helped out a little buddy of mine with a nice pair of binos when I started him into shooting. You should definitely take a look at ZenRay not only for the fine glass they produce but for what they do for our community. Here's their bino page:
http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binoculars.html

[ZRS-8x42]

PM9701, thanks for mentioning us.

Tides56, another important factor is your budget. No matter whether it is $150, $500, or $2000, you want to get the best optics allowed within the budget. We are fortunate enough to live in this era that there are many options available in each group.

If it is your first pair of binoculars, our Zen-Ray VISTA can be an excellent option. It has fully multi-coated optics and silver prism coating. It will stand tall against anything else between $200-$350 on the market

http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binoculars/vista/vista10x42.html

The next step up is our ZRS HD, one of our best selling binoculars (where my Hunt-WA screen name comes from ).  It has Magnesium alloy chassis and dielectric prism coating.

http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binoculars/zrshd/zrshd10x42.html

After ZRS HD, we have ZEN ED3 open bridge binoculars.  It has extra low dispersion glass and water-repellent coating technique. Many Pros prefer ED3 because it provides true-to-life image color and excellent brightness.  It also surpress the color fringe extremely well.

Our top of the line PRIME HD is really designed to compete the best European binoculars currently out there. It has total of 24 glasses (including 4 prism glasses) to provide bright, edge-to-edge sharpness image.

Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can help with

Charles

[Bean Counter]

  Sorry I forgot about ya, Charles!

Definitely go with the HD/ED/LD quality glass. The suffix varies from one manufacturer to the next but will consistently put you in the top tier of that manufacturer's range. Plan to spend $1,000 or more unless you can fine a screaming deal on Craigslist. Consider the Leupold Gold Ring HD, Zeiss Victory, Nikon EDG, Vortex Razor, and of course, Swarovision. Let us know what you pick.

The ZRS Prime HD would be in the range of the others I mentioned. 

[Steve C]

If you want the best and need to stay below say $700 or so, the ZEN Prime HD has no peer.  You will best this one only marginally with 3x the price.  Sharp, clear, edge sharp, wide, flat field, built like a tank, and very high resolution.

[drysideshooter]

If you do a couple of searches you can find some extremely favorable reviews of the Zen Prime HD's online.  From what I have read they compare very favorably to bino's costing 3x as much, though most say they may give up a little bit to the Swarovski's in that price range.

If I were in the market for new bino's I wouldnt hesitate to try the Prime's based on what I have read.  One advantage of good glass is it is pretty much a lifetime investment.  I have always favored german bino's and own bino's from Zeiss, Swarovski and Docter (no longer imported).  They are all a pleasure to glass with for long stretches and will provide a lifetime of use. 

If you search for some of the reviews you will see that some of them are by very particular bird watching folks that are very, very picky about their glass.  The praise those folks heap on the Prime HD's is pretty impressive.