Praktica W8-21x21 bins - any recommendations please?

[werdnal]

We've been after a pair of cheap and cheerful compact/lightweight binoculars, which we can take out walking and cycling, just for general wildlife and landscape use. Saw a pair of Praktica W8-21x21 in Asda today, for £17.99 - cheapest price for that model I can find online is £29.99.

Anyone any experience of them could recommend or otherwise please? Also, please could someone explain the sizing, as the only bins we've come across before, state something like "10 x 50", so not sure what the 21x21 means.

Thanks

[The Black Rabbit]

Originally Posted by werdnal

We've been after a pair of cheap and cheerful compact/lightweight binoculars, which we can take out walking and cycling, just for general wildlife and landscape use. Saw a pair of Praktica W8-21x21 in Asda today, for £17.99 - cheapest price for that model I can find online is £29.99.

Anyone any experience of them could recommend or otherwise please? Also, please could someone explain the sizing, as the only bins we've come across before, state something like "10 x 50", so not sure what the 21x21 means.

Thanks

Not heard of them, but for that price I'm sure they'll do!

As for the numbers -

8-21X21 literally means 8Xmagnification TO 21xmagnification x 21mm objective lens diameter, ie they are compact zoom binoculars.

Many people don't rate zoom binoculars, or compact binoculars, in fact some people insist you should spend hundreds of pounds on your binoculars before you get an image worth looking at.
I wouldn't listen to that sort of advice though.
Whilst its true in life (generally) you get what you pay for, it is more true (especially currently) you get what you CAN AFFORD - and take pleasure from that!
No - they won't produce a wonderful image, but I'm sure they'll do you fine.

I have a monocular sometimes with me, when we're out and about (saves me trying to grab our actual binoculars from my girlfriend), and even though that was only £15, it does the job good enough for me!

Have fun with your new toy!

TBR

[eeyore]

the first number is the magnification - e.g 8x or 10x while the second in the objective (in simple terms how wide the lens is.)

for bird watching and general observation you ideally want no more than 10x mag as higher will be difficult to hand hold. while the objective should be 42 or 50 for general binos - and probably 28 or 32 for compacts.

21x21 is the worst of both worlds with a high mag but not muich light coming in - better given the swerve imo.

also a word about practika - in the past these were a v.good budget camera manufacturer (basically comprising the zeiss workers who got stuck in the german east zone after ww2 when zeiss relocated to bonn in the west), however in recent years the practika brand name has been sold to kyocera and is now found on extreme budget optics like these.

and the reason people frown on cheap zoom binos (and scopes) is because it is virually impossible to build a decent zoom on the cheap - thus you wind up with a dark image, ghosting during zooming, and a jerky action.

In your shoes i'd forget zooms and buy a budget pair of 8x32 or similar from a decent manufacturer like for example bushnel. (probably arround 50 notes), while its true that you should get what you can afford , buying extremly cheap is nearly always a false economy as you will only wind up buying again either because they have broken or because the image quality is pants

[outdoors]

get ur self a pair of bresser 10 -50 from aldi's 9.99

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by outdoors

get ur self a pair of bresser 10 -50 from aldi's 9.99

no these are an exception to the rule - decent bins of an okay make - just cheap because aldi have got a bulk buy or remaindered stock or summat.

the only issue you might have with these is that 10x50s tend to be quite big - not something you can easily stick in a coat pocket.

[outdoors]

Originally Posted by eeyore

no these are an exception to the rule - decent bins of an okay make - just cheap because aldi have got a bulk buy or remaindered stock or summat.

the only issue you might have with these is that 10x50s tend to be quite big - not something you can easily stick in a coat pocket.

yeh ur rite, they r a great pair of bino's for the price, they are'nt that bulky.. good size..