Binos- HUGE Price Variance?

[JBS]

I am blown away by the variance in the price of binos and optics in general.

Two main questions:

• 1.) Does anyone have a preference for an all-around rugged high powered bino set? Any suggestions? Maybe anything I should stay AWAY from?

• 2.) Why is there such a huge difference in price between different binos?

For example:

Here's a set of binos for $2,599, and immediately after there is another seemingly high quality set for $229, less than 1/10th the price of the first.

What is it that an extra $2,250 is buying me, if I spend the extra money? What should I be looking for? Is it really worth all that extra money for a reasonable set?

 

[x SF med]

Schmidt and Bender, Zeiss, Leupold and Tasco are in order The Best, Great, Oustanding, Average in optics quality - price follows optics quality, resolutin, depth of field and angle of field.
(Schmidt and Bender makes the best scopes - their binos are hard to find)
Go to a good outdoors store and try the binos - some will even correct for astigatism and torus deflection in the eye (near or far sightedness). Get a pair that work for you, and are comfortable for you, and fit your budget.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

I prefer Nikon glass on optics, spotting scopes and binos.

 

[Teufel]

Swarovski makes some really nice optics.

 

[Mac_NZ]

S&B for rifle scopes, Swarovski for spotting scopes and Steiner for binos.

 

[JBS]

Good stuff; I appreciate all of the information.

Go to a good outdoors store and try the binos - some will even correct for astigatism and torus deflection in the eye (near or far sightedness). Get a pair that work for you, and are comfortable for you, and fit your budget.

Great suggestion. I've got to get off the websites for a while.

 

[ccford11]

The Leupold Cascades are the best right now. This is the binos the Marine Corps just switched too.