Question

OK, I hunt. I watch birds. I go to football games. About the only thing I would anticipate NOT using Binoculars for is a safari.

I am very confused by the array of Binoculars by use. Why wouldn’t a safari binocular be good for hunting and vice versa? I would also expect that a birding binocular should be a good hunting binocular as well.

I guess what I am looking for is somebody to sort out all the confusion for me, and the advice I have heard to spend the most you can afford on optics seems equally pointless upon reading some reviews on some of the products available from some of the lesser brands, i.e., Nikon Monarch. or even Cabellas.

My Answer

There is no reason why a good pair of Safari or Birding Binoculars would not be good as hunting binoculars as well – it is just that each discipline or specific use have their own unique requirements and so the “ultimate” safari binocular will have a few unique needs that a hunting or birding binocular may not have. This is not to say that the best birding binocular won’t also be good for hunting or vise-versa, it just probably wont be the best at it’s secondary use.

So for example the best hunting binocular would probably have all the same characteristics as the best safari binocular. Except for that fact that the best binoculars for safaris must also be compact enough to easily carry in your luggage on holiday with you, so this would eliminate some of the larger hunting binoculars, but not the compact ones.

Like wise a good hunting or safari binocular would be fine for birdwatching, but the ultimate birding binoculars would have a wide field of view, which is not necessarily that important for hunting or taking on safari (this depends on what you are hunting of course).

Some specialist binoculars for hunting also come with rangefinders, like the Carl ZEISS rangefinder binoculars which obviously would not be of use when looking at birds, this is not to say that that binocular would be a useless bird watching binocular, just not ideal.

If you are going to use your binoculars for a variety of purposes, there are many excellent binoculars that I would call good all rounders.

Buy the best you can afford
As for spending the most you can afford, I think this is generally good advice, depending on how often you plan on using the binoculars.

More expensive binoculars will not only have a better build quality, but will have better quality lenses, prisms and coatings. There is nothing wrong with a good pair of binoculars in the $100 to $200 range, something like the Bushnell 10×42 NatureView’s and they will be fine for most people, but if you compare them side by side with a real quality and expensive pair of binoculars like the Swarovski 10×42 EL Binoculars, that have the same size objective lenses and magnification you will notice the difference, in the clarity and brightness of the image produced.

What ever you do don’t go for very cheap binoculars, most of which are little more than toys.