Nikon Prostaff 3s

Unfortunately, there are no shops in my area that will let you try out binoculars. However, I had very generous coworkers that let me try out their 10x42 Nikon Prostaff 3s, 10 year old 8x42 Nikon Monarch and an old Celestron 12x62. The Nikon Monarch was definitely the best overall (I found it equal in astronomy to the higher mag astronomy binoculars when looking at the night sky), but the difference wasn't great enough between the Prostaff and the Monarch for wildlife viewing to justify the difference in price for me. The only problem with the Prostaffs were they had a lot of glare when trying to use them for astronomy, and no option to tripod mount.

Check out the nikon Prostaff 3s or 7s! They were my first serious set of binoculars and took my breath away when I first looked through them. Amazing set to dip your feet in the water, and they will truly make you question how optics could possibly get any better.

If you dont care that much about astronomy you could go with an 8x32 like the sightrom blue sky (or any of its many clones like the fuji kf, sig zulu3 (I also have one of these laying around if you're interested), pentax AD...) In my opinion I would stay away from the nikon prostaff 3s, and have never been all that impressed with the very popular vortex (although their warranty service is outstanding), heard good things about althon but never tried them but they have some models in your price range. Hope this helps and feel free to reach out with any questions about specific models you may be considering.

I simply bought Nikon Prostaff 3S 8x42 for hiking, since I'm also carrying a DSLR & 100-400mm telephoto for wildlife. I wear eyeglasses, and for me these are working out well enough. My second choice is going to be the Monarch 7, 8x42 hands down, but they're a bit hard on the wallet up here in Canada, so no big rush IMHO.