Tasco Sonoma 7-21 x 42 (1 Viewer)

[Xplosion_]

I have both Olympus 10 x 50 and old Ussr Tento 10 x 50 (incredible after 15 years of use hahah). I want to complete in a range below. I've seen Tasco Sonoma 7-21 x 50 at 85 Euros. My questions are:

Are they good for birding?
What about viewing quality of Tasco binoculars? (specially brightness or luminosity)
Is the zoom USEFUL for birding?

In this range of price, any recommendation in 8 x 40 with zoom? Or without it?

PD: sorry for my bad english!

 

[Tero]

Welcome to BirdForum.

The zooms are not a good idea. Decide if you want 7x, 8x or 10x and pick a 8x40 or other model to fill in your needs. Tasco makes porros that may be almost OK, but try Nikon Pentax etc.

 

[Xplosion_]

Why zooms are not a good idea? Anyone can explain? I think it could be useful for watching nests from long distance or standing birds far awayy (like one of my favourites: Otis Tarda) Am I wrong?

I've tried Pentax and they aren't for me (I have my eyes very separated and the model I've tried (10x50) did not fit to this!).

I don't know Nikon models.

What about OPTICRON ASPHERIC WIDE ANGLE 8x40? (110 Euros)

 

[Tero]

Well, zooms of all have a narrow field of view. We want some 100m at a lenght of 1000m, or some 7 degrees. Zooms will have 4 or 5 degrees.

If you want to view distant birds, you want some sort of telescope that you can put on a tripod. Alternatively you could get a 12x or 16x binocular, but they would need some sort of support, a monpod or Finn Stick (home made from old hockey stick)

 

[normjackson]

Also check :
http://www.monkoptics.co.uk/binoculars-explained.html
There are some zoom or "multi magnification" binoculars around which give good quality images. But they tend to be heavy, very expensive and suffer from reduced field of view, as Tero points out. They tend to be something of a niche product even among those who are lucky enough to be able to afford them.
Higher magnifications tend to be more demanding of optical quality, stability of support as well as the birder's ability to carry bulky and heavy objects; hence most of us generally make do with one-eyed views for the high magnification stuff.
The Opticron model you mention looks a good choice :
http://opticron.boson.posiweb.net/pages/page1005.html#ASPHERICWA
Be nice if you could get to try it first which is pretty easy in UK where Opticron are well represented and well regarded. In USA the Opticron brand has little presence and maybe Nikon are one of the strongest brands at this price point. Maybe the situation is different again in Spain.