You might be enjoying a trip to the Pacific coast one day, hoping to see some whales, and stumble upon this…
just felt like doing a little nice thing for the world…
…in my own way, proudly made on my Hephaestus and my Beamo
Welcome to the trail leading up to Mori Point! One of my favorite places…
Bonus: some gifts to the library I volunteer at
During the madness that is 2020, I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the outdoors more. At one point, I got some really nice binoculars, and they felt like a superpower! I have been letting people use my binoculars at a local whale-watching spot, and I’ve gotten some great reactions. So I decided that some binoculars should just be there for everybody to use (no coins required!). Conveniently, there’s a fence post up on the cliff, and also a little-free-library at the hiking trail entrance!
For the fence post, I designed a little house to for the binoculars to live in! It’s made of 3D printed PETG plastic and the cover is clear acrylic plastic with the text laser engraved.
Of course I totally expect these to be stolen, broken, vandalized, bitten, or thrown off the cliff… I shopped around for some small cheap $20 binoculars, cheap since I’ll be replacing them quite frequently. In my shopping, I got curious about some playfully coloured ones that claim to have 12x zoom. What happened surprised me: they worked better that just “good”.
For some context behind my opinion, my own binoculars are 10×42 Nikon Monarch 7 that costs about $500. They are a superpower to me, literally life changing. The width and sharpness of the view it provides feels like entering another world where I can touch the animals that I would’ve not even noticed normally. I picked them because a park ranger once let me use a pair to see some elephant seals fighting. I’ve had other bird-watchers point out “I see you have good binoculars” when I carry them. And Nikon absolutely NAILED the brand with the name Monarch, what a beautiful creature that befits the name of binoculars.
Please excuse my dramatic appraisal, they are not one of the better German brands, but they are still that good to me.
I liked the pocket size of these kiddo-binos. There are local parks with amazing wildlife where I don’t want to carry my humongous 10×42 around, since it’s too close to people’s homes. Now that I know the kiddo-binos are decent, I wanted something that’s not such a fluorescent colour. This turned out to be quite difficult at the $20 price point! I went on this investigative adventure, more like a shopping spree…
Meet the Family!
I know this looks crazy, but everything that I don’t keep will get donated one way or another.
Below are individual reviews of these binoculars.Nikon Monarch 7 in 10×42 [click to show]no-name brand kiddo-binos, 12×25 [click to show]Nikon Aculon A30, 10×25 [click to show]Nikon Trailblazer, 8×25 [click to show]Nikon Prostaff 7S, 8×30 [click to show]Vortex Diamondback HD, 10×32 [click to show]Svbony SV47, 10×42 and 8×42 [click to show]Svbony SV204, 10×25 [click to show]Svbony S10, 8×25 fixed-focus [click to show]Aurosports, 8×22 fixed-focus [click to show]Levenhuk Atom, 12×25 [click to show]no-name brand, 12×25 [click to show]POLDR, 8×21 and 12×25 [click to show]Summary [click to show]My 2 cents on picking zoom and size [click to show]My 2 cents on optical quality evaluations [click to show]
