Best binoculars for Alaska

I have an alaskan cruise booked for July 2011 on the Island Princess. I would like to know what brand and strength (include model# if known) binoculars everyone recommends. Thanks

If you do a search on this thread you will find a huge thread on this topic. I have some Fujinon Polaris, 7X35, they are marine glasses and are terrific; they also cost over $500 a copy. You don't need any thing this good. The best strength for viewing from the ship is 7X or 8X, this is the marine standard as it takes the movement of the ship out of the equation. If you go to 10X they can be good ashore but but you may find them difficult to use aboard the ship. There are as many opinions and recommendations as there are binoculars but you need to find something that works for you, go to a store and try some. If you are purchasing them mainly for your cruise there is no reason to pay more than $100 for a decent pair.

We bought the Zen Ray Vista's for our Alaska cruise after they were recommended so highly here on CC. Love them!

IMHO unless you are planning on doing lots of looking from the ship itself it is something you "could" skip. The whale tours and many other excursion have binoculars for your use during the excursion. We brought ours for our two excursion and ended up using the provided ones as they had plenty; YMMV.

Now I got 5 pairs that will get possible some use next year, or so I hope.

I have an alaskan cruise booked for July 2011 on the Island Princess. I would like to know what brand and strength (include model# if known) binoculars everyone recommends. Thanks

I agree about possibly skipping them but I decided to use the cruise as an excuse to upgrade my ancient pair of Sears 7x35 !!

I bought Nikon #7238, 8x40 "Action Extreme", these are waterproof, cost about $110 at Amazon. Made in China of course.

Very glad I bought them and took them along, we had very good weather all week, extremely clear and bright image.

Also bought Olympus "8x25 WP I" for my wife, she didn't want anything heavy. These are also waterproof and work well too. Only problem was she forgot to bring them :(

For my recent cruise to Alaska, I bought the Nikon Action EX 7x35 waterproof binoculars and was very happy with them. These bins had good reviews from folks in the "birding" community and Nikon is a solid brand. You can pick them up for less than $100 from Amazon or other online retailers (I bought from bhphotovideo because they throw in a $25 gift card). They have a very wide 487-foot field of view which makes it easier to sweep around and find what you are looking for quickly.

FYI, I just checked the B&H Photo website and they are still running the same deal that I got on the Nikon 7x35 Action EX. You buy the binoculars for $91.99 ($109.99 if you go with the larger 8x40) and the shipping is free. They also send you a $25 gift card so you are effectively getting the binoculars for $66.99. I then used the gift card to buy a memory card for my camera which I needed anyway. Their prices are as good as Amazon and they ship much faster.

FYI, I just checked the B&H Photo website and they are still running the same deal that I got on the Nikon 7x35 Action EX. You buy the binoculars for $91.99 ($109.99 if you go with the larger 8x40) and the shipping is free. They also send you a $25 gift card so you are effectively getting the binoculars for $66.99. I then used the gift card to buy a memory card for my camera which I needed anyway. Their prices are as good as Amazon and they ship much faster.

I got the same deal, same store in early Sept and took them on our HAL Zaandam cruise last week. Very happy with the Nikons and the service by B&H.

bought our zen-ray summit binoculars from the recommendation on this board. they are much better than many more expensive binoculars we tried in store.

bought our zen-ray summit binoculars from the recommendation on this board. they are much better than many more expensive binoculars we tried in store.

+1. we also bought our zenray binoculars for Alaska cruise and very happy with it.

Try to get a pair of waterproof, fogproof wide angle binoculars. 8x for marine life and 10x for inland.

I bought a new pair of binoculars on board the Carnival Spirit- They were reduced $20 approx from over $100 US to about $83-

They are waterproof, light and easy to use 8 x strength and they were just great for what we wanted,

We also took a cheap pair from home and they were just fine as well but I did prefer the new ones I bought on board.

We went on the last cruise for the season so that may account for the discount.

all depends what you want to spend. I have a pair of Leupold "Golden Ring" 8x42 HD optics and they are AMAZING! Of coarse these come with a steep price tag of about $800.00 but well worth it.

Try to get a pair of waterproof, fogproof wide angle binoculars. 8x for marine life and 10x for inland.

we got both so we don't have to share just one pair.

Well, ....... if money is no object then something like this is what you want. The image stabilizer is by far and away the best thing to consider.

Here is an example

We took two pairs - one was a Pentax 12x50, the other a Minolta (not sure the #s). I had no problem with either. Also took a 400mm lens on the camera. Used all of them pretty much daily. ;)

just got an email last night. Zen-ray has a 20% off coupon (SAVE20) for their ZEN ED 8x43 binoculars. It seems to be a very good binoculars from the reviews I have seen.

http://www.zen-ray.com

I'd like opinions on which of these two binoculars would suit me best for an Alaskan Cruise:

Bushnell H20 8 x 42 Roof Prism Binocular

$129.99

Magnification: 8x

Objective Lens: 42 millimeters

Field of View: 365 feet at 1000 yards / 123 meters at 1000 meters

Close Focus: 12 feet / 3.6 meters

Exit Pupil: 5.25 millimeters

Eye Relief: 17 millimeters

100 percent water and fog proof

Roof prism system

BaK-4 prism glass

Multi-coated Lenses

Center focus system

Twist-up eyecups

Size Class: Standard

Weight: 25 ounces / 708.5 grams

Model: 150842

Bushnell Powerview 10X42 Roof Prism Binoculars

$89.99

Full Size

10X Magnification

BK-7 Roof Prism

Multi Coated Lenses

Field of view 288 yds

Twist up eyecups

Case included

Is the 2nd (10X42) actually an improved model? Also I've seen people suggest that the 10x is too much for my purposes (wildlife, glaciers, etc). I'd love to do the cheaper ones but not if it won't suit for what I need. I'll be using with glasses and possibly without if I have my contacts in.

As much as I'd love to get ones with the stabalizers I've seen people talk about I'm just not interested in spending that much.

TIA!

The 10x ( I have them) show motion from ship vibration and also perhaps from your hands unless you are very stable ( no coffee !!). I also have both 8x40 Leica ( superb image) and a 8x40 Nikon which is 1/4 the price and excellent. I have found the 8x40 on ship and land to be more than adequate.

stan

Each of us got a pair of binoculars our own during our trip. Not having to share them is a big plus. If you can afford it, the Swarovski EL binoculars is the best of the best. Besides Bushnell Elite, we also took some Zen-Ray VISTA and Nikon Monarch. In my experiece, the $130 VISTA is quite a deal with its waterproof feature.

http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binoculars/vista/vista10x42.html

We are on our second pair of "All Purpose" Bushnell Pacifica 10 X 50. The first pair was $29 ten years ago. Finally dropped them or they got banged up in the carry-on luggage one too many times. The second pair was a whopping $35.;) I got them at a sporting goods store called "Big 5". I love them and wouldn't want anything else at any cost. I have no problem with ship movement. I've compared them to standard 7 X 35's and there is no comparison. They are just what I want. When cruising we use them on our balcony daily as well as all types of shore excursion. :D

We just returned from our first trip to Alaska and did a land/cruise tour combination. My husband is a techie and did lots of research about binoculars before the trip, because we wanted something that would work well but not cost alot, as we don't have a need to use binoculars after the trip. We purchased these and they worked really well, both in Denali Park and on the ship when looking at wildlife from a distance. Enjoy your trip - Alaska is awesome!

Bushnell Permafocus Binoculars model 171032C 10x32 (got ours for less than $100 on Amazon).

We just returned from our first trip to Alaska and did a land/cruise tour combination. My husband is a techie and did lots of research about binoculars before the trip, because we wanted something that would work well but not cost alot, as we don't have a need to use binoculars after the trip. We purchased these and they worked really well, both in Denali Park and on the ship when looking at wildlife from a distance. Enjoy your trip - Alaska is awesome!

Bushnell Permafocus Binoculars model 171032C 10x32 (got ours for less than $100 on Amazon).

I would not buy Permafocus binocs. Another word for Permafocus is "fixed focus" . This means that they are focused as a defined distance and as long as whatever you are looking at is at that distance, things appear in focus. If they are not at that distance, they will not be in focus and the further they are from the predefined distance, the more out of focus they will be.

Would you buy a fixed focus camera. If not, why would you buy a fixed focus binocular?

DON

I purchased Celestron 8x42 binoculars for my trip last month and they were great. Paid all of $65 for them and they are waterproof and fogproof. Worked great and we had a lot of rain in the form of mist on the cruise last month.

wanted inexpensive compact waterproof so got two of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Waterproof-Fogproof-Compact-Binocular/dp/B007JNWCDE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343402887&sr=8-2&keywords=bushnell+h2o+compact+binoculars