Best Binos for $1000

Sewall

Lil-Rokslider
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Jun 21, 2016
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I’m wanting to upgrade to a nicer set of binos and my budget is $1000. I’ve been looking at the mavens but I don’t know much about them or anyone that has used them. I do not want to go over my budget. Any recommendations?


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Save a few hundred extra bucks and get used Swarovski SLCs off the classifieds. Mavens or the Cabela’s brand are nice if stuck on 1k exactly.
 
Call camera land. Or If ya don’t mind used and have time Hunt the classifieds. I got a pair of non hd meoptas and vortex razors for $900 on classifieds.


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I looked through the new swaro cl 10x30’s a while back. The new glass works better than even the higher end ones with my glasses, they are a bit over 1000 but might find a deal.


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I used to have Zeiss...I currently have the Maven B2 11x45. I am very satisfied with my Mavens and would buy them again no question. I spent over 40 days scouting and hunting high country mule deer alone this year, and uncountable hours looking through the Mavens, and I truly have nothing bad to say aside from the eye cups change height easy when going in and out of a bino harness so I had to readjust them a lot...but in regards to first light and late and light gathering, they are great glass especially for the price and no fault warranty just like vortex.
 
I succumbed to the Nikon Monarch HGs with the help of the great reviews here. They are CRISP, like 4k TV vs Standard def (to avoid getting too technical).

The weight is nice, the armor is nice, the dials move smoothly. They are excellent.

Check out the review in the Optics forum.
 
Maven's are great glass for around 1K. The B2s are nothing short of fantastic. If there is one drawback it's the size/weight. The image is fantastic and the focus wheel is among the best I've found.

As other's have noted, Meostar HDs are great but the ergos are not for everyone.

Nikon HG's are also excellent although I haven't used them.

I recent got on to GPO and bought of set of 12.5's and love them enough that I'll save up the coin and but a pair of 10's here in the future I think. The combination of image quality, features (locking diopter, eye cups, focus wheel), and overall ergonomics is awesome.
 
Save a few hundred extra bucks and get used Swarovski SLCs off the classifieds. Mavens or the Cabela’s brand are nice if stuck on 1k exactly.

100% Second this. Sell gear you are not using and this will be the best option. You can find SLC 10x42 going for around $1200 if you watch enough.
 
The Nikon EDG range has gotten some very high reviews. They're older than the HG's, but I think they were built to a higher standard in their day.

You can probably find a pair for ~$1000
 
New Leica Trinovids list at that and are excellent to my eye and compared really really well in my testing to the various Alphas.
 
As mentioned several times above you may want to consider a demo or lightly used pair of Swaros or Leicas. I bought an almost new pair of Leicas for $450 on Ebay around 15 years ago and have used and abused them ever since. You can't go wrong even with a lightly used pair of Swaros or Leicas!
 
Big fan of the Leica Ultravids. They can be found for about that price.

Vortex and Mavens are more than adequate.

Nikon Monarchs are ok, but for the money, I would go with the above mentioned or Leupold.

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