Binos for my soon to be 8 year old.

[Laramie]

Not sure why so many guys are anti Vortex when it comes to Binos. My wife and kids both use diamondbacks and I use viper hds. I actually prefer them over many of the higher priced optics on the market. I have never heard of anyone using the warranty for their binos, or their range finders. Scopes are a different story but no reason, imo, to hold the scopes against them when shopping for binos.

 

[CorbLand]

Not sure why so many guys are anti Vortex when it comes to Binos. My wife and kids both use diamondbacks and I use viper hds. I actually prefer them over many of the higher priced optics on the market. I have never heard of anyone using the warranty for their binos, or their range finders. Scopes are a different story but no reason, imo, to hold the scopes against them when shopping for binos.

Hard to not like the warranty for little kids. I need a set of binos for duck hunting and am looking at Vortex because they will be left in a blind bag in and out of boats, blinds, etc. The piece of mind from the warranty is nice.

With that said, I sold optics for years and we sent back plenty of Vortex binos. We sold 10-15 Diamondbacks a week and would generally sell the display model. I sent back plenty of optics out of the box due to many different reasons. I actually got to the point of asking the buyer to open the optics before leaving the store because people would go home and come back a day or two later. Double vision, stiff to seized focus wheel, broken eye cups, fogging, you name it, I saw it out of the box on many Diamondbacks. Viper and up had less issues but still some. We also sent a couple pairs of Swaros back out of the box as well. Out of all the binos we sold, nothing had a failure rate to the level that Diamondbacks did.

 

[Buzby]

I would pay attention to pupillary distance. I think a lot of binos won’t adjust small enough for a child to get the right view

 

[Sandstrom]

Thanks for all the advice!! I ended up getting the diamondback hd 8x32. I liked them way more than the 8x28. I ended up buying them from a local camera place that was great!!! Can’t wait for my little buddy to open them!!
Ryan

 

[fishingmaniac]

My soon to be 8 year old informed me that he wants to see a snowy owl for his birthday, of course, in the wild and not at a zoo. I am looking forward to the challenge! I was already thinking of getting him a set of half-ways decent binos, as he will occasionally sit by the window and watch the critters in the yard for a half hour or so.
I was looking at the vortex diamondbacks in either 8x32 or 8x28. Am I on the right track? Would you pick one over the other? Are there any other budget friendly/similar options I should look at?

Thanks,
Ryan

Fyi cabelas is currently selling a vortex viper hd 10x42. It's the older version but it's amazing glass at $299. I'd look at that over the diamondback. It's way better and not much more money.

 

[KenLee]

IMHO, Vortex diamonback anything or a braked rifle is child abuse