On Friday 3/15 David Chelimer wrote:

"A friend (non-birder) wants to buy his daughter good binos for her
graduation from college. She herself is not (yet) a confirmed birder,
although she, as part of her school work, has been monitoring warbler nests
and doing other avian research. She is a very outdoorsy woman.

Her dad's thoughts are to get her something in the $300-$400 range that she
won't feel burdened with while hiking and not just birding. Apparently she's
currently borrowing a pair of 8x40's and seems happy with them"

Two recommendations come to mind. The first would be the Pentax DCF 8x40
waterproof roof prisms, at about $370 form Anacortes Telescope or Eagle
Optics. If waterproof feature is not crucial, another great choice would be
the Nikon E2 8x30 porros, closer to $300 from both sources. The amount of
light lost with the smaller objectives of the Nikons is minimal, and the
smaller size can be friendly to smaller hands.

Jack Stephens
jstephens62 at isomedia.com
Lynnwood, WA