New bins

Eventually I succumbed: knocking £400 off the price had got my interest up, having eyed these for a while and read excellent reviews - Kowa, Genesis, Prominar 8x33.

First impressions are good, lovely and sharp (like the Nikons - 8x32 HG and HGL), brighter than my Nikons and very close focus, so very useful for insect stuff. It is a very long time since I bought some new bins, I had the Nikons serviced a few years back but I reckon I've had them for 12 - 14 or so years (I have two pairs). It rained all afternoon and I was working on the track, so not really tried them except from indoors but they are comfortable to the eye and no obvious problems, seawatching tomorrow so a bit of a test then. First species looked at, in flight Mallard.