ok so im looking for a good pair of compact binoculars. something i can keep in a pouch on my belt.

i did my research and it seems that 7x magnification is best for a steady view. anymore then that and things get shaky. thats why the military uses 7x.

also 50 is the best lens size, but that means 50mm and that is not compact.

so any advice on a good pair of compact binoculars?

Two things -- it's totally worth your time to get a pair that's also a digital camera and ignore anything about digital zoom... optical zoom is the only thing that matters.

are the pictures from the digital camera ones any good? and doesnt the camera make them HUGE?

The one I used in Afghanistan got me a lot of burkha girl shots without offending anyone... they looked like normal binos to me and to everyone else. That's the use of them -- people don't realize you're filming anything.

Unfortunately it's buried somewhere in boxes in my house and I have no idea what model it is.

If I unpacked every box in my house I'd probably be a much better equipped superhero.

yeah but im sure if they are military issue they are not cheap. i'm lookin to stay below 100 bucks if i can but my max would be like 150.

They weren't cheap, but practically none of the stuff like that I used/have left over was military issue. I just bought them at some point... but I do tend to buy expensive gear.

yeah im lookin at compact digital camera binocs right now but they all obviously have a camera

also, for anyone who is looking for binocs, binoculars.com is actually a really good site. you can narrow down your search to exactly what your looking for in a pair.

This is one of those things I'd go looking around military surplus and sporting goods stores for, rather than buy online. Everything I saw in a few searches just now was kind of obvious.

well im not looking for digital camera included. if i could find one it'd be cool but its not completely nessessary.

i found a pair of pentax that look good. i may get them.

Well, I'll patrolling at night so I won't really need binoculars, butI suggest you start by a cheap one. They work quite good, and maybe you'll realize you don't actually need stronger ones

binoculars can help during the day or at night. but also there are night vision binocs out there.

Digital zoom is NOT useless. Sure, you want the best optical zoom you can get, but if you don't have a digital zoom on board as well, you won't be able to view details in the field, you'll have to wait until you download from the camera. At the Olympic meet, I showed Thanatos and crew a couple really awesome tricks with the digital zoom.

We saw a gang tag across the street when we were on the Watchmen set, but it was quite far away. I snapped a pic on max optical zoom, then used the digital zoom in the review mode and we were able to see the tag very clearly.