Tech Editor Fox Morgan has many years of experience piloting around tricky estuaries and coastlines. Good binoculars are an essential bit of kit. Here's 11 of the best pairs of binoculars worth considering.
Whether for identifying a tricky harbour entrance, taking a closer look at an approaching ship or even looking for the breeze, a decent pair of marine binoculars will repay their purchase price many times over in peace of mind and as a useful aid to pilotage.
You can buy models with internal compasses, floating bodies and even image stabilisation: luckily there are binoculars for every boat and budget out there, so I rounded up 10 of the best deals.
At a glance:
Best tried and tested marine binoculars – Steiner Navigator Pro,
Best entry-level marine binoculars – Plastimo 7×50 Autofocus,
Best marine binoculars for glasses-wearers – Minox BN 7×50 C
Best overall marine binoculars
Specifications: Weight – 1,065 g | Dimensions – 207 x 140 x 73 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Nitrogen filled
• waterproof to 10m
• Great brand reputation
• Nano-coated lenses
Reasons to avoid:
• Premium price
Steiner is one of the oldest names in optics and their Navigator Pro model, available with and without a compass, is designed for sailors.
The Navigator Pro is nitrogen-filled, waterproof up to 10m depth, and has a nano-coating on the lenses to enhance visibility and reduce glare. At 1.05kg they are comparable to the Minox binoculars in weight. A rubberised coating should protect them in case of impact.
Steiner has a good reputation for quality and reviews of these marine binoculars are particularly favourable.
Buy it now
Best compact marine binoculars
Specifications: Weight – 555g | Dimensions -17cm x 12cm
Reasons to buy:
• Nitrogen filled and waterproof to 10m
• Great brand reputation
• Nano-coated lenses
• captive lens caps
Reasons to avoid:
• Premium price
As previously mentioned, Steiner optics are some of the best binoculars you can get for sailing and boating. These Commander binoculars are 7×30, so not quite as heavy or bulky as the 7×50 model also featured in this buyers guide.
The Commander is sealed with 14-psi pressurized dry nitrogen within the optic, for fog-proof clarity in any temperature range. This particular model has the compass built in, though you can buy them without it. I always recommend a set with a compass built in as it is incredibly useful and if you don’t need it, the marginal weigh addition isn’t worth worrying about.
These 7×30 binoculars are a little lighter and easier to wield in rough conditions and are easier to hold steady. The Commander model is the top of the range in this series of marinised ruggedised binoculars.
The floating strap is a bit of love and loath, it’s brilliant if you’re just wearing a t-shirt, but it also can be a bit annoying on a large foul weather jacket collar.
These are a brilliant bit of kit that you can trust time and time again.
Specifications: Weight – 1,150 g | Dimensions – 208 x 200 x 74 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Robust
• fit for purpose
• great anti-glare properties
• Nitrogen filled
Reasons to avoid:
• Long barrels can be harder to to hold steady
• A little pricey
These binoculars have been tried and tested for a good few years now. They’ve stood up well to the general slinging around and rough stowage that most marine binoculars are subjected to.
These were branded as Nexus, but they’re now found in the shops branded as Silva. What they lack in sophistication they make up for in robustness and no nonsense fit for purpose aesthetics. The antiglare coating works well on the water.
The model tested doesn’t include a built in compass, but newer models offer this option which I would recommend over models without.
Best boat binoculars: mid-range option
Specifications: Weight – 819g | Dimensions -7.2 x 2.5 x 7, / 18.3 x 6.3 x 17.8 cm
Reasons to buy
• Polycarbonate housing makes them really light
• Brilliant long eye relief
• Great value for money
Reasons to avoid
• Lenses struggle in lower light
• Lack of grip makes them slipper in the wet
A great mid-range set of 7×50 binoculars. The first thing you’ll notice is that the polycarbonate housing keeps them really light, at just 0.8kg. That really makes a difference when you’re scanning the horizon for a period of time. These binoculars also have long eye relief. Put simply, if you wear glasses, long eye relief means you can use your specs and not suffer any reduction in your field of vision.
The lenses are a good quality, although we struggled slightly in lower light. The one surprise is that the body is smooth, and that lack of grip makes them a bit slippery in the wet. It’s a strange omission for marine binoculars, but a minor grumble. The trade off is they will float with the addition of a buoyancy strap, which will one day prove to be a godsend. Serious value for money at this price.
Best entry-level marine binoculars
Specifications: Weight – 790 g | Dimensions – 180 x 180 x 80 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Great entry-level option;
• Lightweight and autofocus;
• Fully coated lenses
Reasons to avoid:
• Not waterproof;
• No adjustable eyepiece
These entry-level marine binoculars from Plastimo are lightweight and will autofocus.
They are ‘splashproof’, so no nitrogen filling, and won’t appreciate a dip in the sea, but they do boast fully coated lenses for protection against scratches and damage.
They don’t have an adjustable eyepiece but have rubberised cases on the handles for impact resistance.
Best marine binoculars for glasses-wearers
Specifications: Weight – 1,100 g | Dimensions – 223 x 160 x 72 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Nitrogen filled
• Extra-large eye-pieces
Reasons to avoid:
• Premium price
• Heavy
A good rival to the Steiner Navigator Pro, fellow German brand Minox can trace its origins to Cold War spy cameras.
These good quality binoculars have an integrated analogue compass and boast extra large eye-pieces, which will help glasses-wearers, who often struggle to use standard binoculars. They are nitrogen-filled, and have a single eyepiece adjuster to correct for the user’s vision.
Weighing 1.1kg, they aren’t the lightest of those we’ve looked at, but the build quality of Minox marine binoculars is impressive.
Best marine binoculars for compass accuracy
Specifications: Weight – 1,000 g | Dimensions – 246 x 214 x 90 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Nitrogen filled
• Waterproof and
• shockproof
• A mainstay for the RNLI
Reasons to avoid:
• Heavy
These compass binoculars are waterproof and shockproof and are filled with nitrogen. They’ve also been chosen by the RNLI for use on their lifeboats since 1999.
The compass has a stated accuracy of 1 degree and is illuminated. Weight is comparable with the Minox and Steiner marine binoculars, and these float with the aid of a neck strap.
The Non-slip rubber body will ensure they stay put when you put them down in the cockpit.
Best multipurpose marine binoculars
Specifications: Weight – 1,020 g | Dimensions – 188 x 177 x 71 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Nitrogen filled
• Waterproof and nonslip
• Coated optics
Reasons to avoid:
• Relatively unknown in the marine market
These well-specified marine binoculars from US outdoors firm Bushnell are waterproof, non-slip, rubber-covered and nitrogen filled.
While relatively unknown in the marine market, they have long been associated with hunting and outdoor sports.
These binoculars have coated optics for increased light transmission and brightness. A single eyepiece is adjustable to suit your eyesight, and the eye caps can fold down to suit glasses-wearers.
Best all-round marine binoculars
Specifications: Weight – 890 g | Dimensions – 200 x 150 x 80 mm
Reasons to buy:
• Nitrogen filled
• waterproof
• Adjustable lenses
Reasons to avoid:
• Lack the premium feel and features of more expensive options
These waterproof, floating binoculars from well-known chandlery Force 4 are a good all-rounder at a decent price: they float, have an internal, illuminated compass, and are nitrogen-filled to keep moisture at bay.
With adjustment on both lenses, they will suit most types of eyesight, and a rubber case should keep damage from knocks to a minimum.
The lenses are coated to reduce glare and increase visibility and brightness.
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Best budget marine binoculars
Specifications: Weight – 780 g | Dimensions – Not disclosed
Reasons to buy:
• Splashproof
• Great for occasional use
Reasons to avoid:
• Basic
• lacking features
• Won’t survive a trip overboard
These 7×50 binoculars are available from a number of marine outlets.
They are about as basic as they come: autofocus, splashproof and impact-resistant, they won’t float and aren’t nitrogen-filled, so aren’t likely to survive a trip overboard either.
However, for occasional use and if stored down below in their supplied carry case they are likely to prove perfectly adequate for boaters on a budget.
Buy it now
Binoculars are available in many different guises online, in varying degrees of magnification, weight, size and waterproofing.
At first glance you might assume that the greater the magnification the better, but on a moving boat, it’s long been accepted that 7x is the best compromise between making objects appear larger and keeping them still enough to see.
The trusty pair of 7×50 marine binoculars narrows down the search somewhat, but you’re also looking for light weight (to avoid tired arms), an adjustable eyepiece (to suit any eyesight, glasses and contact lenses), and ideally, they will be filled with nitrogen to keep moisture at bay.
Weight-wise, marine binoculars seem to fall into two camps – the cheaper ones, minus the bells and whistles come in at around 6-700g, and the better quality ones at around 1kg. Read our other article about three premium marine binoculars tested by Bruce Jacobs.
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