I need binoculars for my little boat. I have been told the Steiner
Commander V model is excellent, and it costs about 700 eurobucks. For
example it would have these features:

-outstanding brightness for twilight use
-rangefinder reticle
-autofocus
-nitrogen filled, the nitrogen won't leak out and there is a guarantee
for 10 years they will not get fogged in any conditions
-shockproof - drop them and the prisms still won't move
-really waterproof

http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/bi...arine/392.html

The high price however makes me doubt whether this is a good investment
at this point. There are some very good marine binoculars for around
200 bucks with similar specs (nitrogen filled etc). The Fujinon models
have been praised:

http://fujinon.binoculars.com/series...lars-2501.html

The question is which of these would be worthwhile - Fujinon, maybe the
cheaper Steiners (eg. Observer), others? How much of the above features
would I give up by not going for the Commanders right away? Would I get
around with the cheaper ones for the few first years, and should they
last for years to come after that? I would prefer a model with an
integrated compass.

Or alternatively I could go for compact generic travel binoculars at
first (7x25 or 8x20 or something like that for maybe just 100 bucks),
then upgrade in 1-3 years to a real binocular, and use these as the 2nd
boat binoculars and just generic binoculars everywhere. Would this be a
bad idea - ie. are these kinds of binoculars of any use while boating -
for now I'd stick mostly to daylight conditions with fair visibility
anyway?

Risto