You can't just make a blanket assumption that because a product is made by Pentax or Nikon, that it is top shelf. Some of their medium to higher priced products are exceptional. On the other hand some of their budget lines are built to a price point and a very undemanding market and in fact IMO are very ordinary and not something I would ever own.
In addition I recommend you stick to porro prism binoculars as opposed to roof prism binoculars. At the price point < $500 roof prism binoculars tend to perform less favourably than porro prism binoculars, as they are infinitely more expensive to make well than porro prism binoculars. You can get some excellent porro prism binos for < $500. A decent roof prism binocular will cost > $1,000.
I would recommend you tell your friend to stretch the budget a little bit to $239 and get the 10 x 50 Pentax PCF WP II.
http://www.bintel.com.au/Binoculars/...oductview.aspx
These are an infinitely better pair of binoculars than can be purchased for $100 to $200. A bit extra money buys you a 300% better pair of binoculars and a pair of binoculars that doesn't give up very much, if anything to binoculars costing 3 times as much. I have yet to find any binoculars (and I've tried a few) that perform at their level at this price point.
They are waterproof, have a rubberised enclosed aluminium frame, are nitrogen purged, have 20mm of eye relief and very sharp optical performance. The FOV is slightly narrower than some other 10 x 50 binoculars but they are sharp to almost the edge of field. Other binoculars at this price level have a larger FOV, but get very soft towards the EOF.
Others have recommended 8 x 40 binoculars. IMO these are ok for daytime use but personally I find them to have insufficient aperture for decent astronomical viewing at night.
Cheers,
John B
