Thirty years ago, when we were looking for binoculars, we ended up at a discount sporting goods store and bought a pair of 7×50 land-style binoculars. They cost us 10% of the fancy marine binoculars ($35 for a display model), and worked all the way around the world. We would have liked some high-quality glasses, but these were almost as good, and we could not justify the hit on the cruising budget for the marginal gain of the highest-quality pair. At the end of our circumnavigation there was some fogging from moisture, but they still functioned.
Twenty years ago, we were given a pair of Fujinon 7x50s. These had wonderful optical properties – at night and during the day – and they were still working well when they went to Beowulf‘s new owner as a part of her equipment after 17 years of rough service.

Wind Horse’s compliment of binoculars. Fujinon 7x50s on the right, Cannon 15×50 image-stabilized glasses in the center, and Bausch & Lomb night vision glasses on the left.
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